Outsourcing : Offshore Outsourcing of Web Development

Market crisis = more outsourcing

2010-01-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

Because of current market crunch more and more companies are now thinking of outsourcing. Companies are doing this to improve the cash flow, this will also help them in increasing liquidity in crunch time. According to a survey more than 3500 companies thinking of oursourcing.

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OpenOffice Could Soon Become Web-Based Apps

2007-04-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

Via Linuxtoday.com, a message from the OpenOffice Dev mailing list in which a new company is introducing the GravityZoo OpenOffice porting project. The unusually named group aims to bring OpenOffice to the Internet as a series of online apps. 'When OpenOffice.org is GravityZood, it will become a suite of productivity applications that are always available, online, via a broad range of devices. It will be possible to share and collaborate in real-time, to switch from one device (e.g. a PC) to another (Mobile) device. There will also be no need to save data, because everything you produce is saved automatically on the network. There is no need to download, install or update, the latest version is just available and accessible from any GravityZoo enabled client.

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Failed outsourcing deals blamed on people, not SLAs

2007-02-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

February 07, 2007 (Computerworld Australia) -- Successful outsourcing isn't about tight contracts and meeting service-level agreements (SLA). It is strictly a people business and is based on relationships between provider and customer, according to the first global outsourcing survey to be undertaken by KPMG LLC.

And when these relationships go bad, the result is spiraling costs.

Overall, some 60% of respondents claimed that problems with their outsourcing provider are almost always people-related.

Head of KPMG's IT advisory, Egidio Zarella, said this is because sourcing arrangements are not managed correctly; 79% of survey respondents did not even know the cost of selecting an outsourcing provider.

Zarella said 50% of respondents take longer than six months to complete the request for proposals (RFP) part of the process, while 30% take longer than nine months. During that time, the market shifts.

He said organizations are in the dark when it came to measuring the value of outsourcing deals, although 89% of respondents plan to increase their current level of outsourcing.

In fact, 42% of outsourcing arrangements are not supported by a formal strategic measurement framework.

More than 650 organizations in 32 countries participated in the survey, with over 60% of respondents C-level executives. Nearly half of respondents have an annual turnover of more than $1 billion.

"Sourcing is completely a people's business; only 13% blamed technology when the contract went bad," he said.

"It's not about contracts but having the right people; the worst offenders are those with massive SLAs; they fail to keep it simple.

"Typically, costs will initially go down when organizations outsource, but two years later, costs are higher than they were before outsourcing."

Zarella says it takes time and effort to manage an outsourcing provider. He said deals should be monitored every quarter with a 10-point checklist, and companies should check all change requests that go to the vendor.

He believes organizations need to appoint a full-time "relationship manager" to remove dependencies on consultants.

"Because this is a new title, there is a serious shortage of people with vendor management skills. The days of a contract manager working in accounts payable is long gone. Also the person that does the deal and develops the contract should not be the person managing it afterwards," Zarella explained.

The study supports earlier Gartner Inc. research that claims IT departments are shrinking as IT professionals move into specialist roles such as vendor management. In the future, an IT career will not be about technology but rather about managing a range of service providers.

By 2010, IT organizations in large and midsize companies will be 30% smaller, according to Diane Morello, vice president of research at Gartner.

"Partly driving this trend is outsourcing and IT automation," she said.

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EU Software Patent War Ignites Again

2006-09-22T05:38:00.000-07:00

"ZDNet UK has a detailed article on the heating-up of the software patent debate in Europe. A new motion before the European Parliament calls for a harmonised patent court (EPLA) that would be able to enforce software patents across Europe. This comes just 15 months after the EP rejected the infamous Computer Implemented Inventions directive." From the article: "Patents on software are formally disallowed under the European patent system, but are routinely granted by the European patent office, according to critics. They are currently difficult to enforce in many EU member states, something critics say would be changed by the failed software patent directive, and now by the EPLA. Software patents are generally considered to add to the legal costs of large enterprises, as well as creating a hostile legal environment for smaller software businesses and open source projects."

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Just how real are outsourcing fears?

2006-07-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

I recently came across an article that cast a number of doubts over the outsourcing model. According to the article, outsourcers focus the entire offshoring business toward cutting costs, and neglect the quality aspects. If you take the article at face value, it is natural that you will think twice before outsourcing your business processes.

However, let us see just how real this fear is.

Think of an outsourced business. Yes, the basic objective is to cut costs, but with so many vendors vying for a place in the market, the outsourcer has plenty of options in selecting the outsourcing partner who is most suitable to the specific project and has the infrastructure and capability to execute it with finesse. So the onus is really with the outsourcer to find a capable partner. Every market has a few rotten apples, and this is true for outsourcing as much as for any other market.

The article cites the example of a call center that doesn’t handle client responses well enough. But hey, there are a number of checks and balances in an outsourcing deal which can ensure correct practices. There is talk of closing down a call center based in Bangalore (India). But what is the guarantee that the same situation will not arise even in-house?

The other fear raised about outsourcing is that an outsourcing vendor will not be able to adapt to changing practices and market requirements. But again, it is really upto the outsourcer to be foresighted enough and build such possible changes into the outsourcing arrangement from time to time.

Outsourcing ultimately boils down to a marriage of convenience between the outsourcer and the vendor. It is a sword that cuts both ways. A strong future-oriented relationship can trigger a long relationship. Believe me, outsourcing works—it is not for nothing that a hoard of outsourcers are making a beeline toward countries like India and China. You don’t have to take my word for it; in an older post, I mentioned research findings that back up this fact, and more recent articles continue to point to a growth in the outsourcing business.

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Outsourcing storm brewing in schools

2006-07-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

Controversy and outsourcing have almost gone hand-in-hand, but in most industries the logistics have worked in favor of outsourcing. In schools, too, considerations of saving money and releasing in-house resources for core school requisites are beginning to work their way through controversial roadblocks.

School authorities in Michigan want to concentrate on their main business of educating students, and are happy to push the management of ancillary services—such as food, custodial, and bus services—off their plate. Private companies are willing to step in, offering these services at competitive rates.

The school authorities might be happy, but people who are losing their jobs to private companies are certainly outraged. For example, 29 custodians and 4 food service workers have lost their jobs in Garden City alone. Yes, some of these workers will get absorbed by the private service providers, but at much lower wages.

Quite naturally, jobless workers are spearheading the move to recall board members in several schools, including Garden City Board of Education and Lakeview Public Schools in St. Clair Shores.

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IBM Daksh - Marching Ahead

2006-06-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt that outsourcing business in India is on a new high. Many companies are now leading the BPO operations in India and IBM is one of them. With the acquisition of Daksh in 2004, IBM started its full-fledged BPO operations in India. Over the last 12 months, IBM-Daksh added over 10,000 employees and expanded its contact centers across India. Now it has become the second largest BPO in India after Genpact. The BPO operations have become one of IBM's key growth drivers in India. Some of its key clients include Amazon, Paypal, Sprint, HP, Yahoo, Citibank and Bharti Televentures.
IBM-Daksh provides a variety of services to its clients. Its main operations include call handling, email processing and technology support. These services are related to customer care activities. Now IBM-Daksh has decided to focus on CRM, HR and other important operations. Over the past couple of years, employee base of IBM-Daksh has grown by 234%. When IBM acquired Daksh, its employee strength was around 6,000. Now it has 20,000 employees and is expected to add more staff in the coming years.

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Bill Gates expects Vietnam to raise its head as an outsourcing center

2006-05-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

On his recent visit to Vietnam, Bill Gates has seen huge potential for Vietnam to make a mark similar to India in the outsourcing sphere. The country is drawing the attention of global technology companies despite its shortcomings.

Vietnam is growing and growing fast economically and its literacy rate is something for the nation to boast about. The 90% literacy rate is a major advantage for the country and will be a variable that other nations cannot afford to ignore. Gates further said that Vietnam should not restrict itself to manufacturing activities alone, but widen its horizons into the world of software development and outsourcing. The figure relating to the growth of Software and IT-related services industry reflects the optimism of Gates with a 40% annual growth rate

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IAOP places Equinox in World's top 100 outsourcing service providers

2006-05-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) has placed Equinox, the BPO arm of i-flex in the Leadership Category of the global Top 100 outsourcing service providers, thereby proving its mettle in the outsourcing sphere. The selection process itself is very intense which makes this achievement all the more important as it reflects excellence in all respects when it comes to outsourcing.

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Outsourcing Leaders Fuse IT and Business Skills

2006-04-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

APRIL 10, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - ORLANDO -- Ron Jensen began his IT career as a self-professed "propeller head." But now he is the purchasing manager for IT professional services at construction equipment manufacturing giant Caterpillar Inc.
"I did the bits and bytes," Jensen said at Gartner's outsourcing conference here last week. He wrote assembly code, programmed in other languages and managed technical units at Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar. Then, in his mid-40s, Jensen decided he wanted to take advantage of other opportunities available at the company and earned an MBA.
For those interested in following a similar career path, Jensen's top piece of advice is to learn some business skills. "That's absolutely most important," the 34-year IT veteran said. "Beyond that, it's communication skills [and] interpersonal skills."
Mack Murrell, senior director of enterprise IT operations and services at The Dow Chemical Co., also moved from a technical background to a high-level management post. Murrell, who is part of a three-person IT leadership team at Dow, was trained as an electrical engineer. But, he said, "I didn't want to be a senior electrical engineer at a chemical company."
He was moved into IT management more than a decade ago after he suggested a more standardized approach for some of Dow's IT operations. Like Jensen, he also got an MBA degree along the way.
Midland, Mich.-based Dow has outsourced most of its IT operations to IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Accenture Ltd., but it still has a 600-worker IT staff. Employees who are being groomed for IT leadership positions need to understand the company's business requirements and have "a strong sense of vision" as well as the ability to "blossom where [they] are planted," Murrell said. "We direct their path so they get specific experiences."
Pamela Carreon, who manages offshore outsourcing and enterprise vendor services at Wells Fargo & Co. in San Francisco, said she needs to fill three jobs on her staff and wants people who are good communicators, listeners and problem-solvers. Finance and business management experience are also high on Carreon's skills wish list.
Although Carreon manages Wells Fargo's IT outsourcing relationships, she doesn't have a formal IT background herself: Her major in college was Spanish.
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Burgers From Afar

2006-04-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

Fast food giant McDonald’s is outsourcing a few of its operations to agents who work in a call center. Their job is to take orders and relay them back to the relevant restaurants through the Internet. The Santa Maria-based Bronco Communications handles calls from 40 restaurants scattered around the country, while Illinois-based Verety has hired home-based agents to do the job. The call centers have been in operation for the past 18 months, and have weathered protests ranging from the idea being “bizarre” to low voice quality which results in agents having to repeat questions or customers having to repeat orders.
While McDonald’s claims this system decreases the time between orders by a few seconds, the agents are paid only the minimum wages, and are subjected to constant scrutiny. Their system flashes the number of minutes they were away on a break, and they have to click on a pop-up that appears every now and then in around 1.75 seconds to show that they are on the job.

Training Holds The Key

2006-04-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

The success of outsourcing your call center operations hinges not on the low costs but on the effectiveness of the agents hired by your outsourcer. The key lies not only in selecting the best, and training them to perform to the standards expected, but in giving them room to grow into their roles.
Very often, companies in India and other Eastern countries train their staff in how to speak the accent of the parent company’s country. They are given an English or American name, and then, they’re good to go. Is that how things are supposed to work?
The answers to many problems faced by call centers today can be found in the way their agents are treated. Most of them are under pressure to effect sales or be courteous to the rudest of customers. To derive their best performance day after day, the company has to stop punishing them for minor transgressions. Rewards should be commensurate to the work performed. Incentives and praise work better than words of rebuke and censorship.
To protect its long-term interests, the company that outsources its operations should play an active part in the selection and training processes. This should not be just a one-off thing at the start of the working relationship. Instead, performances have to be continuously monitored, and problem spots identified and solved.
Call center work is no longer the glamour job it was, with qualified youngsters realizing the pitfalls associated with working night shifts under tremendous pressure to deliver. It’s time organizations that outsourced stepped in to slow down the high personnel turnover in call centers, in order to retain their best agents.

Joint Ventures – Pros and Cons

2006-04-07T03:50:00.000-07:00

The joint venture is becoming a popular way for companies that outsource their operations to retain a piece of the ownership pie. The creation of a new legal entity during the launch of a joint venture comes with its share of ups and downs.

On the plus side…

Both the company and the outsourcer receive revenue and tax advantages
Risks and rewards are shared alike
The buyer of outsourcing services is able to exercise control over the outsourced operations
There is also more transparency of operations
Financial interests will ensure that both parties pay more attention and commitment to the venture

On the minus…

This model demands more sophistication from the buyer
Decision-making is slower
Clash of corporate cultures of both parties involved in the venture can lead to disastrous consequences

Human Resources Outsourced

2006-04-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

The perpetration of technology and computers into almost every aspect of our day to day lives is one of the main reasons for the increase in the outsourcing of human resource functions. This, coupled with the fact that global economy is slowing down and the number of layoffs are increasing, has led research firm Gartner Dataquest to predict that the human resources outsourcing market will climb to $26.3 billion in 2007, in an increase of nearly $4 billion over a three-year period.

A 2004 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management has listed background checks, employee assistance programs, flexible spending account management, payroll, and administration of health and pension benefits as some of the most frequently outsourced functions. Nearly 300 human resource professionals surveyed were in accord when they listed reduction of costs, control of legal risks, access to vendor expertise, and the streamlining of human resources functions as major reasons for outsourcing human resources.

Qantas Workers may oppose outsourcing plans

2006-04-07T03:46:00.000-07:00

Qantas is contemplating outsourcing while at the same time it's maintenance workers are deciding to go on strike to pursuade the management to relook at the outsourcing issue. If this action occurs, it will be a major setback for Qantas as it could leave some of it's aircraft out of action leading to inconveniences for it's passengers. ABC Online reports:

Earlier this month, Qantas made a commitment to keep its heavy maintenance work in Australia, by closing its repair base in Sydney and shifting the jobs to its base in Avalon near Melbourne.

Unisys sets outsourcing shop in China

2006-03-20T04:11:00.000-08:00

In order to establish a large outsourcing business in China, Unisys - a worldwide information technology consulting services and solutions company has set up a software development and outsourcing services center in Shanghai.

The centre would provide huge range of services, which includes open-source software development and technical help-desk operations. Despite Shanghai being costly in terms of labour costs, what prompted this company to set up shop in Shanghai is the “benefits” they would reap in from the government. The government and a local science park has offered them “many months” of free rest and generous tax breaks that will last several years.

The company has big plans for its outsourcing centre. Unisys, which has just recruited 10 employees, intends to hire 1000 workers in the next three years to staff its Chinese outsourcing operations. Once the business grows, the company also plans to expand to other cities in China reports cio.com.

T.C. Kong, managing director of Unisys Global Services China:

Ross Perot's Outsourcing Company Hires Controversial Ex-CIA Agent

2006-03-20T04:09:00.000-08:00

Perot Systems hires David Szady, a former CIA official and FBI agent, to sell more services to defense and intelligence markets.

By Paul McDougall InformationWeek Mar 15, 2006 12:00 PM

Perot Systems, the IT services firm founded by one-time presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, is looking to expand its presence in the shadowy defense and intelligence markets. To that end, the company has hired David Szady, a former CIA official and FBI agent, to head its efforts in those areas.

Company officials say Szady will lead Perot Systems' drive to sell IT and related services to government agencies that focus on intelligence, counterintelligence, and law enforcement. "It's a tremendous growth area for us," says Jim Ballard, president of Perot Systems' Government Services Group. The company disclosed the hiring on Tuesday.

Szady joined the FBI in 1972 and also worked for the CIA in a number of capacities, including as chief of its Counterespionage Group. Szady hit the headlines last year for his role in a controversial investigation of an Israeli lobby group. Two members of the group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, were arrested for allegedly receiving classified information from a Pentagon analyst. Critics of the investigation, including some Jewish groups, claim the charges were trumped up.

Szady was also involved in a separate investigation that ultimately led to the arrest of former FBI agent Robert Hanssen on charges of spying for the former Soviet Union. Szady and his team have been accused of single-mindedly focusing on the wrong man until Hanssen was arrested.

Ballard says Szady's job history won't be a liability for Perot Systems. "It's not unusual for people with his background to be involved in some areas that are controversial," says Ballard. Along with Szady, Perot Systems is hiring additional staffers to focus on the defense and intelligence markets. "We're bringing them in in groups of 25 and 30," says Ballard, who predicts that the company will see high single-digit or double-digit sales growth in those markets.

NetSuite aims hosted apps at software vendors

2006-03-14T23:02:00.000-08:00

MARCH 14, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - NetSuite Inc. has launched a suite of hosted business applications designed specifically for software companies, it announced Tuesday.

Called NetSuite-Software Company Edition, the suite includes customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities tailored specifically for the software industry, the company said.

For example, its financial applications address software industry accounting needs, such as the ability to bill customers based on software usage, and to create customized invoices according to license agreement and service contracts, NetSuite said.

Its CRM tools can track sales from an initial lead through the completion of a deal. Features have been included for companies using a software-as-a-service model, such as the ability to give salespeople a quota for gross billings.

The suite also allows executives to monitor their company's performance using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) dashboards, which give a summary of key business metrics. The product includes 15 preconfigured dashboards.

The suite combines functions that previously required applications from several different vendors, according to NetSuite. It's available immediately priced at $2,999 per month, with a per-user fee of $99 per month, NetSuite said.

The cost is a little higher than NetSuite's normal price points, but that's expected considering it's a very specific service, said David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum Ltd. in London.

NetSuite's offering for the software industry is "utterly logical" since the high-tech industry has typically been an early adopter of its own innovations, particular CRM products, Bradshaw said. NetSuite said it has been using its own services.

Smaller businesses will benefit from tools that aid in revenue recognition, a complex calculation of reconciling different incomes in relation to profits and losses, Bradshaw said.

NetSuite may have carved itself a niche against online business applications leader Salesforce.com Inc. Salesforce.com's view "tends to be that they don't want to get into releasing industry-specific versions of their software," Bradshaw said.

Based in San Mateo, Calif., NetSuite was founded in 1998 by Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison and a former Oracle executive, Evan Goldberg. Ellison remains the majority owner in the company, while Goldberg is its chairman and chief technology officer.

Outsourcing: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

2006-03-13T21:40:00.000-08:00

MARCH 13, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Is your outsourcer out of control? Mine is, and the failure is my fault. Guilty, guilty, guilty!

Last year, my wife and I outsourced our yard care to a local gardener. We agreed that he would mow the lawn, kill weeds, sweep walkways and rake leaves. We agreed on pricing and felt confident that our yard would be well tended.

Unfortunately, the gardener outsourced most of the work to a subcontractor, who in turn outsourced cutting the grass to various independent mowers. Apparently, some of the yard care information didn't get communicated to the subcontractor. The details certainly never got to the mowers, who were unaware of the property lines and neglected to mow part of the yard.

We had a dilemma: If we wanted something done differently, who should we contact? No approach worked well. Agreements with the gardener rarely made it intact to the mower. It often took several weeks to speak to the mower directly, since he followed an erratic schedule that rarely overlapped with ours. Moreover, he took direction only from the middleman, whom we never met.

By summer, the grass was high, dandelions were rampant, and the sidewalks remained unswept. We later received an unexpected surcharge for leaf-raking.

Does this outsourcing nightmare sound familiar? Today's IT organizations buy more products and services than they build. Everyone agrees that outsourcing is important, but do we manage it well? Here are some ways to avoid similar problems:

Create a clear contract. You may not want to prohibit an outsourcer from using outside resources, but your contract should clearly describe deliverables, schedules, service levels and cost. Your outsourcer can easily pass this information (and corresponding accountability) to any subcontractors involved. Realize that anything agreed to with a handshake may be overlooked by subsequent -- and often invisible -- subcontractor agreements.

Retain sufficient management control. Some executives believe they can outsource a major chunk of IT and get rid of all the associated staff. Experience shows that an additional 10% to 20% of the contract's value (less for infrastructure, more for applications development and maintenance) is required to monitor and manage the outsourcer. This is not a background task.

Meet regularly with your outsourcer. Successful outsourcing efforts require periodic meetings to review progress, discuss problems and plan corrective actions. Also, use these meetings to celebrate successes and communicate what is working well. We didn't, and we paid the price.

Define specific metrics. Establish clear outsourcing goals, translate them into effective metrics, and incorporate them into the contract. Review them regularly; unmonitored metrics are useless.

Build multilevel relationships. Your outsourcer's top management has decision-making authority but limited (and possibly incorrect) day-to-day information. People in the trenches have lots of pertinent information but lack the power to authorize changes. Middle management has varying levels of data and authority. Build working relationships with your outsourcer at several levels for an optimal outcome. Our gardener was too far removed from the work, the mowers had little autonomy, and the middleman was invisible.

Define clear roles. Each person involved with the outsourcer needs specific responsibilities. Who can authorize changes? Who is responsible for communications? My wife and I juggled responsibilities and painfully relearned that without clear roles, a lot of information can get lost or confused. Take measures to avoid conflicting communications across departmental lines.

Emotionally, outsourcing often equals "out of sight, out of mind." Although yard care is a trivial example, we mismanaged our gardener in the same ways many customers mismanage their outsourcers: fuzzy requirements, poor communication and insufficient management attention. It's easy to overlook outsourcer management. After all, gardening isn't rocket science, and there are more important issues. (Organizations rarely outsource the critical stuff.) Outsourcing frees your time for more pressing and complex matters. Until you begin to notice the weeds.

Leverage your outsourcing investment by allotting the time and resources necessary to manage your outsourcer effectively. Have clear requirements, establish effective metrics, monitor progress regularly, and communicate effectively. Many executives feel they can't afford these efforts, and they cut corners. But anything that warrants outsourcing also warrants management attention. Insufficient outsourcer management will result in a backyard full of weeds.

By the way, our new gardener starts this spring. And we vow to do better this time. How's the backyard in your IT department? Got weeds?

Bart Perkins is managing partner at Louisville, Ky.-based Leverage Partners Inc., which helps organizations invest well in IT. He was previously CIO at Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. and Dole Food Co. Contact him at BartPerkins@ LeveragePartners.com.

Mobile VoIP needs high-speed uplink

2006-03-13T21:38:00.000-08:00

MARCH 13, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Internet telephony over mobile phones is on the way but don't expect many commercial offerings until operators have made a key network technology enhancement, probably toward the end of 2007 or later in most parts of the world, according to a senior executive with Lucent Technologies Inc.

The problem with providing voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service over mobile handsets today is the uplink, which is too slow to support quality voice calls, according to Lucent Chief Marketing Officer John Giere.

To increase uplink speeds, operators of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks, which dominate Europe and many parts of Asia and Latin America, will need to upgrade their networks with High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology, he said.

"HSUPA will give operators the bidirectional capability they need to run real VoIP," Giere said in an interview last week at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany.

However, the Lucent executive doesn't expect the high-speed technology, which is currently being standardized, to become commercially available until the latter part of 2007 or early 2008. Operators are currently busy rolling out the downlink counterpart High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).

How that timing fits into VoIP-over-mobile plans of Skype Technologies SA and the Hutchison 3 Group is unclear.

At the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona last month, the two companies announced a partnership to provide the world's first commercial VoIP service for mobile phones. The companies aim to begin offering service in select markets as early as this year, said Christian Salbaing, managing director of European telecommunications at Hutchison 3G, in an earlier interview.

Though Hutchison operates an IP-based network, it has not rolled out HSUPA.

In addition to HSUPA, operators planning mobile VoIP services will need to "flatten" their networks by reducing the number of components and using IP wherever possible, according to Giere. "The number of network components you have also contributes to network latency, which is a big issue with VoIP," he said.

Most GSM operators today have legacy circuit-switched networks, which tend to slow the flow of IP traffic because of their numerous network components and conversion processes, according to Giere.

In response to the need to reduce network components, Lucent has introduced a new base station system that collapses a series of network architecture layers into one component, according to Giere.

Lucent is also collaborating with Samsung Electronics Co. in a project aimed at developing Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) client software, which is essential for offering VoIP for mobile handsets, he said.

Until now, mobile operators have largely dodged the great VoIP debate, trying to squeeze every possible cent of their largely amortized circuit-switched networks before investing in yet another new technology.

But should they be interested in VoIP? "Absolutely," said Giere. "Efficiency is one reason; operators can significantly increase their bandwidth utilization with VoIP. Applications are another; an IP environment is all about creating a rich set of applications."

Another reason, especially for those operators that are net payers of international roaming services, is the ability to use VoIP to undercut high intracarrier network usage fees.

Growth in Indian Offshoring Slowing

2006-03-06T23:09:00.000-08:00

"CNN/Money is reporting that high wages are causing some software companies to look to other countries for outsourcing, including Eastern Europe and several other SE Asian countries. Gartner Research believes a drop of 45% in India's share could happen in the next two years. Is this the beginning of the end of the dominance of India in the tech offshoring market?" Some other person said that Pakistan is also one cause of it.

Outsourcing Evolving

2006-03-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

"An article at NYTimes suggests that the outsourcing mantra is shifting to reasons of hiring global talent, tapping new potential minds and amassing top global human resources. Its not just software companies trying to save a buck by outsourcing; now its about Berkely trying to hookup with Tsinghua University and institutes in India, and companies like IBM and Microsoft looking to setup R&D labs in Asia."

Good Web Site Design Practices

2006-02-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

These tips will help beginners to create highly functional and accessible Web pages. Some of the tips focus on writing valid HTML syntax while others focus on designing pages for "ease-of-use."
General Tips
Write your pages for multiple types of Web browsers--to provide trouble-free access to the widest possible audience. The World Wide Web is a multi-platform, non-browser specific medium. It should not matter whether people browse your Web pages using Netscape, Explorer, Opera, Lynx, WebTV, NetPhonic's Web-On-Call, Mobile Telephones, or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs, or palmtops, the little computers with screens the size of a credit card). Each browser ought to render your informational Web pages without problems. If a Web page is designed properly, blind individuals, or anyone using text-to-voice or Braille displays, can easily listen to and review your work.

What You See Is Not What Others Get On The WeB Bobby

Run Web pages through a validator to test their compliance with common HTML (HyperText Markup Language) specifications. Modify pages until they validate, because compliant pages have a better chance of being rendered by various Web browsers, as the writer intends. However, if you intend something that is impractical with HTML, it will be no less impractical for being syntactically valid. Work with the strengths of HTML rather than trying to batter it into a WYSIWYG page design system. (WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get.)
Specifications for HTML WDG HTML Validator
W3C HTML Validation Service
Condense textual content to fit the time and attention constraints of today's busy Web users.
Thoughts on Web Style Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace
Use small (byte-wise) graphics so graphics load more quickly in graphics-capable browsers. (It is not advisable to use GIFs for everything. It's of the first importance to make the right choice between JPEG and a palette-based format. Avoid blindly choosing GIF and then trying to rescue yourself from the resulting problems.) JPEG Image Compression Frequently Asked Questions
When using graphics, provide textual alternatives for image-disabled or text-only Web browsers and indexing agents. Some people never turn images on. Use of ALT Texts In IMGs
Test. Every visitor will see your pages differently. Test your pages with as many browsers and platforms as you can. For example, run pages through a browser like Lynx to see how the "text-only" world sees your documents. Note that search engines are, in effect, text-only browsers. Make documents Lynx-friendly. Try different preferences, color and font settings, and window sizes. Always check how pages look with higher/lower monitor brightness settings. Lynx Viewer Lynx-me Lynx For the future, to add presentational effects and Web page style, validate documents at the HTML 4.0 level (for the cleanest possible markup), so pages contain little or no HTML 3.2 presentational markup or proprietary stylistic hacks, and use the World Wide Web Consortium's Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language to add stylistic effects to your pages. W3C's HTML Home Page Web Style Sheets Spell check and proof-read your documents. Site Inspector by Link Exchange
Establish a routine for locating and fixing broken internal and external Web site links.
Include contact information and a copyright notice. Sign It!
If your Web site URL or email address will change occasionally, consider using a service that provides email forwarding and URL redirection. Pobox Persistent Uniform Resource Locator
Submit your Web site address to an appropriate newsgroup for a critical peer review. Newsgroups
Promote your Web site by adding your Web address to search engine indices and subject directories. To ensure that people can easily find your Web site, it may be necessary to modify your pages to take best advantage of current search technologies. Search Engine Watch
Special Tips
Be aware of the pitfalls of character sets. (Here comes a pound sign £ what did you get?) Currency signs are a real danger. It might be safer to write the currency in full. It is not just the signs that fail in some way; even those that do display may be misinterpreted. Let's say you are in the USA and write $25.00 without qualification. How much does that look like to a browser in Australia, Canada, or Hong Kong? If the local $ is worth more than the US$ then you risk someone dismissing a product as overpriced. If the local $ is less, your strangely eager customer may suddenly turn sour when she or he thinks you have been deliberately misleading.
ISO 8859-1 Character Set Overview
If you specify a background color or image, but don't specify text and link colors, the user's text and link colors will be used against your background. In some cases, there won't be contrast between the user's text and link colors and your background color or image, so your text and links will disappear. The rule of thumb is that if you set one color, then you need to set them all.
Acknowledgements

Website Desingn

Maar Ventures : Outsourcing and Offshore Business Processing Solutions

http://mannan.zabvision.edu.pk

Outsourcing Offshoring

Website Development

http://uk.geocities.com/itsmani1/

http://itsmani1.blogspot.com/

What can you sell? Who can get started and how?

2006-02-26T21:38:00.000-08:00

Sell products, services and solutions that are needed by anyone anywhere in the world. The current hot market to sell to is USA. Sell what is in demand. Sell what you know will be in demand soon. Sell what will improve the Return on Investment (ROI) of the host company or individual. Remember, it is not possible to solve today’s issues with yesterday’s solutions. Think out of the box. Read. Surf the net. Research eBay completed items. Chat with people online. Learn. Soak it up. Be a sponge for knowledge. Be a star with your imagination and ambition.There are the obvious organizations you can sell for: hotels, banks, travel agencies, airlines, pharmacies, insurance companies, counseling centers, newspaper home delivery, charity drives and more. The services that call centers typically provide are customer service, technical support, telemarketing, and administrative support.
Where do you get new ideas? Let’s consider a few things. If a man is sitting on a donkey facing the rear, why do we automatically think that it is the man who is backwards? Isn’t the donkey backwards? How about this? Is the best way to hear something is with your eyes? Because you have heard the sound of tinkling bracelets, when you see them, don’t sometimes imagine hearing them?
Some will look at an old bicycle and see either possible parts to repair other bicycles or mere trash. Pablo Picasso, a great Spanish artist, took the seat and handle bars of one, and welded them together into the head of a bull. He saw something that was not there in the eyes of other people.
The African American female inventor Grace Murray Hopper, was "Amazing Grace" to those who knew and loved her. Her mission was to make computers accessible to everyone. Without her vision that computers could be programmed in plain English and her invention of the first computer compiler, it is unlikely that many of us would be on the web today.
What is the point here? There is an infinite number of possibilities in opening call centers in Pakistan and making Pakistan THE CHOICE, but maybe we cannot see them right now. One out of every twenty readers of or listeners to this seminar clearly understand the possibilities available to the nation, the economy, the labor and even the individual entrepreneur.

Case Study 1:
Maria Ramos of Houston, Texas has been buying refurbished computers at $50 each and reselling them on eBay.com and Half.com from $300 to $500 a piece. She also holds down a part time job in small business consulting. Her resale business has gotten so big that she had to analyze the situation and hire someone else to assist. Maria found Suchitra of Chennai, India who had skills that complimented her own. Suchitra could graphic-edit, web-edit, answer sales inquiries by email, chat or even phone, and relate to potential buyers in a very friendly, professional manner. Maria shipped one of those refurbished PC’s (ready to use with FrontPage, MSN chat, FTP, spreadsheets, and other software) a $99 router, and an Internet phone device for unlimited USA outgoing and incoming calling ($299 purchase with $99 per month flat rate) to Suchitra. Maria pays for Suchitra’s DSL service, approximately $40 US dollars/month (common range of DSL price is $20-$50USD/month).
Now, Maria has a “back office” in Chennai. She buys wholesale still, takes the pictures, and ships the product when auctions and buys close. Customers get immediate attention. Maria’s ROI and number of closed sales have increased tremendously. She has more time for other ventures.
What is in it for Suchitra? She has always been a night owl. She is most creative in the late evening, perfect timing for USA eBay customers. Her DSL service is paid for by Maria. Her new career provides new job experiences and the opportunity to improve her English language skills. The extensive research required on what is selling and what is not on eBay and how best to sell is supplying her with material for her Master’s thesis. She never has to leave her home for work. Plus she is making $75 more per month than she would have locally. It’s a win-win situation for all.

Case Study 2:
A large multinational cell Phone Company needs billing, MIS and customer care support. Its headquarters are in the USA where the local labor force cannot fulfill these positions lucratively. The employment must be flexible, multi-lingual, and savvy to technology and market change. The local cost of living puts wages at $15 per hour. High turnover in employment results in high costs for the company. They turn to third world countries for help. The cell phone company saw the value of the "discarded bicycle." In addition, now there are 50 agents improving their way of life intellectually and economically. They value their new jobs at the call center, where they are treated with more respect than they have experienced before, and they will not quit because of trivial reasons such as their USA counterparts would. Overhead for the host company is much lower. There are surprise issues that arise, but the positive aspects of the call center solution outweigh the problems.

Case Study 3:
A travel agency sees more and more of its clients needing service between 10 PM and 7 AM EST. They cannot find a qualified employment force willing to work overnight hours at an affordable pay rate. Half a world away lays waiting in its day time hours with the right skills and the desire to fulfill the travel agency’s customers’ needs. Just a PC, fast Internet access, the right software, an affordable VOIP solution for incoming/outgoing calls between the customers in Europe and the Americas and the beckoning call center on the other side of the world will get the show on the road.

Case Study 4:
A fashion outlet in a rural area of Alabama serves a diverse clientele that want unique ladies’ wear. Something different! In addition, this same clientele has been surveyed to find that they are increasingly now shopping online for shalwar kameez and saris. These clients are African, Anglo, Latin and Asian-American women with a taste for Persian and Indo-Pak styles. They are so bi-lingual Americans. Should the outlet continue simply offering discount blue jeans and t-shirts, or do they venture out of the box and try to meet these needs? How can they meet them? The outlet has the collateral and USA point of presence. Just a few Karachi families can complete made-to-order items sold through a web site and shipped directly to the customer. Bulk items can be shipped to the store. A call center can be set up in a spare area of one of the Karachi homes for customer service, billing, and sales. Internet access, a PC, and VOIP affordable long distance solution is put in place and bingo! The fashion outlet is the most popular ladies’ shop around. The Karachi residents have never been so busy in their lives. Profits sore for all involved. The clients are enthralled.

Case Study 5 OBJECTIVE:
A large retail toy company began to sell merchandise through catalogs. They had developed both a multi-ethnic small-scale catalog and a science-technology for kids’ small catalog, but the company wanted to start marketing this new merchandise year-round, worldwide, not just during the holiday seasons. They needed a call center to handle what was predicted to be a huge increase in sales by phone volume from both the retail and wholesale catalogs.
This company was referred to Super Technologies from one of their current clients. They needed Super Technologies to help set up the call center’s telecommunications facet in the Middle East. Basically, one was needed that would balance cost reduction with customer satisfaction. This was a brave decision, to open a call center in an area where English was a second language; they were starting from ground zero in a country that was very new to call centers.

Case Study 5 SUPER TECHNOLOGIES’ RESPONSE:
Following Super Phone long distance solutions since 1999, Super Technologies assigned a special marketing team to the company’s project. A customized long distance calling solution of Super Phone Unlimited (http://www.superphoneunlimited.com/ and http://www.virtualphoneline.com/ ) was chosen. Why? Unlimited incoming calls from anywhere in the world and unlimited outgoing calls to any USA phone number for a flat monthly rate, perfect! The center was set up with the local DSL service and DHCP-enabled router technology. The center started with five Virtual Phone Lines using the Super Phone Unlimited service. Area codes chosen were Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, and Detroit. Each had a 1800 number forwarded to them from our partners at http://www.kall7.com/. Incoming calls would be placed to the domestic USA number or the toll-free number by the customers.
Local managers hired in the Middle Eastern country implemented quality customer service, customized training (such as accent training) and monitoring to fulfill the company’s call center mission statement.

Case Study 5 RESULTS
Before this solution, the company would never have dreamed of opening a call center in the Middle East, no matter how much was saved through reduced labor costs. Now, the unlimited incoming and outgoing calls on each phone line coupled with the reduced labor costs made this a realistic solution. Since the project began, the average revenue for each order has increased by approximately $40 per order (retail). The toy company has enjoyed a cost decrease of 15% and at the same time a revenue increase of 35%. The toy company has started with inbound sales at the call center. Within just a few months’ training of call representatives and a few additional purchases of equipment and software, they will add outbound cold sales.

Important web links
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec02/telemarketing_11-05.html#
Dialing for dollars. A look at international source of telemarketing calls.
http://www.maair.net/

Outsourcing
Offshoring
Maair Ventures : Outsourcing and Offshore Business Processing Solutions

http://www.sellingpower.com/
Zero cost articles on every topic imaginable for sales success.
http://www.callcentermagazine.com/
Technologies, services, and strategies for contact centers. Everything you need and more for success.
http://www.callcentermagazine.com/article/CCM20011204S0007
The smell of predictive dialing success.
http://www.callcentermagazine.com/article/CCM20021127S0002
Quality control.
http://www.ptcl.com.pk/call_center.html
PTCL position on call centers.
http://www.outsource2india.com/why_outsource/articles/call_centers.asp
Call centers: catalysts for corporate change.
http://www.erlang.com/forum/callcenter/
Share ideas on call center operations and engineering in this forum.
http://www.callcenterops.com/
Call center operations.
http://www.callcentrevoice.com
Call Centre Voice discussion forums.
http://www.callcentercareers.com/home.jsp
Call center careers.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
World time zones.
http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Universal currency converter.
http://www.supertec.com/
Innovative and cutting-edge VOIP solutions for call centers and back offices.
http://www.k7.net
Get a USA voice mail and fax number.
http://a4esl.org/q/h/
About 1000 self-study quizzes for ESL students. Free!
http://www.ebay.com/
Become an eBay seller with online auctions.
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/famous.aspx
Famous USA places for more cultural literacy.
http://www.incoming.com/
Host of Incoming Calls Management Institute seminars and workshops.
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/templategallery/
Templates for business documents.
http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,15565,00.asp
Business articles and tools for success.
http://www.multi.net.pk
DSL in Karachi.
http://www.dsl.net.pk
DSL in Islamabad.
http://thecallcenterschool.com/
The Call Center School.
Creative Whack Pack. Roger von Oech. Copyright 1983. Creative Think, Menlo Park, California. (Excellent source of ways to think “out of the box.”)
Website Desingn

Maar Ventures : Outsourcing and Offshore Business Processing Solutions

http://mannan.zabvision.edu.pk

Outsourcing Offshoring

Website Development

http://uk.geocities.com/itsmani1/

http://itsmani1.blogspot.com/

Permissions

2006-02-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

Even PTCL states that the call center business “has enormous growth potential due to unprecedented growth in service industries of the developed countries.” The site also states, “PTCL is not only interested in revenue generation but also interested in generating new employment opportunities.” Discover the government of Pakistan’s position on call centers and special permissions that are required at http://www.ptcl.com.pk/call_center.html.

Let me compliment Pakistan government in its effort to publicize its policies for call centers on the web. I tried entering the key words “Sri Lanka Call Center Policy” and “India Call Center Policy,” and my returned responses were not meaningful at all. I entered “Pakistan Call Center Policy.” The return response included the following on the date of 28, December 2002 at 10:45 AM CST.

http://www.ptcl.com.pk/

Call center business is not illegal. The government of Pakistan encourages it, gives incentives, and gives cheaper bandwidth and lower taxes. What is holding Pakistan back perhaps?

Take a look at the web sites of the Pakistan government. The Minister of Information and Media Development has designed and maintained the government of Pakistan's web site. Visit it, and you will have a feel for the future-thinking mentality of this country that you can be proud of, and it is because of people like you and the respected people who run the country. So, at least start with what is available. This book, this seminar and the web site are all meant for your benefit.

We will summarize some of the details of the permissions required in Pakistan. PTCL has an interconnect agreement for call center operators. The applicant will meet certain requirements and present a business plan and company profile. In addition, registration with the Company Registrar Office is necessary. The applicant must adhere to the legalities involved with the Pakistan Telecommunication (reorganization) Act 1996. Other requirements deal with interconnectivity, bandwidth termination, details of customer service partner contracts, foreign exchange laws, leased line network requirements, etc. Forms, directions and requirements are on the web site of PTCL.

Hardware and software needed

2006-02-26T21:33:00.000-08:00

With LAN-based switches, internet-based transaction processing, client/server software systems, and open phone systems, any call center or back office can have a highly sophisticated call handling and customer management system, even down to ten agents or less. Even so, an acceptable setup for as little as one call center seat would include one PC set up with the necessary live chat, database, spreadsheet, word processor, web editor, and other software (depending upon the purpose of the back office); and a VOIP solution such as Virtual Phone Line (http://www.mysuperphone.com/ ) that interconnects the telephone with high-speed Internet.

Large call centers are generally set up with workstations that include a computer, a telephone set (or headset) hooked into a large telecom switch and one or more supervisor stations. The center may stand by itself, or could be linked with other centers. It is possibly linked to a corporate data network, including mainframes, computers and LANs. Often, the voice and data pathways into the center are linked through a set of new technologies called CTI, or computer-telephony integration with predictive dialers.

A center can be located in a remote office at any location, a manufacturing site, a place as huge as a warehouse, even one’s home, or on the road with wireless Internet. But again, the center may need some hardware and software. For outbound calls, one can use predictive or auto dialers. A predictive dialer uses up to three lines per person. It works best with 8-16 people with 16 predictive dialers. The cost per predictive dealer is $1000. Give the predictive dialer the phone list to call. It makes 3 simultaneous phone calls at the same time. As soon as one call is answered by an agent, the predictive dialer drops the other two calls.

Predictive and Auto Dialers

Predictive dialers sense answering machines and busy signals. They use pacing algorithms so that call center representatives are talking right away when customers answer their phones. Since predictive dialing lets you make a considerable number of calls in a short time- as many as 100 calls in, for example, a 90-minute period - dialers help call centers improve their ROI (return on investment) by cutting down on the time and overall cost it takes to reach customers for any calling campaign whether for customer service, sales, technical support or other reason.

An auto dialer dials a few numbers and plays a pre-recorded message. If a customer is interested in buying, he presses a certain key on the telephone keypad and the call is switched to a live sales agent at your call center. "I'm calling on behalf of Future Technologies with hologram wake up call service. You get to choose the character, tone of voice, the wake up message and music in the background. Please press 3 on your telephone keypad if you would like to talk to one of our representatives.” No time is wasted. The cost is approximately $1000 for 4 lines with an auto-dialer.

Agents will feel more confident about incoming calls via the auto dialer calls, knowing the customer has pressed a button with interest in his company's solutions. At the same, there is nothing like seeing your call center representative overcome the objections of the customer in a professional and understanding and close the sale on her own.

Look up “Automated Call Distributor.” ACD reads your 800 number when dialed and displays your company name to the MSR, allowing him or her to greet the caller with a customized response. This added touch helps your customers feel as if they are calling your company directly.

Since the ACD identifies specific 800 numbers, it is of great assistance to your marketing efforts. You can use unique 800 numbers for different media sources: one for your magazine ad, another one for your newspaper ad, one for your television ad. Then you can record the number of calls that come in for each 800 number, providing you with accurate media tracking data. This lets you know which media source gives you the best return for your advertising dollar.In addition to predictive or auto dialers, the call center can buy recording machines to record conversations between agent and customer for quality assurance, training with demonstration of best practices, and coaching and counseling sessions. All kinds of software are available from $500 to $5 million. Look at what other call centers are doing. Who are their clients? Who are they selling to? How are they doing it? How do I want to start?

DSL, a great investment

Your call center or back office or even you as an individual businessman or woman need a DSL line. Think of it as an investment. Why do people go to CEBIT in Germany and Comdex in Dubai? Why do they spend the money for hotel, airline, car rental, exhibition fees and time away from their business? As an investment in their future! Get DSL for your business and also for your home. Our company does not sell DSL. We can be thankful to Allah the He has allowed you have some excellent providers who offer this service in Pakistan. DSL is available in Pakistan at 7000 rupees/month equivalent to $120 per month. Multi.net.pk sells DSL in Karachi. Dsl.net.pk in Islamabad, and you have a Cable provider World Telmeca in Lahore.

Users can also get a wireless Internet from Brain Net or PTCL. Brain Net charges 12,000 rupees for a CIR 64 K interface. This is a dedicated 64 connection to have 2-3 phone lines simultaneously. Or if you don't have that available, get an ISDN connection.

No matter how good of a dialup connection, get a fast Internet access and a Virtual Phone Line. I know personally there is a big difference between dialup and DSL. I can surf several web sites at the same time; have MSN, ICQ and Yahoo messenger open with my video cam open for a business conference; have 3 different email programs open; and make phone calls at the same time, all with my DSL connection.

To get started, there is one given. One thing you have to realize. You have to be "virtually" in the USA. Get a Virtual Phone Line on the web at mysuperphone.com. Sign up before you go home. Without it, you are at zero. It's just the way it is. No questions. Simple obvious truth.

What is a call center? A successful one?

2006-02-26T21:32:00.000-08:00

A call center in the year 2003 is different from the call centers of the past. Because of Voice over IP, it is now any location in any time zone where Internet is available. It is located physically at any place where incoming and outgoing phone calls are made between call center representatives and customers. Just during the month of Ramadan, over 3 million seconds passed and billions of customers were served by these global call centers.

(Two popular terms are used to refer to the call centers that are opened in locations that are geographically away from the parent company’s location, “back office” and “outsourced center.” We will refer to them often.)

A customer does not care what a call center is nor where a call center is located. What truly matters is how well the call center representative treats the customer. The call center can be manned by one to an infinite number of representatives, depending upon the situation. It can be located in a corner of a residence, in the back room of a restaurant or other business, in the library of a school or university or again, on the top floor of the spice market, or anywhere that Internet is available. The call center of today and the future has no limits to the imagination. The limits are only those imposed by bureaucracy’s “red tape.”

It is clear now what a call center is. A huge number of those 3 million seconds of incoming and outgoing calls during Ramadan could have been placed to and from call centers in Pakistan. Why wait? What makes a successful call center in Pakistan? Certain types of manpower, Internet, VoIP long distance calling solution, and encouragement by the government are essential.

A successful call center will employ persons with a minimum of good English speaking ability and good English listening comprehension; basic skills in computers and Internet such as e-mail, chat programs, and web browsing; and a polite and confident attitude toward customers. The ideal back office representative will have all of the above capabilities, but he is also motivated by something inside of himself to succeed. Other terms for this concept are motivation or self-initiative. He will pursue a good command of English written and reading comprehension, an understanding of English idioms and different types of American slang, and have a will to be persistent, caring, flexible, observant, and assumptive with each unique customer he deals with. He will know that he is serving often well-informed customers who expect respect. He will be able to adjust to changes in technology as well as the products and services he will offer.

Next, reasonably priced Internet service is vital to take advantage of low-cost VoIP services. Government and private industry should work together to encourage DSL and other fast Internet access to be a common standard; this allows the representative to use a computer on the Internet and still make outgoing and receive incoming phone calls at the same time. At the least, a mere minimum bandwidth of 30 kbps per phone line is required. The people of Pakistan must be empowered with the same tools of success as citizens of other countries.

In the year 2000, India ended its monopolies on long distance and Internet bandwidth. It is not a mistake to say that this has helped India to be in the top four choices for outsourced call centers along with the Philippines, Canada, and Jamaica.

What advantages does Pakistan have over other countries to be the successful call center choice of the world? Will it be possible that in less than one year’s time, someone asks, “What is a call center?” Can we hope for the following reply to that question? “Let’s answer that by showcasing the thousands of such prosperous call centers in Pakistan.”

Why not? It is a land of citizens who are proactive, future-thinking, entrepreneurial, self-starting, creative, tough people. It is a people who have undergone many challenges in life, who have learned how to meet their basic needs in innovative ways.

I can remember meeting a gentleman on Super Highway at a truck stop who made me realize some of the innate qualities of Pakistanis. He was sitting in a small cubicle carved into the side of a store, not even big enough to stand up in. He had one light bulb above his head. It was midnight, and he was mending work jeans for truckers on a manually operated sewing machine. On top of this, he was smiling. This may not seem incredible to other Pakistanis, but this is exactly the incredible resourcefulness and attitude for success in this world. It is also what is needed by USA companies from Pakistani call center representatives.

A large number of Pakistanis comprehend and speak English as their second or third language, and not just from local English lessons. It is because of the Internet, where English is the main language used. The same Pakistani citizens who cannot afford many luxuries of life have found ways to use the Internet. It may clearly surprise many to know the number of Pakistanis whose second language English is quite fluent, in fact. This Internet we are speaking of has allowed the sharing of Pakistani culture and English language among people all over the world. It has provided good opportunities for Pakistanis that were, before the Internet, unheard of. It is the same Internet that can empower the country to be among the top call center choices of the world. We are referring, again, here to VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), not a mystery but a standard around the world. The future of long distance calling is here now, and it is through the Internet. Why block that? Why block the tool that will help make Pakistan be the call center choice of the world and improve standards of living?

It offers the same citizens a chance to build their employment resumes with excellent experience and references. The potential results even include some surprise advantages to both countries. The USA company who reduces its labor costs will be able to pass on some of that savings to its customer base. The Pakistani citizen improves his standard of living that improves the local economy and even decreases crime.

Straight from an entry at http://www.callcentrevoice.com, Faisal Javed says, “For a country of its size, Pakistan is unique in that a significant percentage of its educated workforce is technology-savvy, English-speaking and highly motivated. When you look at that combination, you realize that Pakistan presents a great opportunity for worldwide companies to service their clients with highly skilled people, while offering a cost-effective solution.”

What will make Pakistan the call center choice or even one of the typical call center choice locations of the world? It is the fantastic potential of well-educated, English-speaking, people-friendly citizens of Pakistan, the huge pool of those who have taken advantage of the opportunities of the Internet against many odds. The people, the Internet, VoIP long distance calling solution, and encouragement by the government can make Pakistan the call center choice, a reality.

Finance & Accounting Outsourcing: What Buyers Are Saying

2006-02-25T02:48:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing finance functions -- like auditing, tax consulting and payroll processing -- has been going on for many years. But today, companies increasingly are asking solution providers to manage business processes on more of a turnkey, full-service basis, rather than transactional or processing services. Suppliers like Exult and others lend credibility to the value that many companies have seen from outsourcing portions of their finance procedures.

The finance and accounting (F&A) business process -- including accounts payable, accounts receivable, order management and tracking, treasury functions, financial reporting, tax consulting and internal audit services -- is expected to be one of the most widely outsourced business process categories in the near future. One industry estimate pegs spending on F&A outsourcing services at $65 billion by 2006, a 12.3 percent five-year compound annual growth rate. Even Dun & Bradstreet's Global Barometer for Outsourcing predicts that F&A outsourcing will represent 10 percent of the total worldwide market for outsourced services by 2005.

All of this data shows the growing importance of F&A outsourcing and makes it one of the fastest-growing segments of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

To understand what finance professionals -- as the buyers of these services -- truly think about F&A outsourcing, Financial Executive partnered with Ross Research of Cambridge, Mass., a firm noted for its research into outsourcing practices. Working with principal Lisa Ross, we developed a questionnaire on the subject that was emailed in December 2003 and January 2004 to FEI members. More than 100 members responded. Ross then tallied and interpreted the results and drafted a full report. Two sponsors, Exult and the law firm of Hunton & Williams, supported the research; neither organization was involved, directly or indirectly, in this project or the analysis of results. (For more about the methodology, see the box, "The Research Methodology.")

Why Outsource F&A?
A myriad of factors drive companies to outsource F&A. The most important reasons listed by study participants indicate a growing sophistication on the part of outsourcing buyers - cost savings is no longer the preeminent reason for outsourcing, though it is still an important consideration. The most important reasons that executives said were primary drivers in their decision to outsource F&A include:

Access to better technology and systems
Cost savings (reduce and control operating expenses)
Increased service levels

The table below illustrates the importance levels that senior financial executives place on each factor as being a driving force behind the decision to outsource F&A functions.

Finance & Accounting	29%
Human Resources	29%
Other	22%
Customer Service/Call Center	21%
Logistics	16%
Procurement	15%
eLearning/Training	11%
Source: Ross Research and SBPOA, September 2003, from Ross Research report titled: "BPO Buyer Demand Exposed: Buyers Reveal Their Readiness to Purchase"

What's Being Outsourced?
The types of F&A functions that have been outsourced to date, as noted by the senior financial executives in our study, represent relatively simple types of processes. The most widely outsourced F&A functions are:

Tax consulting
Payroll (Note: Some companies include payroll as a finance function, while others categorize it as part of the human resources business process.)

Two additional F&A functions that CFOs and other financial executives might consider outsourcing, if they are not already doing so, include:

Travel expense reimbursement
Risk management

The top three F&A functions that respondents would not outsource include:

Financial management activities (operating budgets/ forecasts, capital investments, treasury functions, equity financing/debt, cash management, budgeting, performance analysis, investor relations)
General accounting (general ledger, cost accounting/revenue, equity accounting/debt, statutory accounting, fixed asset accounting, business unit accounting)
Financial reporting and accounting We were surprised, frankly, at the high number of F&A activities that CFOs and other senior financial executives would not consider outsourcing; yet, we believe that over the course of the next year or two, smart organizations will change their minds and elect to outsource more of these F&A functions. Why? Three reasons:

Transactional F&A functions -- like accounts payable/receivable, leases, order management and tracking, billing/customer invoice, customer credit and expense reporting -- are becoming increasingly commoditized, making them ripe for outsourcing.
Today's worldwide economic realities and competitive business environment are forcing finance departments to operate in a more strategic and "lean" manner.
The challenges of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance -- both current and "Year 2" -- make outsourcing of certain F&A processes an extremely sound business decision.

Outsourcing service providers are typically in a better position to meet Sarbanes-Oxley compliance issues than the client company, according to sourcing advisory firm EquaTerra (http://www.equaterra.com/), since outsourcers already have to document workflows and processes. Service providers will not assume fiduciary responsibility, but will be responsible for the processes instituted during an outsourcing transition that enable the company to insert control points for far less cost than if implemented on their own.

Difficult Phases
The largest number of financial executive study participants believes that transition/implementation is the most difficult phase of the F&A outsourcing process. This phase is where the "real work" begins and everything starts being gauged -- from the quality of the contract to service level agreements to the true capabilities of the service provider and the relationship between buyer and outsourcer. The next "most difficult" phase, according to respondents, is ongoing operations, followed by negotiation/agreements.

What ONE phase of the F&A outsourcing process do you feel is the most difficult?
	% of total
Information Gathering	7%
Strategy Formation	9%
RFP/Provider Selection	3%
Negotiation/Agreements	11%
Transition/Implementation	41%
Ongoing Operations	21%
Exit or Renegotiation	6%
Total Respondents = 97

The transition/implementation stage is of utmost importance because it represents the first real task that the outsourcer is assuming on behalf of the client, so expectations of the client company's financial executives are extremely high. Change is almost always difficult, but such a huge change -- coupled with new processes, cultural issues and new worries about managing a function not in their control, so to speak -- is particularly worrisome.

Some financial executives who participated in this study offered the following verbatim responses as to why the F&A outsourcing transition/implementation has been the most difficult phase for them:

Implementing change to internal processes
Cultural issues
Important to get it right and keep it transparent with our customers
Steep industry learning curve, coupled with adverse affect on morale
Risk of noncompliance if implementation is flawed or fails
Change management of our employees and their willingness to assist in the knowledge transfer process
This is the area where it will work or it won't.

Is F&A Outsourcing Working?
Despite some challenges, nearly all financial executives (90 percent) indicated that they are satisfied with their current F&A outsourcing arrangements. In addition, nearly half, or 42 percent, of study participants have every intention of outsourcing additional F&A functions. The executives noted that factors contributing to their satisfaction include: improved handling of the outsourced functions, cost effectiveness and delivery of reliable results.

They also are pleased that they can leverage their in-house staff and take advantage of specialized services from the outsourcer when they cannot afford a narrow expertise. One study participant even stated, "The board applauds the improved reporting," demonstrating that F&A outsourcing's benefits can be appreciated at an organization's highest levels.

Not all, not surprisingly, are completely satisfied with their outsourcing arrangements. Several study participants indicated that their outsourcers lack industry specific skills. Others noted that their service provider "lacked intuitive knowledge of our company and related operations."

What Will Make It Work Better?
Nearly half of all study participants said that they might hire an external sourcing advisor (lawyer, consultant, research firm) to assist their company with the F&A outsourcing process, while another 28 percent said they definitely would do so. These third-party advisors assist with the outsourcing lifecycle - from how it may fit into an overall business strategy to choosing a vendor, signing a contract and ultimately managing the deal.

According to an earlier Ross Research study, the "value" that external sourcing advisors bring to the table can be expressed in a number of ways: time and money saved, clarifying objectives, risk mitigation, instilling a methodology to the outsourcing process (including tools and templates) and leveraging experience. As a result, these financial executives must believe that by using an external sourcing advisor, they would get a better overall contract.

Hunton & Williams finds that customers are using more savvy and thoughtful deal processes to make sure that only the right vendors get selected, which ultimately leads to a more satisfying arrangement. "Old-fashioned planning, careful RFP [request for proposal] construction and focus on value become more important than ever in assuring that the deals that get signed actually deliver what they promise," says Scott Hobby, one of the firm's outsourcing attorneys. The firm's attorneys often find themselves spending as much time thinking about the strategic elements of a transaction as the legal issues.

How to Ensure Success
Peer-to-peer recommendations about F&A outsourcing can serve as incredibly valuable sources of information. If you're considering outsourcing F&A or just are interested in "lessons learned," consider the advice given by several participants in our study. We asked them to share with us what they like/do not like about their F&A outsourcing experiences and offer advice as to how prospective buyers should capitalize on this opportunity.

Moving Forward
The drive towards cost cutting and better financial reporting and regulatory compliance will force more chief financial officers than ever before to consider outsourcing finance and accounting (F&A) business functions in 2004 and beyond. Additional motivations include access to better technology and improved service levels. F&A outsourcing increasingly is being used as a tool not only for cost savings but also for business transformation. The industry is still in its early stages; yet, by all analyst accounts, and as shown by participants in this study, F&A outsourcing increasingly will become a more popular business and operational strategy for companies around the world.

Many organizations clearly embrace F&A outsourcing as a strategy for improving service levels, reducing expenses, increasing stakeholder value and gaining a greater competitive stronghold in their marketplaces.

"Our experience is that companies should approach BPO outsourcing like one would approach a marriage." wrote one FEI respondent -- "expensive to enter, more expensive if it ends in a divorce. To date, we are very pleased with our partner's performance and look forward to a long relationship."

Nonetheless, many organizations have yet to acknowledge the inherent value in outsourcing transactional F&A functions to an external service provider.

The word "transactional" is critical here: it would be difficult to find anyone who would advocate outsourcing highly strategic F&A processes. But outsourcing the transactional elements of F&A is not only a sound business decision but also one that should result in success- if researched, defined, contracted for and managed properly. The overall key to success, however, is building a strong, trusting relationship with a competent service provider that has deep process knowledge and is flexible enough to work within your industry's and company's constraints and guidelines.

To purchase a copy of the full 28-page research report, go to http://www.rossresearch.com/.

The Research Methodology
Of the 100 executives who filled out the questionnaire, which consisted of multiple choice and open-ended questions, nearly all represent chief and senior financial decision- makers within their organizations. CFOs represent the largest number of participants, and nearly 70 percent of participants hold the responsibility of recommending their company's decision to outsource F&A functions.

They work for companies ranging from fewer than 1,000 employees to more than 75,000, with the largest number having between 1,000-5,000 employees. A wide range of industries is represented, with a particular concentration in the manufacturing and business services sectors. Among these were: ING U.S. Financial Services, Lillian Vernon Corp., Binney & Smith, Earle M. Jorgensen Co. and Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

Ross Research is the only outsourcing-focused market research and advisory firm in the industry. Since 1999, it has provided the outsourcing vendor community with actionable intelligence to get the most out of their business, marketing and sales initiatives. Ross Research focuses on four distinct topics and has deep expertise in each: Finance & Accounting Outsourcing, Human Resources (HR) Outsourcing, Offshore Outsourcing and Sourcing Advisor Research. It publishes research reports on a monthly basis and provides custom consulting services - such as marketing strategy advisory, competitive intelligence, virtual analyst time, webcasts and on-site sessions - for outsourcing service providers and advisors. Its products and services are available via an annual subscription package or off the shelf.

Clients include: Accenture, Caspian Group, EDS, Extreme Networks, Exult, Fidelity Investments, HROToday Magazine, Hunton & Williams, International Data Corp. (IDC), IT Services & Marketing Association (ITSMA), Kennedy Information, Lexmark, McKesson HBOC, Mellon HR Solutions, Rockwell Automation, Shaw Pittman, Sybase, TPI, Williams Communications and Wipro Technologies.

Survey Sponsors
Exult Inc. is a market leader in HR-led business process outsourcing for Global 500 corporations, with U.S. headquarters in Irvine, Calif., European headquarters in London and client service centers in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Through its proprietary Exult Service Delivery ModelSM, Exult offers comprehensive, scalable process management solutions designed to manage clients' Human Resource and related Finance & Accounting and Procurement functions.

Exult uses its expertise in HR and F&A functions, process management, MultiDeliverySM shared client service centers and its myHRSM Web-enabled applications to help Global 500 corporations improve productivity, reduce costs, streamline processes and provide superior HR services to their employees.

Hunton & Williams LLP is a U.S. law firm, founded in 1901, with a significant international presence. More than 850 attorneys serve clients in 80 countries from 17 offices around the world. The Outsourcing/System Integration Practice Group at Hunton & Williams assists its clients worldwide in executing large-scale BPO and ITO [information technology outsourcing] transactions, ASP [application service provider] arrangements, system integrations and voice and data network procurements.

Over the past 20 years, the group has completed dozens of transactions for the world's largest utility, consumer products, aerospace, technology, insurance, financial services and other companies. The firm says, "We understand our clients' demands for integrated solutions that quickly deliver reduced costs, improved performance and process transformation while maintaining core business operations. We share our experience in achieving these goals at every stage of each new deal, from pre-RFP planning through post-contract relationship management."

Courtesy : http://www.smartpros.com