Business process outsourcing (BPO) Interview Preparation Guide

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Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain.

The main advantage of BPO is the way in which it helps increase a company's flexibility. However, several sources have different ways in which they perceive organizational flexibility. In early 2000s BPO was all about cost efficiency, which allowed a certain level of flexibility at the time. Due to technological advances and changes in the industry (specifically the move to more service-based rather than product-based contracts), companies who choose to outsource their back-office increasingly look for time flexibility and direct quality control.

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. When a company decides to outsource some of its non-core work processes to another company with expertise in it, it is called Business Process Outsourcing.

BPOs can majorly be divided into following categories based on the jobs they perform:

a.) Administrative Department
b.) Purchase Department
c.) Selling Department
d.) Call Centre
e.) Back Office

Homeshoring is the synonym of homesourcing. It means that outsourcing the work to from service industry to employees who can work from their home or workplace by appropriate means of telephone and Internet facilities. It refers to hiring independent employees and contractors without any bond. Sometimes it requires training of employees in office from time-to-time.

There is not a vast difference between nearshoring and offshoring. Nearshoring is derived from offshoring only, it means shifting or transferring the business in a neighboring country or a nearby region i.e. sometimes across the borders too, so that it can benefit both the parties in different aspects. Nearshoring means that the business has shifted work to a lower cost organization, but within its own region whereas offshoring involves shifting of business to a foreign or distant organization in order to reduce production costs.

Top 10 bpo companies in India are:
a. Genpact
b. WNS global
c. IBM Daksh
d. Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide
e. TCS BPO
f. Wipro BPO
g. First source
h. Infosys BPO
i. HCl BPO
j. EXL Service Holdings

A team can be lead in the most efficient way by the following points:
a. Always stand for your team.
b. Always guide them without any personal interests.
c. Correct your team member’s flaws whenever required.
d. Always motivate your team in every aspect.
e. Never be bossy.

If the interviewer is asking this question then he wants you to give a genuine answer, which you will actually do if something like this happens. So be very realistic while answering this question.
You can say that “it was my mistake that I couldn’t complete my target this time but I’ll make sure that next time I complete my target exactly on time.

Voice based BPOs are those BPOs where you are required to talk to the customers. It may be for sales or support or service or anything else. The focus of business here is “Voice”.

Non-voice based BPOs are the BPOs which perform the outsourced work for their clients but do not need to interact with the client’s customers. The focus here is on “utilizing knowledge” rather than the “voice”.

BPOs like those performing procurement services or payroll activities or data entry / data processing jobs etc. fall in this category.

ITES means – IT Enabled services.

There are mainly four reasons for a company to outsource its work:

a.) Cost saving
b.) Focus on core activities
c.) Access to special enterprise who has expertise in the domain.
d.) Other resource related reasons like relieving resource constraints, reducing IT staff and augmenting IT staff .

a.) BPM - Business Process Management
b.) BTO - Business Transformation Outsourcing
c.) BPO2 - Business Process Optimizing and Outsourcing
d.) KPO - Knowledge Process Outsourcing
e.) MBPO - Medical Business Process Outsourcing
f.) HRO - Human Resource Outsourcing
g.) RPO - Research Process Outsourcing
h.) EPO - Engineering Process Outsourcing
i.) ESO - Engineering Services Outsourcing
j.) Procurement BPO - Outsourcing the procurement activities.

Following are the category of services which are provided by a bpo:
• Customer Contact Management
• Finance / Accounting Processes
• Logistics
• Travel Management
• Telemarketing
• Health care
• Utilities
Other then these, Human Resources, Consulting, Insurance, Documentation, telecommunications are some other sectors are also following bpo trend.

Due to the following reasons bpo industry is flourishing in India:
• Indians have equivalent communication skills and a fair accent, so they are easily able to speak American as well as British English which is accepted worldwide.
• Secondly Indians are fast learners and good negotiators so they know how to work by making optional arrangements.
• Thirdly Indians are ready to work according to standard time so that is also considered.
• Fourthly Indians are ready to work at fewer wages.

• Such questions are asked to check how emotionally stable you are, and how good you can understand & handle the situation. Interviewer is not actually flirting with you he is just checking your emotional quotient.
• To answer this, you can say something like:
“If everything goes well in future, then I can think about it”. This means that if you get selected, there might be a chance.

Such questions are asked to check whether you are really interested in work or money. If your answer signifies that you are really interested in money more than work then in that case if you are offered a better package from some other company then you will leave the job. So to such questions you should answer very carefully and can say:
“It’s not always salary which matters, sometimes it is even work which matters a lot, even on the stake of salary, however I will act as per the situation.”

These types of questions are asked to check how good you can handle a situation.
So for such questions you should answer very carefully without being emotional. You can answer this question in the following manner:
“If I would have just one chance then I will give each of my hand to both of them, rest I will leave everything to god, whatever he wishes.”

When a work process is out-sourced to a different country which is not nearby – it is called off-shore outsourcing. For e.g. If USA outsources a work process to India- it is off-shore outsourcing.

When a work process is out-sourced to a nearby country, it is called near shore outsourcing. For e.g. If a business process is out-sourced from a company in USA to a company in Mexico or Canada – it is near shore outsourcing.

When a business process is outsourced from a company in one country to another country in the same country – it is called onshore outsourcing.

Call centres are voice based BPOs. These are usually used for sales, customer service or support activities..

a.) Inbound call centre - Inbound call centres are the call centres which receive calls on behalf of their client – usually the support or customer service centres fall in this category.

b.) Outbound call centre – Outbound call centres are the call centres which make calls on behalf of their clients – usually the sales calls.

Call centre is a subset of BPO.