BPO : Yesterday, today and tomorrow!

 ‘Business process outsourcing’, expansion of a three-letter word, BPO: brings food on the table of millions of Indians. This industry employees people in scores and mostly from the segment of the society in need of dire uplifting, immediate infusion of funds to make survival possible. BPO in the last 20 years has successfully created a new breed of the middle class, a layer just above the poverty line; a zone of youth, energy, aspirations, and dreams. The socio-economic classes above this layer snort at this group of hardworking professionals mostly because they consider call centre workers less educated (70%+ are indeed not even graduates) and not particularly well off (60%+ make just about minimum wage). Social stigma and prejudice are associated with this group all too easily and all too often. I have spent a portion of my professional career in this segment, working alongside women and men who bear the cross of biases proudly.

You should know this though that the thing about stereotypes is that ‘not all of them are based in reality’.

In my experience, I have found this group to be enterprising, smart, hardworking, sincere and forward-looking. These assemblages are also uniquely liberal, vocal and willing to participate in the change: both societal and those that shape the contours of business and economy of the country. This constituency is often not given the credit it deserves for taking 'working nights' into the mainstream. Outsourcing service providers are also not given the accolades it merits for bringing in young women to the workforce - paving way for social equality and financial liberation of the gender neglected for far too long. This industry is also the reason why computing and smartphones could become popular in an otherwise technologically backward country, like ours. A first close look at a working computer happened in the training rooms of their employers, for these millions of Indians. So in a way, the groundwork of creating a country that is conversant with computing and digital way of working has been prepared by this industry too, to the extent of its numbers.

1st decade of boom, followed by fast-paced 5 years and then the last 5 years of transformation was punctuated by the pandemic in early 2020. Things began looking shaky. It, however, did not take too long, for things to change completely. Let’s take one metric - work from home.

• Before pandemic.
  • Less than 1/10th of the workforce was working from home.
    • Only about 4 out of 10 in these 1 out of 10 used to be from the front line.
• A year in the pandemic.
  • 56% of all operations (at the peak of the pandemic) shifted base from office to home.
    • The rest did not or in some cases could not, for:
      • Logistical roadblock - transportation of computing infra and broadband connectivity.
      • The willingness of the clients to operate in the slump.

A study conducted says this :

The industry saw a double-digit decline in managed services in the second quarter of this year, with total global spending down 16%. A Deloitte poll conducted in April 2020 showed that 32% of businesses believe the end of the pandemic will bring with it a reduction in outsourcing.

One would assume that with things stacked the way they are, this industry would have lapped the change and must be working hard to re-invent itself, while it is true for a small and progressive section of the industry, the majority are still prisoners of the past - and in this reluctance to change lies the biggest folie of this otherwise upbeat industry.

A survey was conducted to find out how the workers would like to continue work in the future?

• 46% of the staff said that they are willing to continue working from home, as it helps them do better and also gives them time and resources needed to take care of their stuff at home. A win-win situation they say.
• The balance, 54% wish to return to the office.

One might think that aggregation of how individual employees think may not be enough for us to conclude how the industry as a whole thinks; especially the leadership. And there comes another segment of the study which, for the lack of a better term is - Perplexing.

• Only half of the BPO leaders think that the delivery, infra, environments, objectives of operation will change after we would have seen the pandemic off. The rest which is another half of the industry leaders believe that as soon as it is over, it is going to be a return to yesterday’s years. People going back to brick and mortar, office-based production.

A half is a significant volume which is still not for the permanent change, therefore - it is safe to assume that, what we are going to witness will bear the semblance to a hybrid model.

The question, however, is that is this the right approach? Will the world be better served with it?

Well, I for one, believe that this industry has reached a breaking point. What do I mean by "breaking point", you might wonder?

Here, 

• Believers in BPO will continue to pump capital and also see a surge in volume in the medium term. The assignments that the large players leave, don’t drop dead right away it first goes to the smaller operator for some time and then moves to the automation assembly, if not to the bin. This in-between period can be confused as the period of growth.
• Powered by popularity and simplicity of 'digital and distributed operations', the cost of entry, a barrier, has evaporated suddenly, which is bound to result in a spurt in a number of small players, (less than 500 seats). They too will get business in the medium term, the same waterfall logic of the economy will support them.
• Shifting demands - will create the illusion of growth.

So then the question is that, will such a strong economic force, a force for the good suddenly disappear? Will BPO become extinct in the next couple of years? The answer to that question is no. It won't, it will exist for some more time but just as landlines survive today but they do not mean much in the grand scheme of things. Like Smartphone has taken the place of PSTN, cognitive conversational AI-based tech solution will oust the current phone-based BPO industry. I pray, that it should not be seen as a bad outcome, 3 decades of glorious run built on an army of semi-skilled workforce generating billions upon billions in revenue is not a mean feat but as with most things, we are at the cusp of massive change, witness the change as it is happening.

I believe that what will become of the BPO industry can be understood by these phenomena.

Business Offering

• Voice to Technology: Primary offering of the BPO service providers will have to shift from phone-based conversational service to Technology platform based servicing such as no-code augmentation of ChatBOTs to the maintenance of Voice BOTs. BPOs will have a role to play in the training of the voice BOTs and other RPA operations. From 100% delivery to 90+% Audit and training that is the domain in which outsourcing is to shift.
• Voice to data: Data cleaning, alignment and error correction in upload and running of data operations, will be a new line of business for the BPO.
• Frontend operations to backend: Backend controls to do with designing and maintaining workflow operation will be another source of revenue for the BPO of tomorrow.

Operating Model

• Outcome-based billing: Transaction-based billing is soon going to be a thing of the past, servicing will be measured by outcome. So instead of how many calls/email answered (AHT based billing) to conversion/satisfaction based billing will kick in. Organisations are going to come out of volume game in the near future and focus on the delivery of the business KPIs exclusively.
• Distributed work: Work from home is a reality that can no longer be suppressed. This change is destined to alter the very concept of business continuity planning and execution.
• Lag in operation: Service operation is going to shift from current 'real-time' arrangement to 'scheduled framework' which will reduce the application of strengths of labour arbitrage. The volumes will become more and more predictable rendering WFM less and less applicable.
• Consultative Solution: BPOs, are poised to play a key role in the design of processes and will be involved in operations related to processing re-engineering, identifying errors in automation and in training the Artificial Intelligence models. Service philosophy design is also going to become the forte of the high-end BPOs.

People and culture

• Low-end data work: Bulk hiring of people who can conduct basic data Ops, to do with learning from and training of data models will begin.
• Upskilling: About 30% of the current staff will be upgraded to work alongside the machines on either data cleaning or audit/training of the models.
• Openwork,: Gig economy, specialised roles in BPOs are no longer going to be full-time employment roles, subletting of work and employing talent on a project basis will become the compulsion of the cost model that BPOs will have to operate under.

Sooner the industry accepts the facts as they stand today, the better will the next version of the industry be. I am excited to be a part of this inspiring change.

Do share your views with me on lk@lavkush.co.in

Have a good Sunday!

Bets on the Future!

As of 20th June 2020, reported and recognised COVID19 figures by the GOI, are 4,11,773 infections, 13,281 fatalities. To put things in perspective, we're adding on an average over 13K cases, every day, for past few days, we're 3rd largest in daily caseload increase, 4th largest in the overall volume of cases in the world and hold the dubious 8th rank on overall mortality. All of this when India's ranking on testing is 147th among 192 countries, to give you some perspective, the tiny nation of Nepal is testing 2.7 times more than us on a per million population basis, as per John Hopkins university study. Many experts (Professor Jha, Harvard Medical school) believe that the actual number of cases in India must be anywhere between 4 to 6 crores.

The entire planet is reeling under this unprecedented crisis.

We as a country, however, are not so much in the same boat with the rest of the world as in the same storm, as far as the COVID19 risk is concerned, because our public health infrastructure is not among the best in the world! Two people hardly agree on the same thing in the current dangerously polarised times let alone nations, but a unicellular pathogen has effortlessly brought about consensus among people divided by nationalities, ethnicities, race, political affiliation and religious views, by and large. The world has dedicated its entire collective cognitive bandwidth towards observing and studying ways to get better of the virus or to learn ways to survive with it. I am gravitating towards conceding to the possibilities of a shared future with the virus. Finest minds in the world have been examining the pathogen closely and yet, a comprehensive study exhaustively covering ways in which the transmission happens has not come out. Between WHO announcement that ‘human to human’ transmission is not a thing to declaring humans as the sole vector, from 'mask is not necessary' to 'mask saves lives' from surfaces do not spread to they do to again they do not. Debate on whether the virus is aerosol or not has also not been settled, thus far. In conclusion, the human race still does not know much about the virus. Those of us who have avoided the outside world completely thus far are safe. We are hedging all of our future hopes on just this flimsy fact.

At this point, you must wonder, what is the point of it all? 

The world has been dealing with this menace for nearly 7 months now and it does not even know if we are in the beginning, middle or the end of the destruction cycle. Does that not say a lot about, how certain our world view has been? Lockdown made a great case for itself, political leadership across the world sold it on premium and ordinary citizens who do not have a way of knowing better lauded it. By the beginning of May 2020, the shine started wearing off the panacea of administrative isolation- lockdown, as the number of cases did not show any sign of slowing down, both at a global and the national level. Administrative restrictions may not have hurt the virus as much as it promised to but it surely nearly decimated economies around the world. I borrow from Mr Bajaj, who said in an interview to Rahul Kanwal (Right-wing journalist who works hard to appear neutral), "that we flattened the wrong curve". He was referring to the flatlining of the GDP. The sharp decline in revenue collection of the Government and the fear of resulting fiscal deficit shook it back into senses and it quietly introduced ‘unlock 1.0’. Revenue starved businesses in a heartbeat reopened, ignoring the fact that the risk of infection had gone substantially up, in the hope to see things resume, volumes return. Recovery, predictively, has been mixed, mainly on account of high unemployment causing severe lack of demand - but some business is better than no business. Hospitality, F&B, tourism and travel etc, still haven’t seen any respite and the outlook at least for next 8 to 10 months does not look promising for them, either. 

Geopolitics and societal structures are undergoing massive transformation, we do not know yet, for good or for the worse. But the change is visible. We can’t, however, say the same for the businesses around us. Do not get me wrong, yes ‘work from home’ has become the new excel macro. Big and small alike have lapped it with ease now, even the ones who were not in favour of it before, because it promises business continuity and cost-saving, among other things. Distributed and digitalised work in sectors that do not require congregation or special equipment, like let’s say in manufacturing - is gaining steam. Knowledge workers, who I also call ‘keyboard warriors’ have all acclimatised themselves to working in shorts from the corner of their homes. It is all good, if not for the health and mental well being of the workers then at least for the environment. Vehicular traffic and related carbon emissions have gone down and as a result, all of us are breathing better quality air- that is a clear win!

But apart from the superficialities, has the core business model shifted to anything different?

By and large, the answer to that question is a NO. Zomato choosing to also deliver grocery in the lockdown or call centres shifting to phone-based dialers hardly qualify, at max, it can be called mild manoeuvring. Has the rate of technology adoption been accelerated? When you look at the larger picture, the answer is no. 'Working from home' or calling one another on zoom all day, is not tech adoption, it is just a change of scenery. The tech backbone and the architecture for 90% of the organisations remain absolutely unchanged: 'same processes, same application and largely the same turnaround times'. In fact, if anything mega tech projects have been put on hold, some indefinitely for operating cash crunch that most businesses are having to face up to, these days. Serious degradation of value in the real estate sector is being noticed and that when coupled with -ve 4% GDP growth outlook, I suspect things will get worse before they get better. Where does that leave us?

The jury is out on the number of organisations that will actually survive to see the other side of the crisis, reports on the closure of 30% of MSMEs which contribute to about 37% of the GDP and 40% of Indian exports have already shut shop. Service organisations have seen anything between 30% to 50% loss of business. Buying capacity of the population has been severely dented with record unemployment about 42% when organised and unorganised sectors are clubbed. Those still employed in a paying job are earning, anything between 10% to 50% less on account of wage cuts. Which means there is lesser money in the market making the rounds. 

A wise man once said, "business is not a pond, it is a river". Resources flow from one end of the stream to the other, along the way those who dip in it collect some water for their consumption (both current and future needs), both by means of employment and investment. When upstream funnel size gets reduced, the downstream impact becomes pervasive. 

Running a business is hard!

Number 1 priority of any organisation is to keep afloat; so when value evaporates, costs have to be adjusted in proportion. Not all cost cuttings are done equally though, with varying degree of success, industries across the board have managed to get it right. Managing outflow of cash in the know of the quantum of inflow does not require much of anything. But steps that come after it are of critical importance, their complexities are immense. Mostly on account of how little that we know about the future that we should prepare for. Despite the operating cash issues and the slump in the demand investments in the future will have to be made, not pledging will mean forgoing the possibilities of future prosperity. 

What to bet on however is unclear. I might be naval-gazing here but, the economy of knowledge is the basket in which I would keep all my eggs, even if I could take just one shot at it.

Physical infrastructure: In the medium term the value of infra and real estate will see degradation but it will eventually pick up again in the long term. The rate of population growth is the reason why I say this. Irrespective of what people do, if we survive as a race, we will need space and physical infrastructure. Therefore, investing in it now for 'cash-surplus' corporations is not a bad option, especially because they stand to reap the benefits of acquiring the properties at price discounted by the recessionary spiral, the economy is unwillingly living through. One should, however, be prepared to remain calm in the prolonged period of hibernation induced by slow demand, the capital might appear to suffocate. But if you can hold on to your nerve, returns are going to be more than handsome, in a few years from now. Let’s say in about 4 to 5 years.

Manufacturing is another segment where we are about to witness a sea change. Industry 4.0 is going to be about connectivity and communication, a barrage of censors providing inputs to smart algorithms to facilitate real-time decision-making, all without any considerable human involvement. Powered by data and automation, digitalization is poised to transform every step of the manufacturing process, from supply chain and enterprise to the shop floor and end-users. Smart manufacturing will vastly improve throughput, uptime, and performance while reducing overhead, operating, and capital costs. Emerging tech like Industrial IoT, FOG computing, edge computing and advanced robotics will form the bedrock of change. Investments made in these technological platforms are bound to grow well. 

Logical infra: Solution augmentation happens to process needs of the market and the market is a microcosm of the society, a continued spell of the pandemic is bound to re-write fundamentals of the social contract that have existed for the last 4 centuries. Humans live in flocks too (we are intelligent sheep). We are a social animal, we access what we need in groups. Our needs and desires follow the principle of batches. One man gets wheels, all follow - 'Monkey see... Monkey do'. (We share our DNA with more than one species, let's keep it for another day)

Before, we conclude that the logical infra is a horse that we’d like to put our bet on, it is essential to take a cursory look at the changing landscape around us. 

We're a poor country, our per capita income is just about 2.5K USD. From this small pool, most of the expenditure happens on community building and survival, individual needs in most cases remain primitive and not too distant from the bare essentials, for a large part of the population. But when you contrast it with demographic, you’ll also notice that a vast majority of this country is at an age, which is considered a gold mind for impulse buying. When we see it in light of poor financial literacy in the country you’d understand that, if an ordinary Indian youth was left with last 100 dollars he is more likely to spend it on trends, then saving it for the rainy day. From that behaviour emerges 'aspiration' of the economy - From cloths to electronic to travel (Simplifying the behaviour to make this argument readable and concise)

Let me give you an example: 

87% of all tablet users own a computer, there is not one thing/operation that the tablet can do but a computer can’t. In fact, there are a variety of things that a tablet can’t handle, not nearly as efficiently as a computer can and yet people who already own a computer buy a tablet too, sometimes more than one. (I'm included in it)

Aspiration for the ‘new’ is a strong economic stimulus among the young people which is why all the young (Avg age of the citizens) countries are of special interest to the large consumer goods corporations. Electronics in India and China rock, for the same reason (Though China is 5 times the size of India's GDP).

Now that we have addressed the aspiration part of the demand. Let’s analyse how the pervasive internet is shaping social behaviours. The world that saw the internet as an alternative for information, before COVID19, is now convinced that the web is the primary mode of exchange, even in the third world societies, like ours. Real-time and reliable Instant messengers, quick and easy digital payment methods, convenience and price benefits of e-commerce retail, had educated people on how the alternative is the new mainstream, subtly, in last few years, but imposed social distancing brought that understanding to the fore. Deep penetration of smartphones in the company of wireless and cheap internet network has liberated consumers from the exclusive relationship that they had with physical retail stores.

Stores are on their way of becoming the new warehouse and retail stores are about to permanently become an application.

Google search for information has long replaced libraries for a lot of people, location tracking, the ability to compare prices from different suppliers gives the buyer the false (everything on the internet is curated, it does not exist organically) impression of being in charge. Consumers like when they think they are making the choices. The Internet has another distinct property: it is open 24*7.

From popularity, usefulness and adoption of the internet as the primary method of exchange and given special COVID19 circumstances below business opportunities emerge.

1. Tech Platform: From Advertising to lead generation to, informing the customer about the product and services, to getting on with the actual sign up to purchase to billing to delivery to post-sale query/complaint handling to return and refund; everything can be managed digitally. Not just that all backend processes, like demand estimation, we have touched upon manufacturing earlier in the article, supply chain to human resource management to finance and accounting - all of it can also be digitised. Pick whichever part of the customer journey that you are comfortable with and build a tech platform for it. The next trillion dollars in the Indian economy is going to come from platforms, as per the research conducted by the Boston consulting group.

2. Advanced data modelling: Digital wandering leaves data trail, even those expeditions that honour consumer data privacy, do enough for someone to catalogue a replica of your persona: your buying ability, your impulses, your likes and dislikes, your consumption rate, your refill propensity, down to the sec in which you are likely to make a decision. There is data on who you speak with, in what tone and what manner, what is it that you speak about and what is it you are wanting to convey. You may think of yourself as a private person but nothing about you is private anymore in the world of the internet.

Data set is used to create both descriptive and as well as predictive models. Principles of data science, behavioural economics, behavioural psychology, coupled with the capability of AI and machine learning are used in conjunction with market trends, capital and goods movement to exact future demands and way to fulfil those are appropriated too. Even if your model is 50% accurate, you are talking about getting it right once in 2 tries, that is way way better than sitting and hoping for a customer to decide in your favour. So if you have the stomach for data, get on with it and form a data product.

COVID19 induced human tragedy and capital erosion is disastrous and heartbreaking. But the only way to not lose to it completely is by preparing for the next frontier. History tells us that whenever a change disruptive and extensive enough gets forced on humans by nature. Humans adjust by eliminating or automating the items at the bottom of the pyramid, the most basic items are attacked first. Before World War II there use to be a job profile called, “Knocker Upper” job of this person was to knock on the door of the Europeans to wake them up in the morning. Alarm clock drove them out of jobs. Similarly, all the basic and unintelligent things that are today performed by humans will siege to exist, i.e - most over the counter retail interactions, simple bookkeeping, telephone-based reminders to customers to renew and recharge and pay are the kinds of job that will just disappear overnight.

"Are you investing today for your future security", is the question that deserves to have all your attention.

On that note, see you on the other side!

Outsourcing 2.0, the future!

It is impossible to attempt predicting the future without taking history into account; the posterior view of linear time. The history of outsourcing is intensely integrated into the history of the growth of the modern business enterprise, many believe that it rose in the second half of the 19th Century. Historians and economists in the past fifty years have helped us to understand this sudden and prominent phenomenon of growth, one such legend is Mr. Alfred D. Chandler, do read his work. Much has been said regarding outsourcing in the past couple of years. This business practice has suddenly grabbed center stage attention and is now the focus of politicians, the press, companies, and workers alike. Organizations in the outsourcing space are also constantly applying thought to understand how should they reinvent themselves to remain relevant, as they face their toughest challenge in the present era. A business that found its existing space between the value difference of a rupee and a dollar (speaking strictly in the Indian context) initially and in not too much time became a darling even on a transaction that was between the same currency, faces an existential challenge now. The rationale for the rupee to rupee transaction came from the differentiation of core and non-core tasks for an organization. Offshoring, mainly from stronger currencies to the weaker ones flourished for the first decade, almost fanatically. India gained immensely from this fad that was catching up. IT and ITES provided employment to over 3 hundred thousand people, major businesses,  houses came into being: Wipro, Infosys, Concentrix, HCL, Tech Mahindra, and many others. Companies in the western world saw value in saving money and at the same time dealing with a race that was hardworking, ambitious, hungry for growth, and also particularly skilled for doing the job just right.

The growth and meaning of outsourcing are increasingly getting flatlined; cost pressures are driving the value down, from the perspective of the service providers. The political scene around the world is not helping either, mass protests in favor of keeping the jobs onshore have become common. Major political events in the recent past have revolved around it, the rise of President Trump, the ill effects of Brexit; the mounting of obscurantists and protectionists ideologies around the world have hurt the prospects of the thriving outsourcing industry in our country. Both IT and ITES have suffered immensely, we do not see too many new players making a move. But thankfully, all is not lost. India is growing, one could argue that it could have grown faster had a few things not happened, but then those are hypothetical arguments; we remain among the fastest-growing economies in the world. A new breed of entrepreneurs have come into the fray and are solving real issues interestingly applying technologies that are now available at a much cheaper cost, than it would have been let's say a decade ago. The eco-system is ready. Would Ola or Flipkart have become such spectacular successes in 1980ties in India? The answer to that question is a clear no. Now is the time for it and it is a great thing to happen to us as a country, society, and also the economy.

If the political climate was unfavorable and stunting the growth of outsourcing agencies vigorously, the advent of technology: penetration of internet, the rise of automation, AI and ML are together making it almost impossible for small players to exist. Jobs that required humans back then are being done in a few taps a lot more satisfyingly and swiftly. ITES providers are dying a slow death, many are bleeding profusely with no real sight of a breakeven, let alone profit and prosperity. Many renowned businesses have done away with their domestic business or are in the process of walking out, Sutherland &  Mphasis are classic examples. More than 40% of small and medium domestic BPOs had to shut shop, in the last 6 yrs. The scene is not all that good for those who aren’t comfortable with being on their toes all the time, either. There are organizations like Aegis, Karvy DigiKonnect, connectQ, 1point1, Megus, etc who are trying to walk in the opposite direction of the wind and have created for themselves results that are not bad, if not all that encouraging, in all the quarters of the year. But there is hope. And that is exactly what we are trying to discuss here.

A workforce that began with handling transactions on prescribed SOPs have in these years become rich in experience and now have valuable insight into how various businesses are conducted, not only have they mastered their game of efficiency but have also educated and trained themselves on the craft to a degree that they now carry invaluable perspicacity into the world of the consumers and deep understanding of the technology that makes the customer experience come about. Cross-pollination of talent has graduated the industry into a formidable group, one that is capable of rewriting the rules of the game. This development is part evolutionary and part forced and therefore, not easy for everyone to get to.



The time has come for the outsourcing industry to shed its dead weight of unskilled manpower, onboard forward thinkers, and retain only high performers; the average and the below-average must go. This industry has to prepare itself to walk out of the shadow of the transaction and shine in the light of experience. It is apt for the service providers to fight for increasing their share of influence, the only way for them to exist is if they muster the courage to secure a seat at the thought leadership table. A transition from a low value, labor-based output to a high-value intellect based outcome will have to be made. Service providers will have to become providers of knowledge and acumen and not just efficiency.



Doing the job, quicker, better, and at low cost is no longer lucrative, there is a need to invent ways to do them differently, trying different business solutions. The construct of the ‘different’ is in making the delivery consultative, one in which the providers do not only bring manpower but also industry acumen, knowledge of framing service philosophies, the capability of defining experience, designing its machinery, and then delivering results which are second to none. Technology is here to stay, providers will have to befriend the trend, work towards creating the capabilities of automation in-house, start offering a data first, and voice second service offering. The conventional mode of isolated support on voice, data, and chat channels will have to be united into an omnichannel environment, flexible enough to extend the customers the choice to choose: voice or text, self-help or assisted guidance, with solid CRM integration, one that is capable of building context and providing for predictive customer behavior. Service providers will have to become solution architects. The change will have to be welcomed into the organization and the way of its inner working. If I may borrow from Robin Sharma;



All change is tough at the beginning, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.



Here are a few things that service providers should do to transform.



De-age your leadership team - All of those 25 to 30 yrs + experience folks are good, they bring a lot of value but if they are made in charge of driving transformation, it wouldn't come about just as swiftly or effectively. You need to bring in a fresh perspective, bright and young people with the required skillset to populate your leadership team. Studies have shown that after a certain age and getting certain success in life the fire in the belly goes off for 98% of the people and that alone is a reason for you to look at your leadership team to see if you have such satisfied people around? If so, it's time for you to get people who relate to the change and have a better handle on contemporary settings and above all are willing to walk that extra mile and have the desire and the determination to make their mark.

Alter your service offering - Your service offering has to be a happy marriage between technology, business acumen, skilled manpower, and growth infrastructure. You’ll need to modify your solutions for them to make sense to the market and the customers that you wish to service. You need to be able to partner with the organization with which you are doing business with offerings, creating service strategy, forming the budget, laying the logical and physical service infrastructure, sourcing, training, execution - all of it. You need to take a leap from business process outsourcing into the realm of experience outsourcing.

Responsible billing model: Try to slowly move away from transaction billing to outcome-based invoicing. It is not going to be easy. Today you bill for transactions (calls/email/chat) you handle tomorrow you’ll charge on outcomes, let’s say a threshold of customer satisfaction, first, call resolution, churn %, repeat purchase, etc,  keeping the service cost below a certain limit for the exchange of x% of profit. I’m just saying. Commercial viability will have to be worked out but if service providers have to grow in the value chain they will need to value outcomes more than a transaction. And in the process will come into effect a high-performance culture because then the substandard outcome will mean substandard billing. Focus on performance will be much higher. And because it is a high-value job .. service providers will get to command much better prices.

Driving innovation as a core product: Organizations will have to increasingly invest in a thinking workforce, currently, the focus is only on doing (executing) which is why you have a mob of the unintelligent and the uninspiring, who are satisfied doing what they have always done, without thinking of finding different and better ways of solving the issue. Service providers will need to get creative, run of the mill thought processes will have to be now killed, deliberately. For the culture of ideation to thrive within the organization, leaders will have to reward thinkers, demonstrate a willingness to accept the nonnormal and above all, they will need to give the message that they value thinking as much as they value doing, if not more. Take up a few high-value high impact ambitious projects and run them so that the workforce has something to relate to.

Decentralize work (WFH): Cluttering the real state in today’s world is not only ineffective but also inefficient - the outsourcing industry will have to learn to ‘work from home’. A model that is a mixture of on-premise + Work from home has the capability of bringing the billing cost down with leaving larger room for service providers to expand profits, alongside creating a more independent, flexible, and happier workforce. I’m not even counting the environmental benefits of reduced vehicular traffic or saving of travel time, here. For far too long leaders have seen the outsourcing industry set up to be like manufacturing, that must change NOW!

Diversify into Tech Products: Voice can and should not be your only stream of revenue. You’ll need to create a 1st party tech platform/solution to survive.

Gartner says that by 2020 85% of the transaction will move to the unassisted category, the machine will take over man, we already see that reality manifesting itself in our day to day interaction with the world. If service providers do not invest in this critical adaptation now, they will soon be extinct.



On that note, I end this .. until we meet again.