Outsourcing Ins...'s  Instablog

The latter part of the year means it is rainy season for a specific part of the globe, which is where majority of the outsourcing companies are located. We have previously written about the blackout in India with "Massive Blackout in India Tests Outsourcing Companies' Back-up Plan" as the title of the article. The article relays the recent issue about India's electric consumption being over the top and causing alarm to both residents and businesses in the country, primarily those who engage with international businesses like that of the outsourcing industry. But it is not only the power shortages that companies should prepare for because there are also natural calamities that may happen which can also affect one's business. Bad weather is bad for the business, as many would put it.

Businesses in different industries based in the northern part of the Philippines were forced to halt their operations because of the heavy monsoon rains that fell during the early days of August this year. The heavy rain that happened has caused for major cities in the Philippines to be submerged in flood. Unforeseen circumstances like these can affect a business' revenue and flow of operations which is why it is highly recommended for business owners looking to delegate their operations to an off-shoring partner to know whether a contingency plan is in place. During the calamity, the Philippine government has issued notices that all operations including that of the BPO industry are to be stopped and have the employees go home. Business process outsourcing companies have complied with the government notice but are still hopeful that the bad weather would stop and that their employees and their respective families are safe. The situation significantly improved in the following days and some employees were able to go back to work and businesses were able to resume their operations.

For companies offering contact center services, one of the proposed measures during unforeseen national calamities was to forward or redirect incoming calls to a different site that is not affected. This way, there won't be an opportunity to miss any calls that might be converted into revenue or sales.

As for those that do not have other facilities in the country, it is best to give the client a prompt notice of the situation and if feasible, suggest a work from home or remote access alternative. It is also common practice among companies to have a skeletal force, to be comprised of team members who live near the area and who are not affected by the rains.

During the calamity, call centers such as Convergys (NYSE:CVG) have turned a part of their facility to serve as evacuation areas for employees who are stranded to guarantee their safety. Business process outsourcing companies value their employees and reports of workers' rights violations are now being acted upon by the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP).

A sound contingency plan and business continue plan could be a parameter to be considered when choosing the right outsourcing partner for your company. Great weather and effective strategies can always bring businesses to cloud nine.

Author: Jamee C.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

As a contact center solutions provider, a company must have a specific format on how to keep track of the performance of their employees and at the same time their business. The matrix must be able to determine whether their current work processes could affirm that it can yield positive results for them. Outsourcing companies rely on their call center agents to deliver a reasonable amount of productivity and it is often measured according to the metrics and standards agreed upon by the solutions provider and the client before the project commences.

Employee training contributes a huge deal to the outcome of the calls rendered by the agents in a contact center environment. Training enhances their confidence in dealing with both happy and frustrated customers. Business operations and processes may vary among industries but what is common is their value for their customers' satisfaction and their belief that their customers only deserve the best service or product.

Having a trained team of individuals attending to your company's customer service can be correlated with a higher production and customer satisfaction level. However, in a call center setting, what is often measured is the amount of time spent dealing with a customer, which is referred to as the average handling time.

Another standard that call centers wish to maintain is the quality of calls that their agents make. It has been regarded many times that a customer's feedback on a company's efficiency with their customer service could mirror how their company is being viewed by their customers. This is the reason why companies turn to a contact center, one that can cultivate and foster customer engagement that could lead to customer satisfaction. But despite being experts in that particular field, call centers still need to keep their performance and call quality in check regularly.

However, in a recent article from Harvard Business Review published on August 14, 2012 suggests that companies offering customer service solutions, primarily those in the call center field, look at a different angle when measuring the performance of their call center team. In the article, it points out that solutions providers are often cost-driven, attempting to keep their calls as short as possible to be able to make more calls within the day. This may look promising but what it often entails is a lower rate on conflict resolution, especially if conflicts are complicated. The article suggests that companies take on a different set of metrics or they can modify it according to their solutions. An agreeable criterion focuses on customer satisfaction and the ability to resolve the issue during the first call from a customer. This has been implemented by Belgacom, a Belgian telecommunications provider and the said metrics have reduced the volume of calls by 20% and it has driven a higher customer advocacy score.

It is understandable that outsourcing companies want to capitalize on their agents' performance, especially when they hire individuals with high competency. But it is also important to note that a good set of metrics will help them deliver a better suite of solutions to their clients.

Author: Jamee C.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Contingency plans for the outsourcing industry is an important matter and should never be taken for granted. A sound plan in cases of emergencies should be one of the decisive factors of businesses looking to outsource their processes because there are businesses where every hour counts and it may directly affect daily operations. This will help them ensure that their work processes for the following day will not be affected and this will assure them that the security of their data remains intact. Business process outsourcingrelies heavily on business continuity in cases of emergencies such as natural disasters or civil unrest, and it is only expected from outsourcing companies, especially those that promise a quick turn-around time like medical billing services outsourcing companies, to have back up plans to push through with their operations.

Just as the month of July was about to end, India experienced a massive black-out, a black-out considered as one of the world's worst power shortages ever. The power shortage, according to reports, happened on Monday and lasted for 15 hours. However, just a few hours after the electricity was restored, a system collapse happened across India's northern and eastern parts, bringing almost half of the country's population to darkness. The power outage was said to be caused by some regions exceeding the quota on electric consumption and the power minister of India warned that the states that have exceeded their power quota will be penalized.

The blackout may have affected around 600 million people in India but only a small percentage of that population was able to enjoy generators and most of them are from the cities protecting their businesses. Most Indian companies, particularly those outsourcing companies who have facilities in India such as HCL Technologies (NSE:HCLTECH) and CSC (NYSE:CSC) are well-prepared as news reports have suggested that power interruptions frequently happen in the country. But outsourcing consultancy firm ISG's partner, Steve Hall, pointed out that solutions providers have already invested in back up plans that are "capable of providing at least five to seven days of continuous operations in the event of a power failure." Also, it is important that redundancies in the systems are in place. It is suggested for businesses to know whether their solutions provider to regularly check whether their contingency or redundancy plan is in place.

It has been known that it is not only India who experience power interruptions because it has been reported by China Electricity Council that China will have a power shortfall that may reach 40 million kilowatts this year, which will be reflected in regional, temporal and seasonal failures.

It may be seen that these power shortages in major outsourcing destinations are testing the capabilities of outsourcing vendors to provide continuous service under circumstances brought about by external factors. Outsourcing companies who have set up plans to be in effect during emergencies show that they not only value their clients for the sake of earning money, but they also care about the business of their clients.

Share you thoughts with us in the comments section on what else should be in a company's contingency plan.

Author: Jamee C.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.