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Business Sectors Involved in Job Outsourcing
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Information
Technology/IT solutions |
| This
sector has come out of it's Dot Com hangover and
have landed solid and confident steps into providing
quality IT solutions. No more the small players
trying to make a fast buck, it's the old way of
working towards trust of customers and brand building.
IT solutions include developing software solutions
for almost all areas of business and for all sectors,
ranging from automotives and aviation to transport
and medical services to the media and retailing.
IT consulting is the other big thing in the IT
sector. From low-end solutions like data entry
to Enterprise Application Integration almost every
level of knowledge work is done. |
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Call
centers are the flavor of the season. Every company
worth it's salt is investing in it. A huge part
of human resources is being directed towards this
field. It is a rapidly growing field and a relatively
easy field to enter. The English educated generation
of youngsters do not mind the night shifts as they
are taken in without being asked to show experience
and are being paid a heavy packet - amounts that
only could be earned with hard years of slogging
in any other field. Thousands of Indians handle
customer service, process insurance claims, loans,
bookings, and credit card bills.
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Finance & Accounting
Outsourcing |
FAO
(Finance & Accounting
Outsourcing) is a fast growing sector. Accounts payable,
followed by accounts receivable, were the F&A
functions most companies chose to outsource. Much
of the outsourced work is full-service in scope.
Transactional relationships include accounts payable
and receivable, tax, payroll, internal audit, and
fixed assets; whereas full-service outsourcing
includes the transactional part along with budget
and forecast;
treasury and risk management; management reporting
and analysis; and strategy. |
| Procurement Outsourcing |
Procurement outsourcing is
an emerging area as more and more firms are seriously
investigating this option. Procurement outsourcing,
like the other outsourced jobs provides reductions
in operational costs and also impacts third-party
expenditures.
First, the definition of procurement,
according to market research refers
to the process of managing activities associated
with a company's need to
procure the goods and services required to either
manufacture a product (direct) or to operate the
organization (indirect).
Second, procurement outsourcing (procurement BPO)
involves the outsourcing of parts or all of a company's
procurement functions (people, processes, systems,
and expenditures) to an external service provider.
Today, the procurement BPO focus is on indirect
(non-core) procurement.
Procurement outsourcing typically includes many
of the traditional IT outsourcing elements -
systems integration, transition, change management,
service
level agreements (SLAs), and governance. "But,
more importantly, procurement BPO is about reengineering
business processes - it's about changing behavior. "It
is not eProcurement," the EDS executive points
out. "The focus of BPO is on the procurement
process - which is supported by enabling technologies,
not the other way around. Historically, many firms
have invested in eProcurement solutions without
changing their processes, which has resulted in
significant capital investment with limited results."
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Textiles |
Analysts
and industry representatives feel India may soon
emerge as the preferred textile and readymade garment-outsourcing
destination after neighboring China, the world's
largest garment exporter, in the next few years.
Global retail chain majors like Wal-Mart and JC
Penny are already showing their intention.
A vast base of deft, inexpensive workers and
sufficient raw materials could soon see India
turning into a textile outsourcing paradise with
buyers in the US, Europe and Africa. With an
export potential of $10 billion in the next 2-3
years, India is all set to emerge as a global
outsourcing destination for textiles. Currently
exports amount to $5 billion. Out of this $3
billion is in the form of outsourcing by major
retail chains.
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Hospital
- medical tourism |
Growing medical bills all
over the world is surely and slowly directing people
to India. Even large scale Insurance hasn't helped
the growing discomfort of medical bills. It all started
with the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who waited till
their annual visits back home for medical attention.
Later it was discovered that taking that trip for
the operation tied up with either business or tourism
worked very fine.
From the NRI this form of tourism
has grown among foreigners too. Neighbors like
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal have been doing
this
for a long long time for economic as well reasons
of faith in the Indian Health System. Pakistan
of course has had a rough patch due to the not
so friendly
relations with India; but if the renewed bus
services and repots of people traveling by them
for medical
attention, is any indication they've been waiting
for an opportunity.
The export of labor however continues in this
field, as it is difficult to physically shift patients
to India. Nurses are still being imported on special
visas. Healthcare Services draw contracts with
Indian companies that recruit, train and send these
nurses overseas.
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Manufacturing |
From
the Cars to electronics to coke plants to power
generation, companies are shifting manufacturing
bases to India. It could perhaps have happened
earlier but for India's own restrictions. Manufactures
in every field seem to be rushing to invest in
India. This is one sector however which is not
only driven by the skilled cheap labor but also
the increasing amount of buying capacity of Indians.
With a ready market in India it makes business
sense to set up factories there, as it saves time
in marketing products.
'The goal of decreasing time to market is driving
manufacturers to outsource engineering processes.
Shorter product lifecycles, fast technological
obsolescence, rapid technology advances, and
increasing complexity of design and engineering
are challenges to the time taken to market products.
There is therefore an increasing reliance on
a global supplier base, and a shift toward offshore
manufacturing, and the development of multiple
marketing channels. Profits now largely depend
upon not just what companies produce or how they
leverage low-cost production but, more importantly,
on whether they can actually get the right goods
to the customer on time and cost-effectively. |
Research |
Indian analytical skills
are increasingly being appreciated and utilized.
From financial analysis to risk analysis to consumer
patterns to scientific analysis, everything is being
entrusted to Indians. Drug research is a growing
field and projections are being made that India will
soon be the center for biotechnology and clinical
testing. |
Human resource Management |
Human resources outsourcing
(HRO) was one of the most rapidly evolving outsourcing
markets in 2003. Eighty-five percent of American
enterprises will outsource at least one component
of their human resources functions by 2005, according
to Gartner Dataquest, a Stamford, Connecticut research
firm.
One of the biggest developments in this field
last year was the growth of full-service HRO that
encompasses a complete solution across the breadth
of the employee lifecycle, including data management,
payroll, self-service, and HR call centers. As
more and more large companies divert focus from
administration and low end business processes,
to core activities, outsourcing HR service delivery
and transaction support is slated to grow.
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