Business Process Outsourcing, BPO, ITES - India, Philippines

Some definitions, such as those in Wikipedia refer to India for BPO services, and fail to mention that BPO services are performed in many other geographic locations. One key location ignored in this definition is the Philippines. With English as one of the two national languages (the other is tagalog), and with an exchange rate significantly weaker than the dollar, wage costs in the Philippines are internationally competitive. In East Asia locations, such as the Philippines, the setting is ideal to cut operational costs, without sacrificing the ability to recruit top talent.

Taken from the Wikipedia definition of BPO, business process outsourcing:

The business process outsourcing industry in India refers to the Services Outsourcing Industry in India catering to mainly Western operations of MNCs (Multinational Corporations).

The sector witnessed considerable activity during 2004-05, including a ramping up of operations by major Indian and MNC players and stepped up hiring. The domestic BPO market, catalyzed by demand from the telecommunications and BFSI segments, matched the growth of BPO exports. The market experienced maturity and consolidation, a result of numerous mergers and acquisitions taking place within the sector. There were over 400 companies operating within the Indian BPO space, including captive units (of both MNCs and Indian companies) and third-party services providers. The key enabler for this has been cheaper bandwidth leading to low telecom costs for leased lines and availability of educated english speaking workforce in India.

The Indian BPO industry remains on a growth path, emerging as one of the key investment markets in the country.

It is also referred to as Information Technology Enabled Services or ITES, and high end work with specialisation is reffered to as Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO. There are other variants in use such as Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO).

Many BPO-ITES providers are located outside India. Argontech Global is one such provider. BPO services are being utilized by many, if not all industries, including finance, banking, retail, insurance, real estate, government, and non-profit organizations. There are some KPO firms that engage in functions such as investment banking and strategic consulting, although these are not nearly as common as typical BPO firms.