How to succeed in the BPO business

It appears that the India-Sri Lanka joint venture in business process outsourcing is having a hard time because Sri Lankans are difficult to train. The LBO article is worth a read, but here is a key quote.

Revenues had fallen as the US recession took its toll on the auto and restaurant businesses which comprised the bulk of its customers but that the number of clients was growing, JKH said.

Roy also said it was important for Sri Lanka to expand higher education and technology training institutions to ensure the supply of trained people if the country wants to attract more BPO business.

He said Sri Lanka had the highest number of British-qualified accountants outside Britain and should capitalise on its own strengths instead of trying to compete with India.

A BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING

Everyday, over 150 million people around the globe choose a Unilever branded product. Unilever’s heritage for
developing innovative products that meet the needs of consumers in a global market has roots dating back to the late
1800s. In 2004, Unilever announced an initiative to build on its heritage and to consolidate a segregated brand portfolio:
One-Unilever. Key to the success of One-Unilever was launching and then maintaining global brand consistently across
all media – including print – but doing so in a way that builds shareholder value. Finding the most cost effective solution
for procuring the marketing and commercial print used to promote Unilever products and global brands became critical.
While meeting the goals of the One-Unilever initiative was required of any proposed solution, the requirement that the
solution reduce costs and the impact printed materials had on the company’s bottom line was non-negotiable.
CONSISTENCY IN PROCESS, VISIBILITY AND CONTROL
“Like many large companies, we used a myriad of methods to buy print,” said Robert McKay, Manager of Outsourced
Services for Unilever. “We had limited staff to manage some projects and brokers to manage others. But for many
projects, we utilized a number of creative agencies that procured print as an extension of their creative services.”
Recognizably not a best practice, this disparate approach to print procurement inevitably led to inconsistency in the
production and delivery of the final printed products. Conversely, the introduction of a coherent, unified process would
ensure consistent delivery and quality and would drive costs down by institutionalizing repeatability, leveraging successes
and by eliminating errors. From Unilever’s standpoint, establishing business best practice around print procurement was
the only way to address specific business challenges and reinforce One-Unilever goals.
Implementing the NewlineNoosh technology enhanced Business Process Outsourcing Solution for print has helped us
leverage expertise where we had none and has created a process to continuously improve our sourcing practices. Further,
our overwhelming success with print outsourcing has allowed us to reinforce our focus on consistent quality and branding.
OUTSOURCING RESULTS IN PRINT RELATED SAVINGS OF MORE THAN 17% FOR UNILEVER
Robert McKay
Manager of Outsourced Services
Unilever
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A BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
Case Study

World BPO 2008

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