How to succeed in the BPO business (or not)

Posted on July 2, 2009 / 4 Comments

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.

4 Comments

Sameera Wijerathna
July 3, 2009, 5:45 pm
Related Article;

CIMA and SLASSCOM partner to drive the BPO industry growth

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Sri Lanka division and the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) have partnered to promote Sri Lanka as a global center of excellence for the Finance and Accounting BPO industry.

Sri Lanka is fast emerging as a niche Center of Excellence (CoE) for Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) with the country having the second largest pool of UK qualified accounting professionals in the world. The recent Global Services magazine survey ranks Sri Lanka among the top 20 centers of excellence for FAO in the world. Leading global companies such as WNS, Amba Research, Quattro and HSBC have set up their FAO centers in Sri Lanka among several other local and international companies to take advantage of the growing pool of highly qualified accounting professionals in Sri Lanka.

The main purpose of signing the corporation agreement is to collaborate in promoting Sri Lanka as a global sourcing destination for Finance and Accounting BPOs and to increase the number of qualified Accounting and Finance professionals in the country.

“CIMA and SLASSCOM bring together a strong collective force to drive the IT-BPO industry which is undoubtedly poised to be the largest export industry in Sri Lanka within the next five years.” said Madu Ratnayake, General Secretary of SLASSCOM at the event organized to sign the corporation agreement.

As an initial joint effort, CIMA, SLASSCOM and ICTA is partnering on a promotional event to be held in UK and Ireland during June to promote Sri Lanka. “CIMA being a global qualification with 171,000 members and students in 165 countries is clearly a “fit for purpose” curriculum for finance and accounting BPO”, stated Bradley Emerson, Regional Director of CIMA. He further stated that Sri Lanka having the second largest student population in the world will strengthen the initiative taken by SLASSCOM. “This is a national effort and it is most timely and CIMA is very pleased to partner SLASSCOM”, he added.

SLASSCOM acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPO industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouragement of research and innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive national policy framework.

-Sameera
http://ict4d-in-srilanka.blogspot.com/
Sagar
August 10, 2009, 4:50 pm
A very informative post. BPO has became the major driver for employment in most of the developing Asian countries. Initially, India, Thailand & Philippines were the main player in the BPO segment. But with the entry of Srilanka in the BPO market will add to the competition & hence improve the service delivery of BPO division.
Allen
August 26, 2009, 1:00 pm
Really, very interesting text & business analysis. You have a nice blog. Keep it up!
Arijit
September 29, 2009, 5:18 pm
Even though Phillipines is one of the major hub for BPO, other Southeastern countries are fast catching up.