An offshore call center, commonly referred as a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) can be defined as an arrangement in which an organization employs people from another country (low cost centers) to accomplish some of their business processes which are generally not a part of their core business.

1. Possible Outcomes of Using Offshore Call Center Outsourcing
An offshore call center, commonly referred as a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) can be
defined as an arrangement in which an organization employs people from another country
(low cost centers) to accomplish some of their business processes which are generally not a
part of their core business. The services provided by an offshore contact center may include
inbound or outbound customer support, technical support, chat support, financial services
support and so on.
Benefits of Call Center Offshore Outsourcing
It enables an organization to lower down its costs and to focus upon its core business to
keep pace with the dynamically changing market trends. Countries like India and Ireland are
emerging as the hot favorites for organizations in the US and Europe for outsourcing their
processes.
Additionally, outsourcing has the following benefits:
 Time Zone: The support staff in countries likes India, practice ‘follow the sun’ model
which accounts for 24×7 support services without compromising upon quality
standards.
 Optimum Utilization of Resources: As a result of outsourcing the process, the
company can focus on its core business process without having the need to bother
regarding the outsourced process. The firm can optimally utilize its personnel for
other productive and strategically important processes.

2.  Tax Sops: A number of tax sops are being provided by a number of countries such as
India, Philippines, and Ireland; which has made these countries a hot destination for
BPOs. These Tax incentives provided by the countries help in minimizing the costs
incurred in the process, thereby improving the financial results of the company.
 Access to Skilled work force: Outsourcing the process results in access to a large
pool of skilled resources in the offshore country at lower operational costs thereby
boosting the balance sheet of the company.
Disadvantages of Call Center Offshore Outsourcing
 Customer dissatisfaction: Sometimes, it becomes a hefty task to assist a customer
remotely due to lack of proper training given to the call center agent; cultural
barriers between customer and call center employees; or sometimes technical
issues. The grievance resolution time, thus increases significantly which results in
customer dissatisfaction.
 Security Issues: Sometimes, people are not willing to disclose their personal
information to a remote call center in the world which incurs security costs along
with reduced efficiency. On the contrary, theft of sensitive data such as credit card
details and personal information of the customers readily available at offshore
centers also raises security concerns.
 Reduced Job Creation in Home Country: As the process is outsourced to an offshore
country; it decreases job creation in the home country, although it generates a glut
of jobs offshore. Countries such as U.S are trying to pass a bill in U.S Senate, which

3. seek to penalize firms who outsource their processes to other countries by imposing
higher tax on such firms.
 Employee Attrition: Company incurs a considerable amount of money in training
and knowledge transfer to the new recruits and attrition makes it go all in vain. A
number of possible reasons may be cited which account for higher attrition rates in
the BPO sector, such as poor working conditions and lesser career growth
opportunities.
 Contact Centre Research: Realize your company’s true potential
 A contact center may be defined as the focal point of contact of a company through
which all customer contacts are managed by several means of communication.
Though, the term “Contact Centre” has been used interchangeably with “call
center”, but there are prominent differences between the two. “Call Centers”
typically use the voice communication over the telephone or Voice over IP (VoIP) to
interact with the customers. However, the contact centers use a gamut of
communication channels such as Emails, online Chat / Live Chat, SMS, Fax etc. apart
from voice communication which can be accessed by the customers as per their
convenience.
 In order to maximize the user experience, contact center research is carried out so as
to improvise the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Key Performance Indicators are
the measurements which enable the organization to assess how effectively the
organizational goals have been met, and what efforts can be undertaken to
improvise them in future. For a typical contact center, KPI generally comprises first

4. call resolution, average calls handled per hour, customer satisfaction, contact center
agent satisfaction, cost per call, queue time etc.
 According to the modern ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
process which has been adopted by most of the IT firms (that handle outsourced
technical support projects), the KPIs are defined based on the priority of the service
that needs to be delivered such as P1, P2, P3 and so on; P1 reflecting the highest
urgency to address the issue.
 Contact Centre Research has indicated that the use of advanced technology in
contact centers results in improved customer satisfaction along with lowered cost
per call. It may seem that advanced technology such as Blended Routing, Multi
Criteria routing, Courtesy Call Back while in queue, Computer Telephony Integration
(CTI) and Apps Integration etc. seeking more investment; might help in lowering the
cost incurred by the company. But, Contact Centre research has indicated that better
financial results may be achieved by improving the operational process with the help
of advanced technology.
 Contact Centre Research studies have indicated that through the use of advanced
technology, the instances of first call resolution i.e. customer issue resolution on first
point of contact increases which is a KPI. This is due to the efficient utilization of the
resource to handle the customer issue. This also improves the average calls handled
per hour, which is a result of the efficient resolution of the customer queries along
with customer satisfaction. This in turn boosts the contact center agent’s job
satisfaction which in turn helps in building a better and strong client customer
relationship.

5.  Contact center research has underlined job turnover as a major issue being faced by
the industry. Low quality jobs result in a higher percentage of job turnover i.e. the
rate at which the employee leaves the company. This may be attributed to a variety
of reasons such as lesser career growth opportunities, poor working conditions, and
undesirable working environment.
 It has been also emphasized that too much dependency upon the operational
parameters results in reduced delivery in service quality. It thus becomes imperative
to remove operational bottlenecks in order to provide superior service delivery to
the customers.