NEW DELHI: IT industry body Nasscom wants to bury an acronym that the world has come to associate with India over the past decade, and replace it with one that it thinks is more appropriate for the industry's current maturity level.

The acronym BPO, for business process outsourcing, Nasscom says, does not reflect the industry as it stands today. The apex body will henceforth use the term BPM, or business process management.

Nasscom president Som Mittal on Wednesday said the industry had gone up the value chain, managing entire businesses processes of clients and not just outsourcing them. BPO involved shifting the delivery of business processes from high-cost destinations to low-cost ones, a shift that was enabled thanks to advancements in information and communication technologies. The model worked on labour cost arbitrage, and brought significant savings for clients.

But as the industry has matured and understood its clients' businesses better, it has become more of a partner to the customers , doing increasingly complex work and taking responsibility for the business outcomes of its services. And the services are no longer delivered only from low cost destinations like India. They are delivered from different geographies, depending on the clients' requirements and the skills of people in those geographies. Most major BPO, or shall we say BPM, companies now have delivery centres around the world.

"In this context we are looking at rebranding BPO with a new name. All stakeholders in the country and outside should realize its value. The rebranding communication will go out to all in the eco-system ," said Vikram Talwar, chair of the Nasscom BPO Forum, which is currently holding its annual two-day BPO summit in Delhi.

The Indian BPO industry, he said, is moving from efficiency to effectiveness, while focusing on re-engineering themselves in order to deliver transformational impact to customers. "The industry is developing future-ready solutions by developing in-depth capabilities across verticals and creating customer impact through service delivery excellence. This is why despite the rise of several alternative sourcing locations, the Indian BPO industry continues to maintain its edge, accounting for over 37% of total global sourcing revenues," said Talwar.

The BPO industry in India started with the call centre business, with people taking on American names, speaking in American accents and trying to sell credit cards or insurance policies to Westerners. Chetan Bhagat's bestseller One Night @ the Call Centre delightfully reflected this phenomenon.

But over time, the industry started doing other more complex backoffice work, including designing marketing campaigns, analysing investment portfolios, advising credit card companies on collection strategies, securities market research, supply chain inventory optimization, budgetary planning.

Mittal said the BPO industry in India has been rapidly transforming itself, which is the single most critical factor that has helped the industry buck the current global downtrend and maintain its leadership position across the globe. "The industry has been able to successfully position itself as a partner to customers, has changed the way service is being delivered and has created a broader impact on clients," he said.

Source : TOI