Carnegie scientists develop model to help Indian BPOs

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New Delhi: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new capability model that could help Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) and call centre operators counter the outsourcing backlash by improving their sourcing relationships.

Around 13 pilot projects have already been implemented worldwide of this framework called eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (eSCM-SP), most of them in India. These include Satyam Computer Services’ BPO unit Nipuna, and Accenture’s BPO operations. Others too are expected to adopt this by the end of this year.

The new model has been developed by the university’s IT Services Qualification Centre (ITsqc) which builds capability models and qualification methods to improve sourcing relationships for global IT-enabled sourcing transactions. Leading international corporate, government and academic entities have joined ITsqc researchers in the development of this new capability model, Dr William Hefley, associate director, ITsqc, said.

Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a mix of programmes in computer science, robotics, engineering, the sciences, business, among others. It has contributed to the development and use of other successful quality standards, such as CMMI, SW-CMM, and People CMM.

Dr Hefley, who led the team of researchers in developing this model, told FE: “Good sourcing outcomes require that best practices be followed by both service providers and clients. So far, in India, it was low-cost of work that was attracting offshoring from overseas markets. However, with the grim scenario of increasingly job losses in developed markets, especially the US market, Indian service providers will need to adopt best practices for continuous improvement.”

According to Dr Hefley, the eSCM-SP includes 84 best practices that the ITsqc has identified as being associated with successful sourcing relationships. It is expected that the model will be adopted both by service providers to assess and improve their current capabilities and by client organisations to understand the capabilities of prospective and current service providers.