Por Arijit Sengupta

Tengo una apuesta en curso con mi Benny del COO que suceda ser chino. Él cree que la industria china del Outsourcing del proceso del negocio (BPO) comerá el almuerzo de la India en los años próximos. I por otra parte ha sido siempre confidente que el espíritu emprendedor y la innovación indios ayudarán al golpe indio de BPOs todos los competidores incluyendo el chino. Hasta recientemente, nunca me preocupé que puedo perder realmente la apuesta. Una conversación reciente con Sr. Roc Yang (CEO de Grupo de los datos de China, un chino principal BPO) me forzó reconocer por primera vez que quizás el Benny podría ganar la apuesta después de todos.

Sr. Yang levantó varias razones por las que China pudo batir la India en la arena de BPO. Algunas de estas razones que había oído antes: baje las tarifas de la mantequera del empleado, un sueldo eficaz más bajo, y una infraestructura mejor. Mientras que China puede tener estas ventajas hoy, o la India podrá tratarlas en un cierto plazo (como en el caso de una infraestructura mejor) o China hará frente a los mismos problemas que su propia industria de BPO desarrolla más lejos (como en el caso de la mantequera del empleado).

Algo de Sr. competitivo de los factores. Yang levantado (por ejemplo una capacidad de proporcionar servicios end-to-end o procedimientos operacionales sofisticados) es absolutamente posiblemente válido para su compañía específica pero mí no puede imaginarse que son verdades para todo el BPOs chino. Por otra parte, puedo imaginar conversaciones con CEOs de BPOs indio que levantaría el exacto los mismos factores que las ventajas competitivas de que los indios gozan. An analysis of who is right is beyond the scope of this blog. Most probably, only time will tell who is right on this issue.

One point that Mr. Yang highlighted however may turn out to be the secret weapon of the Chinese BPO industry. Contrary to popular perception, the Chinese BPO industry has existed for many years and quite possibly is as old as the Indian BPO industry. The reason that the Chinese have stayed under the radar is that they primarily serve the Chinese market. As Mr. Yang pointed out, because their customers are also Chinese they could never count on labor cost differentials as a critical factor in their business. Thus, out of necessity, they have had to be incredibly cost conscious. He believes that because the Indians have enjoyed a large labor cost differential relative to their customers, they have been much less labor efficient than the Chinese BPOs.

I must admit that many Indian BPOs often have an attitude that labor is cheap so we can always throw a lot of bodies at any problem. This has in many cases led to inefficient use of labor. If Chinese BPOs have truly figured out a way to be profitable in the absence of a labor cost advantage and are now shifting their attention to the US market then Indian BPOs may have cause for concern. An industry that is used to running lean and mean in their own country would have a huge advantage once they gain the additional advantage of the labor cost differential between China and the US. Look out India!

In reality, if the Chinese BPOs can truly bring labor-efficient solutions to the market, that would only spur Indian vendors to respond similarly. Due to the high employee churn rates and salary increases, Indian BPOs have already started to become more labor efficient. The entry of labor-efficient competitors from China would only accelerate the trend. I would expect to see even faster efficiency and accuracy improvements primarily via the adoption of new technologies and consistent processes across customers. This competition from China may just help spur the Indian vendors to the next stage in their evolution.

Arijit Sengupta, the Rational Outsourcing Blog and CEO, BeyondCore, Inc.