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July 1-15, 1999 My CT Almanac Column |
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IT-ENABLED SERVICES Piggyback On The Web Web-based business models will define the future, thereby throwing up more and more opportunities for outsourcing operations that will be managed remotely. Veer Sagar
The drivers for this are: willingness to outsource remote services; focus on global optimisation; availability of communication network. These remote services will be provided through some sort of data interchange or third party vendors. The market size currently is around $120 billion and is expected to grow to $250 billion-revenue opportunity for providers and almost an equal amount as savings to the firms outsourcing the jobs. Web-based business models will define the future thereby throwing up more and more opportunities for outsourcing operations that will be managed remotely. Current IT enabled services include transcription, translation, data entry, design services, loyalty programmes, financial and accounting services. To this will be added, network management, data search and analysis, Web site services, remote education, monitoring services, secretarial services and help desk. There are various sectors that can form suitable candidates for remote processing. These are: Medical Transcription This provides transcription services to hospitals, nursing homes, medical and research institutions. The process of converting doctor's dictation to transcribed files is nothing less than a $25 billion opportunity. A medical report is a permanent legal document that formally states the results of a medical investigation. A medical record is information set down in writing to authenticate evidence of facts and events. The main purpose of medical records are to facilitate communication among health care professionals, aid and advance the science of medicine, comply with laws and serve in support of an insurance claim. Medical records must be completed promptly after the physician sees the patient so that the chances of omission are minimised. Documentation has to be legible and accurate. Hospitals and physicians have been held liable because handwritten notes in medical records were unclear. Hence the need for computerised medical transcription which allows for transcription of medical dictation to be done quickly, accurately and legibly. At a broad estimate, the market size is $25 billion. Currently this service is being provided by: casual transcriptionists who collect the dictation, transcribe at home on their time and return the output on floppies; or through medical transcription companies who have "contract transcriptionists" on their panel. These transcriptionists draw the voice files from the central system and transcribe. Involved are some large companies like Med Quest. The project leverages the advances made in software and telecom technologies to use graduates and create employment potential. Call Centres Globalisation is making the world one large market: competition can come in from different countries and technologies. Moreover, this has led to more and more open systems and product standardisation. The differentiation in future is services and support. What are the natural corollaries? Outward selling i.e. providing product and technical information services, sales support i.e. help lines, qualifying prospects, cold calling, telecalling, account management or dealer support to inbound order taking, market research, database building, invoicing and collections follow-up are naturals for remote outsourcing. Organisations are able to improve their response time and reach and keep their own manpower for face-to-face sales management. Multinationals are setting up call centres to answer customer queries on products services and logistics. The call centre business has a potential of creating 50,000 jobs: the market potential is in excess of $20 billion. The countries that will provide competition to India are Ireland, Australia and Malaysia. Last year, Australia generated $1.3 b revenue and 4,000 jobs through help desks. Net Opportunities Internet and growth of Web will accelerate the growth of remote services and create opportunities of its own. Job opportunities on the Internet include: E-mail management, Internet patrol and security, Web page designing and updating, Management of Internet commerce, acting as an exchange of data, payment and clearance and EDI supply chain management. The outsourcing to India process will work only if the customer feels comfortable and does not have to put in precious management time to make it work. This means credibility in terms of delivery time and quality. For this, it is essential to have a service centre in the USA. This service centre has to be fitted with adequate hardware, software networking and 800 lines so that it acts as a clearing station between the outsourcing company in the US and the service provider in India. The customer will deal with this centre and so will the service provider. Outsourcing needs reliable third party provider. Even though the market size is large, it calls for top level contact and coverage to get agreements to transfer these jobs offshore. An aggressive marketing and sales team is a must. Basic raw material is easily available and the technology is relatively stable. However, training is to be imparted to create both the skills required for the particular job as well as cultural issues like language, following rules, delivery on time and quality. Since communication is the key, there has to be network with adequate bandwidth and back-ups. Advantage India India has a very large pool of English-speaking graduates, particularly in cities. Today telecommunication network is easily available in almost every city and the costs are rapidly coming down. The cost of manpower is still very low in this country. The time difference between US and India can be leveraged, as it will allow the American customer a 24-hour extended day. By outsourcing to India, the company will reap high quality-quick turnaround, low cost space. These factors give India amajor advantage over countries such as Australia and Singapore. The writer is president, Selectronic Equipment & Services Pvt. Ltd, Delhi |
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The geography-less world has ushered in a
"vertical age". In the next millenium, the industrial age will give way to the
virtual age. The creation of wealth through physical and financial assets will give way to
wealth creation through knowledge management and reduction in interaction costs. Firms
will optimise talent globally through remote services. Any activity that does not require
face-to-face interactions between the service and receiver of service is a good candidate
for remote processing. 
