2. External validation of the internal framework

External certification

The COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) certification provides a performance management framework specifically designed for the IT-ITES industry. As such, it should be one of the qualifying criteria for choosing a BPO provider. COPC follows a metric based approach for operations management, covering all aspects of delivery across leadership, people, processes and performance. As a result, companies that adhere to COPC best practices can provide continuous improvements across the entire span of outsourced operations.

Client feedback

Confirm that your chosen BPO provider has a formal client feedback program, using detailed questionnaires to gather feedback on matters ranging from support to client relations. This collected information should be used by the BPO provider to highlight initiatives for improvement. Prospective partners should be able to demonstrate that client feedback drives genuine change, and that all issues are rigorously followed through to resolution.

Conclusion

This series of three papers has looked at the discipline of process excellence and its importance in delivering added value in a BPO scenario. Firstsource believes that if you choose a BPO provider that adheres to the best practices set out in these papers, your organization will unlock the full benefits available from outsourcing.

To recap: process excellence should be fully integrated with your chosen BPO provider’s operations and should span the entire organization. Developed through ongoing training and skills development, process excellence should be ingrained in the corporate culture and should support performance management and improvement at all levels.

In Firstsource’s experience, deploying a well-planned framework for process excellence has delivered tangible, lasting success in dozens of client engagements.

• exceeded client benchmarks for customer conversion rate by around 23 percent - a leading UK financial services company
• produced annualized savings of US $3.22 million – a UK financial services company
• achieved productivity improvement of 28 percent – a major US telecom company

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