U.K minister backs BPO to India
Outsourcing jobs to India has created many controversies in U.K. But that fact hasn't deterred Trade and Industry secretary Patricia Hewitt in giving her full support to British firms moving work to India.
On being asked that what she thinks about the issue of the political workers having pressed for policies that says that contracts should not be placed with companies that decide to open call centers in India. For that she said what they are fighting for is short-term benefits, but they don't see the long-term benefits that it will bring to the consumers. Trade unions are campaigning against a number of firms that are switching work to Indian call centres because of the threat to jobs in Britain. They don't understand that business process outsourcing saves costs to the consumers.
Meanwhile the U.K. based insurers have put together the first specialist cover for companies 'off-shoring' call centre and back office operations in India and elsewhere amid warnings that such relocations involve huge risks.
This insurance cover becomes very important because 50 per cent of all outsourcing contracts fail within 12 months." said John Eltham, director and head of special risks at independent broker Miller Insurance Services. 'Our clients are now asking for insurance as part of their risk analysis', he added. So an insurance package helps companies against the risks associated with business process outsourcing.
But although bigger companies are ready to take the plunge of outsourcing, the risks of business process outsourcing are preventing the small players from going ahead. Some of the risks involved with off shoring include discrimination, government interference, forced abandonment of operations, war and political violence.
Certainly if operation of business process outsourcing goes well, it offers a lot of benefits to the company in question and offers cost savings up to 80pc in certain cases.
Aon, the world's second largest broker, has also put together an outsourcing insurance package. Its director of counter-terrorism and political risk division said that, 'The rate at which companies are off-shoring significant parts of their operations to cut costs, the key lies in quickly relocating those operations, if disaster strikes. And that is very vital if they wish to protect their revenues and reputation'.
The mood is very positive in Britain about outsourcing business processes to India. And if the success rate of such operations is high then it could have more U.K. firms outsourcing to India.
