Abstract

India has rapidly achieved the status of being the most preferred destination for business process outsourcing for companies located in the US and Europe. The availability of low cost skilled manpower, a huge English speaking population, and appropriate infrastructure have been the main reasons for these companies outsourcing their operations to India. With the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry flourishing in India, more and more companies began establishing operations in the metropolitan cities to capitalize on the available human resource talent and physical infrastructure. However, the prodigious expansion of BPO companies in select metropolitan cities caused intense competition for available talent and this led to frequent poaching of staff. Also, many employees considered a BPO job as a short-term one and opted for higher education or business management studies once they had earned enough money to support their higher education plans. These factors resulted in high employee turnover and in turn increased recruitment and training costs for many BPO companies. Due to these factors some BPO companies set up operations in smaller towns and villages. The low cost of operations and lower employee attrition levels are the key benefits that these companies derive from their rural operations. However, the main challenges that the rural BPOs face are under-developed infrastructure facilities, lack of power, and poor telecommunication, transportation, education, and other support facilities. Skill upgradation of rural BPO staff is also a critical factor for improving service quality levels. To bridge this gap by initiating development at the village level, and to put rural India on a par with major cities, the Government of India has teamed up with private bodies to ensure availability of education facilities and adequate infrastructure to people in rural areas.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

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Keywords

Business Process Outsourcing, BPO, Rural BPO, Chida Soft, Lason India, Datamation India Pvt. Ltd., Satyam Computers, Laser Soft Infosystems Ltd., PURA, Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas, Byrraju PURA, Azim Premji Foundation, Training and Development, Rural Knowledge Centers, n-logue Project, Gyandoot Project, DakNet Project, ICT Kiosks, Microsoft Corporation Saksham Program, Drishtee , ITC e-Choupal, Rajiv Internet Village, e-inclusion Hewlett Packard, Attrition and Talent Shortage, Indian BPO ITES Industry, Regulatory Environment