The following factors need to be studied in detail before starting a BPO
Identify the clients or potential clients and talk to them. Only after you have enough confidence that they will use your facilities.
Place from where you want to operate matters a lot. Check the local government policies, real estate costs and the operational costs. Many companies are moving to second level cities where the basic infrastructure exists.
Manpower requirements and the section of location go hand in hand. You must do your homework about the Manpower before moving to any place.
Keep the infrastructure costs low while retain the best Manpower, this is the mantra of this industry.
You should bear in your mind that:
Though there are so many English-speaking graduates, you may find it a bit difficult to build a good team.
Attrition – A cutthroat competition:
You may face a problem of high attrition from the very beginning sometimes it really becomes tough to retain quality Manpower so you have to develop your in-house policies and working atmosphere in a way that coming to work would be a fun for the co-workers.
Big Fish Game:
If your company is successful it may become the target for acquisition. This is a good thing. In case you want to sell you should go through the process of negotiations to get the best price.
Infrastructure
Erratic power or telecom or Internet connection would cause problems to the BPO operation. Internet service providers generally provide certain service level agreements (SLA). Make sure that the SLA provided by the provider is adequate for your needs. You need to arrange alternative power supply yourself.
You must address the following issues:
1. Do you have good contacts and the client is going to stick with you, presuming that you deliver reasonably well to his satisfaction?
2. Do you have capacity to service more than one client at a time? This is required to ensure that you need to close if you lose your only client.
3. Keep in touch with the client on regular basis and build a good relationship.
4. Educate the client about what is possible and explore implementing new processes for the client.
The most important of all:
Never ever pay upfront guarantee fee to anybody.
Create best website with processes diagrams and if possible also place powerpoint presentations for client’s review.
Never over-commit with client.
Be prepared for capacity expansion both Infrastructure and Manpower.
Select a reasonable area.
Provide good value addition to the client.
Strive to see that the client ‘needs’ you for all his work.
Provide a good environment for the employees and make them feel at home so that they may stick to you a longer time.
Above all, pray God for the success.
Sorry, I cannot give you any idea about Govt’s policies since I am living in Pakistan