CERTIFICATION OPTIONS
As BPO companies face heat from the West on quality of services, there is a rush to get themselves benchmarked and certified to global standards. Being a relatively nascent sector, when compared with the software counterparts, BPO companies are trying to find a quality-assurance standard which will identify problems and suggest ways and means to improve process. This, however, does not mean that there are no benchmarks or certification standards in the industry at the moment.

Most of the BPO firms have been ISO certified, but ISO is seen to be associated more with manufacturing sector than in BPO services. The ISO, BS-7799, PCMM and Purdue University Certification for Customer Relationship Management are some of the generic standards and have been modified to suit BPO companies.

A couple of years ago, Satyam partnered with Carnegie Mellon University and Accenture for the eServices Capability Model (eSCM) to provide a set of practices that enable companies to effectively manage outsourcing relationships by focusing on the critical organizational attributes for people, technology and knowledge, and their applicability in the outsourcing process. But eSCM certification has not become as popular as Customer Operations Performance Centre (COPC) certification.

l Benchmarking vs Certification: Benchmarking and quality-assurance certification are two separate fields and should not be confused with. For a BPO company both are equally important. While benchmarking is a comparison of the company’s processes and performance with the best in the industry, certification is measuring the company on certain operational parameters. Benchmarking gives the company a reason to introspect and an insight as to where the company stands vis-à-vis the best performers. Certification means meeting at least the minimum targets to maintain the quality standards. Certification has to do more with being consistent in meeting a framework of matrices.

Benchmarking is a must as it gives a peer-group profiling and provides best-in-class comparison. It helps identify areas of improvement, adaptation and change. Whereas certification is essential as it gives the companies a perspective to maintain minimum standards to meet the targets required for certification. As a result, a company has to constantly improve itself to attain the targets and, hence, the performance level also goes up.

l Six Sigma and Kaizen: Six Sigma and Kaizen are processes aimed towards achieving total quality management. Six Sigma means measurement of quality and processes to achieve near perfection. But the statistical implications of a Six Sigma program go well beyond the qualitative eradication of customer-perceptible defects. It’s a methodology that is well rooted in mathematics and statistics. The objective of Six Sigma quality is to reduce process output variation so that on a long-term basis this will result in no more than 3.4 defect parts per million opportunities.

Kaizen is a Japanese term which means continuous improvement by benchmarking oneself for the better. Both Kaizen and Six Sigma methodologies are implemented at individual level to improve the performance of the organization as a whole. These are philosophies which lead to process and performance improvement and, hence, help in getting certifications.

l Customer Outsourced Performance Centre: Customer outsourced performance center (COPC) for call centers is the equivalent of the CMM level certification for software firms. The COPC standard was written in 1995 by a core group of users of call center services and associated distribution fulfillment operations. COPC is a proven system that helps achieve operational efficiency with high customer satisfaction and retention. It helps clients to develop and execute high return on their investment and frame operational improvement strategies for their contact centers.

The Registered Coordinator Certification is an essential part of the COPC certification process for any entity. Each location seeking certification needs at least one COPC-certified registered coordinator.

In India, QAI has facilitated COPC implementation and Six Sigma deployment in over 20 leading customer contact centers and business process outsourcing organizations.

There are 32 essential parameters that a company has to comply with in order to get a COPC certification, the main ones being: client satisfaction; end-user satisfaction; timeliness, quality and accuracy of responses; efficiency, speed and productivity; telecommunications and computer infrastructure; people policies relating to recruitment, compensation and training; attrition; staff satisfaction and resource utilization.

The process begins with a baseline assessment of the call center’s current services moving on to a gap analysis, structural and training support, followed by a final audit, after which the ‘pass’ certification is awarded.

In between, COPC consultants interact with the client on issues as process control, transaction monitoring, staffing and scheduling, data security, contingency planning, defining and verifying skills. One certified, a re-audit takes place in 12 months and each year the standard of assessment and targets become more stringent. If a client fails to get certified then a plan is drawn to close the gaps and lapses. Then again the whole process of conducting the audit for certification is carried out. A COPC certification may cost from Rs 27–30 lakh.