Knowledge Process Outsourcing

Introduction Popular KPO Areas Types of Companies and Firms that use KPO

services today Chartered Accountants in KPO Benefits of KPO Challenges before KPO Future of KPOs and Conclusion

INDEX

IntroductionKnowledge process can be defined as high added value processes chain where the achievement of objectives is highly dependent on the skills, domain knowledge and experience of the people carrying out the activity. And when this activity gets outsourced a new business activity emerges, which is generally known as Knowledge Process Outsourcing. It is essentially an offshoot of business process outsourcing (BPO). One can call it a high-end activity, which is likely to boom in coming years.

Popular KPO Areas

The large professional class available in many developing countries like India has created trained workers in all the modern fields of industry and business.

These include law, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, data analysis and management services, financial services, technology research, computer-aided simulation and engineering design and other professional services.

Many new business concerns are coming day by day in KPO Industry. The following are the few areas which are being associated with the KPO sector:

Types of Companies and Firms that use KPO services today

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)SEO primarily focuses on search engine marketing business.

Legal ServicesWhat started out as transcription work in India has now moved on to

areas like patents, drafting, legal research, writing software licensing agreements, etc.

Accounting ServicesFrom simple book keeping to auditing, KPO firms

can provide trained professionals who offer cheaper services with standard quality.

Journalism and Content DevelopmentEnglish speaking trained writers from a KPO firm are

good candidates to help newspapers and journals with their editing and copy writing work.

Architectural and Engineering ServicesA large pool of trained draftsmen can provide expert

CAD/CAM services to clients.

Chartered Accountants in KPO

The tools for KPO are so specialized, Chartered accountants have a distinct advantage over professionals who are educated in other areas.

Candidates should be skilled with computers, and they should also display a high level of conceptualization. In addition to this, they must be skilled at speaking the English language, and a professional degree is also required.

It is a proven fact that Indian Chartered Accountants possess all these qualities. They have a natural flair for mathematics, research and ability to perform deep researched audit manually.

TYPES OF KPO SERVICES PROVIDED BY CAs1. Business and Technical Analysis

2. Legal Services3. Preparation and filing various forms with legal authorities

4. Preparing Accounting Manuals5. Continuous business improvement in business cycles

6. Assets Record keeping & verification7. Taxation Consultancy

8. Credit appraisal of customers9. Business & Market Research 10. Evaluation of supply chain

11. Writing & Content Development 12. Intellectual Property (IP) Research

13. Data Analytics 14. Analysis of Management Information System

15. Network Management 16. Training & Consultancy

17. Research & Development

Outsourcing of activities to KPO companies can provide the following benefits:  Valuable cost savings that can be utilized

elsewhere.  Trained professionals at work. Standard operational efficiency.  Increase in profits. Savings in time and management energy

for maintaining in house services.  Option to recruit a larger work force

without raising costs.

Benefits of KPO

Some Key Challenges Before KPO

Here are some common challenges faced by the KPO industry:

Scale ChallengesObviously resources would stay loyal to their respective managers as a result of which their capabilities remain latent. This results in limiting the capabilities of the enterprise as a whole. Companies that rely on individual contributions instead of team work to generate knowledge often find it more difficult to do so.

Organizational ChallengesThe status of different departments are at different levels i.e. their research stages may be at different levels or their analytics capabilities might be different.

Cultural ChallengesKnowledge processes are fully integrated in all the functions of a company and all decisions of the business.

Standardization ChallengesKnowledge processes are developed gradually and used in pockets by transient resources that have high specialties. This camouflages the fact that the processes may themselves lack standardization across product divisions, geographies or business units.

Solution:An effective knowledge process outsourcing strategy ensures that all these challenges are overcome and the with effective communication, there is not only clarity within the organization but also between the clientand the service provider.

In the future, it is envisaged that KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted only to Information Technology (IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors, and includes other sectors.

In times to come, more and more countries will outsource to low cost countries. Following the lead of the U.S. and U.K.

Companies will now pressurise governments to avoid political stand offs as outsourcing has led to the inter-linking of supply chains.

Conclusion- ‘Future of KPOs’

The ongoing rise in oil prices has put an increasing pressure on companies for optimal use of their resources in terms of technology and outsourcing to maximise profits.

India can demonstrate excellence in services that require advanced English language skills.

In time, a paradigm shift in technological power from west to east will take place as India and China emerge as big players in the global outsourcing market.