eSCM: Fighting for quality space

Establishing India as a software powerhouse is no mean
feat. Driving the wheels of this powerhouse are awesome quality certifications.
India has the highest number of SEI CMM level 5 companies in the world with 53
of the 74 certified companies hailing from this country. This penchant for
quality certification has permeated into the BPO sector as more and more Indian
BPO set-ups hanker for standards. And it is not just a need to have tangible
proof of achieving some standard or to gain brownie points in a marketing
presentation. Rather the BPO industry's quest for quality certification is
driven by the learning, that the process offers as it is a short cut to the
accumulated knowledge of the industry.

Today quality certification among Indian BPO companies
is a foregone conclusion. Many have already gone in for COPC or ISO
certification or both. And lurking in the background is another certification
standard called eSCM waiting to make its impact among industry circles. eSCM is
a framework of practices developed by the Carnegie Mellon University for
forming, managing and expanding sourcing relationships. Yet, despite the
Carnegie Mellon tag, which has been a huge success in the software industry, BPO
industry's quality chieftains have responded lukewarmly to the standard. For
one, CPOC and ISO certification are already established and have made
considerable inroads into the BPO industry.

Second, the BPO industry is a different ball game from
software where ‘software industry is like making a film where retakes are
possible while BPO (particularly voice) is like a theatre where you are
performing live." Quality assessors like head of COPC certification at QAI,
Umesh Vyas and Charanjiv Singh, an independent quality consultant, think that in
the BPO world COPC and ISO are quite well entrenched and have found acceptance
among international clients. BPO companies would rather stick to convention than
adopt a new practice. "Standards like COPC have been around for more than
seven years now while eSCM has only just made its presence. Honestly speaking,
Carnegie Mellon is popular among the software companies so we may see software
companies foraying into BPO having a tilt towards eSCM," said Vyas.

Singh summed up prevailing sentiments about quality
standards in the industry. "COPC has found acceptance in the call center
space while six sigma is widely acknowledged as a means to improve internal
processes and problem solving. ISO certification, a little cheaper than COPC, is
also popular among the contact centers though a shade lesser than COPC.
"Most Chief Quality Officers (CQO) that CNS spoke to said that they had
heard about eSCM but were not familiar with the details. But CQOs were open to
the idea of a new standard. "The BPO industry is growing extremely fast and
I think we would be truly remiss and close-minded if we refuse to explore new
and proven standards as they address new fronts" said, Christine Gambacorta,
VP, Global Vision Quality and Process Engineering.

Diana Christian, CQO, Infowavz International thinks that
"As the BPO industry expands rapidly globally, there is a strong
requirement for industry benchmarks especially in non-voice BPO. Being a
relatively young industry and at the same time incredibly complex and diverse,
the challenges of establishing standards are even more difficult."

CQOs feel that the key to the success of a new standard
now is to compliment existing standards. "There is no point in recreating
the wheel. What is really required is the expansion and further development of
existing standards to suit the ever changing needs of the organization,"
said Christian. Infowavz has found the ISO platform to be ideal for its
end-to-end BPO services. At the same time it is working on incorporating new
models onto the ISO platform and has found COPC to be a good fit. Gambacorta
added, "Variables in the BPO space change often, sometimes daily…and
managing this is like balancing 500 little things, every minute of every day,
every day of the week, 52 weeks of the year. It is a moving target that once
achieved takes great commitment, dedication and work to maintain.

 "GTL is ISO certified and aiming to be a COPC
2000 certified by the Q4 of 2003. Exponents of eSCM harp on its impeccable
credentials. Developed by Carnegie Mellon, it is supported by several leading
global organizations like Accenture, Satyam, IBM Global, EDS, STQC, etc.

Prabhuu Sinha of Satyam who has been appointed as one of
the lead assessors of eSCM pointed out the differentiation in eSCM as compared
to others. "The existing models do not individually or as a whole
adequately address all the critical issues in a sourcing relationship.
Especially the issues related to the pre-contract phases of a relationship like
requirement management and contracting; service transitioning that involves
coordination of people and technology; and the post-contract phases of
reverse-transition and hand-over."

eSCM guru, Annaswamy Gopal emphasized that eSCM is
complementary to existing standards. He said that of the 93 practices identified
by the standard, if an organization has been evaluated for certain processes it
does not need to be assessed again. This implies that for an organization that
is already COPC certified, getting eSCM certification is an incremental effort.

Balaka
Baruash Aggarwal