Main Subject - Business

There have been few entrepreneurial ventures in business history as rewarding as the offshore call center. Within Asia, there are numerous tales of entrepreneurs who made tons of money for themselves by creating substantial value for their customers and employees.

A recent one is

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

Ambergris Solutions Inc. in Manila. The company was started a few years ago by three young entrepreneurs with little money of their own and even less call center experience. They had a lot to learn about running a call center, and it took 18 money-losing months before they stumbl

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

ed upon their first paying customer. But over the two and a half years that followed, their business grew explosively to almost 3,000 employees serving a roster of blue-chip clients. A couple of months ago, controlling interest of the thriving enterprise was sold to a large Canadi

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

an IT organization called Telus International in a deal valued at $43.5 million. Many would agree this was an adequate paycheck for just a few years of work.

This story gives the impression that starting a call center in Asia is an easy path to fast riches. However, just a week o

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

so after the announcement of the Ambergris deal, Gartner Inc. released an astonishing report that said, "As many as 70% of the top 15 Indian business process outsourcing start-ups will cease to exist in the coming months." Gartner added scathingly that "despite the hype, only a s

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

mall fraction of customer service outsourcing will be done at offshore locations."

Dropping Like Flies

The two situations might seem contradictory, but they aren't. Margins in the call center sector have declined steadily over the past couple of years as customers demand lower b

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ill rates and agents insist on higher salaries. The result has been a squeezing out of the smaller (and often newer) operators, which are unable to spread their fixed costs over a larger base of revenue producing agents. Throughout India and the Philippines, there has already been

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

significant rationalization (i.e. closings, buyouts, mergers, etc.) in the call center industry, and Gartner is probably right to say that more are to come.

The Telus purchase of Ambergris, like IBM's purchase of Daksh eServices Pvt. Ltd. in India and numerous others, shows that

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

the call center sector is now exclusively a game for big-boys -- it has become a "mature industry," as they say in MBA school. The days when someone could start a little call center of his own and learn the business along the way are finished.

So what's a greedy young entrepreneu

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

r to do now?

The pioneering efforts of the call center sector have proved that the concept of offshore outsourcing can succeed exceedingly well. (Actually, manufacturing proved this years ago, but let's not go into that.) In most large companies, however, answering telephone inqu

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

ries is a microscopic part of their overall business. The big opportunities in business process outsourcing are still to be realized.

This fact is shown in the diversity of the services offered by the current batch of outsourcing entrepreneurs. Here are a few examples of companie

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

s operating just in the Manila area: XMG Global IT Research and Advisory Inc. prepares high-end IT research, YellowAsp Corp. creates layout designs for printed circuit boards, Forssman Asia Pacific prepares construction design drawings, Key-In Data Solutions does claims processing

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

, Primesoft develops advanced Web applications, VinciWorks designs online training programs, and Pulse DesignTech offers electronics design services. The list goes on and on.

The large IT services firms and the call center companies are jumping on the business process outsourcing

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

bandwagon too. CapGemini has large facilities in three locations in China providing accounting and human resources outsourcing services. IBM's non-IT outsourcing operations are quickly becoming larger than those of IT in the Philippines.

A quick look at the Web site of IT consul

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ing giant Accenture Ltd. reveals an astounding diversity of services. Under "Outsourcing" in the "Services Offered" section, there are Accenture Finance Solutions, Accenture HR Services, Accenture Learning, Accenture Procurement Solutions, Accenture Business Services for Utilities

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

, Accenture eDemocracy Services, Navitaire Inc. and Accenture Insurance Services. By comparison, only two IT-related services are listed in the entire section.

Two of the world's five largest call center companies don't even call themselves call center companies anymore. ClientLo

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

gic Corp. is now an "international business process outsourcing provider." StarTek Inc. says it's a "global provider of business process outsourcing services."

It's clear that the difference between outsourcing today and outsourcing yesterday is significant. Whereas before, just

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

few business segments were growing rapidly (say, call centers and IT), now there are multitudes in the same situation, with countless more sure to follow. Some business leaders I have spoken to have used the phrase "tipping point" to describe the current life-cycle stage of servi

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ces outsourcing. One fellow I spoke to thought the phrase "business process outsourcing" wasn't descriptive enough to express the vast diversity of the current environment. He felt a better phrase was something along the lines of "everything-anyone-can-possibly-imagine-as-being-ou

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

tsourced outsourcing."

So, we shouldn't be overly concerned about missing the gold rush in offshore call center outsourcing. The business process outsourcing mother lode is just around the corner, and the opportunities are wide open. Greedy entrepreneurs everywhere should rejoice

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.mainsubjects.org.ua/article/32639/mainsubjects-The-End-of-Call-Center-Entrepreneurship-And-the-Flowering-of-Offshore-Outsourcing.html">The End of Call Center Entrepreneurship: And the Flowering of Offshore Outsourcing</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.mainsubjects.org.ua/article/32639/mainsubjects-The-End-of-Call-Center-Entrepreneurship-And-the-Flowering-of-Offshore-Outsourcing.html]The End of Call Center Entrepreneurship: And the Flowering of Offshore Outsourcing[/url]

The American economy is the growth engine of the industrial world and will continue to be so, as long a steady stream of innovative, divergent products is successfully created. The history of capitalism is replete with cycles of unique, needed advances that exponentially expand the economic base and evolve into completely new industry categories. No country comes close to America in dynamism, creativity and energy in pursuing cutting edge new growth opportunities.

Have you ever considered the fact that very few obstacles are preventing men getting training for careers of their choice? Changing job at any time for men is not much of a problem at all. You will equally agree that career situation for women is the opposite of the above career situation for men. Women are seen to be homemakers whose places must be at homes cooking and taking care of children and husbands.

Where do you begin when you have an idea for a new product? You may be surprised.

Tags

Links

Main Subject - The End of Call Center Entrepreneurship: And the Flowering of Offshore Outsourcing

Related Articles: