CONTACT:
PRAKASH
Mob:
+919741410271 / +918722788493
BPO INDUSTRY
Section
A:
Part One:
1.
Which of the following is not included in Porter’s Five Model for
competitiveness?
a.
Threat of New Entrants
b.
Degree of Rivalry
c.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
d.
Government Strategies
2.
Which of the following is not a benefit of a BPO?
a.
Cost Reduction
b.
Cross – pollination of best products
c.
Focus on core process
d.
Automatic call distributions
3.
In -------------------- stage there is orderly transfer of activities to the
service provider.
a.
Negotiation
b.
Ongoing Management
c.
Implementation
d.
Preparation
4.
List the Process of Outsourcing in appropriate order:
i.
Listing out available in – house resources
ii.
Signing the contract
iii.
Negotiations, including a letter of intent and usually a contract with terms
& conditions
iv.
‘Steady state’ period, which makes the end of the transitioning phase and the
beginning of the cost cutting phase of the company
a.
i, iii, ii, iv
b.
i, iv, iii, ii
c.
i, ii, iii, iv
d.
I, iii, iv, ii
5.
The BPO that handles almost all the transactional and administrative processes
or other several functions are__________
a.
Comprehensive BPO
b.
Transactional BPO
c.
Niche BPO
d.
ITO
6.
The model which is preferred when the client requires that the job should be
done quickly and successfully:
a.
Revenue Distance Model
b.
Global delivery Model
c.
Built – Operate – Transfer Model
d.
Blended Offshore Outsourcing Model
7.
Which of the following is not a main certifying agency for Indian BPO?
a.
IRDA
b.
KPMG
c.
DNV
d.
STQC
8.
Challenges related to information infrastructure and branding is a type of a
KPO challenge.
a.
Internal Challenge
b.
Industry Challenge
c.
Customer Challenge
d.
Competitor Challenge
9.
Which of the following is not a dimension of service quality?
a.
Empathy
b.
Reliability
c.
Assurance
d.
Responsiveness
10.
COPC – 2000 is a____________
a.
Quality Certificate
b.
Measurement Certificate
c.
Performance Certificate
d.
Regulatory Certificate
Part Two:
1.
Differentiate between BPO and KPO
2.
Define the term “COBIT”.
3.
Write a short note on “Corporate Governance”.
4.
Differentiate between BPO and Call Centers.
5.
Define “Outsourcing”.
Section B: Caselets
Caselet 1
Company Background
CBay
Systems Ltd. was founded in 1998 by Raman Kumar, Skip Conover and Mahidhar
Reddy. The Annapolis based healthcare BPO is a leading provider of medical
transcription services to US hospitals. CBay provides transcription and
information management services to hospitals, integrated health care facility
networks, medical clinics and physicians. CBay’s HIPAA – complaint solutions
leverage leading Internet technologies and the world’s most highly credentialed
transcriptionists to provide easier, more secure, accurate and cost – effective
medical transcription. CBay‟s Development and Process Centre is located in
Mumbai and Bangalore, India. Additional offices are located in Taylor, Michigan
and Mumbai, Hyderabad, India. The company employs over 1,250 on its own rolls
and 2,500 employees on its franchisee rolls. An upwards of 3 million files are
processed on an annual basis.
The
avert of government regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act (HIPAA) coupled with increasingly stringent insurance company requirements
today are driving the need for more efficient, accurate and secure medical transcription.
Under HIPAA, transcription service providers have to implement technology and
business processes to ensure the security and confidentiality of patient
information, and establish an audit trail of all those who have accessed this information.
This area in the medical transcription space is CBay‟s forte. CBay offers state
of art in – house developed software solutions, which enable total control over
the entire transcription process – from dictation to transcription to records
management. “Our main USP is technology, which differentiates us from others”,
agrees Dinesh Kumar, Director of Indian Operations. HIPAA is likely to become a
law sometime during fiscal 2005 and conversion entails huge investments between
US$ 18 to 23 Billion (greater than Y2K solutions) and expertise in IT systems.
It is here that CBay commands a strategic niche as its expertise in technology
will enable hospitals and medical practices to not only achieve full HIPAA
compliance and streamline transcription processing and management, but also importantly
to realize substantial savings. Also because all information can be accessed
via standard Internet connections using existing hardware and systems, there is
minimum capital investment. CBay has developed its infrastructure, hardware and
software architecture with security as the paramount concern. From state – of –
the – art encryption technologies, redundant architectures and security
monitoring to disaster prevention and recovery measures, CBay has catered to
all of the above issues. “The primary challenge facing CBay developers are the
automation of logistics”, feels Harsha Kollaramaraju, the Chief Technology
Officer of CBay. The amount of data to be handled, the number of transactions
that needs tracking is phenomenally high. Since CBay has a global delivery
model, it is important to have a system that is totally distributed, with
different pieces in different places collaborating to fulfill each transaction,
he further adds. The biggest challenge however is to handle the discrete
elements such as dictation, demographics data, medical reports, which are all
separately created and processed, although they are part of the same transaction.
The software makes sure the integrity of data in each transaction and
accurately delivers the right data to right people in different places.
Operations Model:
CBay
operates through a strong network of 35 franchisee centers that includes
Captive centers in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. These franchisees are
distributed in different parts of the country covering all the metros Delhi,
Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and other major cities like
Trivandrum, Pune, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Baroda, Nagpur, Pondicherry etc. these
centers have either been started by individual entrepreneurs or have been the
ventures of large established business houses. All of these units work in close
association with CBay, who helps them in training and certification of the MLS,
adhering to the quality norms, quality audits, work load balancing and all other
operational issues that arise from time to time. The work is routed to these
different centers based on several criterions such as amount of work these
centers can handle, type of dictators they can handle, their performance in
terms of quality and their ability to return work within the predetermined timeframe.
The various franchisee centers transcribe the documents, check the quality through
the various levels such as proofers and editors and upload the records back to
the CBay server in the pre – decided time frame. These files are then randomly
checked and only after the quality team is assured about the quality of
transcribed records, they are sent to the clients. The production units comply
with the quality and time constraints that CBay has promised its clients. Few
centers also run multiple shifts and 24/7 operations to cater client specific
requirements. “are our partners in progress”, sums up Dinesh Kumar, Head – CBay
India Operations, who is also responsible for liaison with these franchisees or
production units as they are more fondly called. CBay‟s offices in Mumbai and
Bangalore manage the Indian operations. These offices have 24/7 operations to
provide support to vendors and service the clients.
Solutions offered by CBay
Different
types of healthcare providers characterize the US healthcare industry. There
are small 4 – 5 doctor practices, medium sized clinics operating with 20 – 25
doctors and operating out of more than one location and large hospitals where
operations and other complex medical procedures are conducted. These entire
have different type of work also varies. For example, a large hospital will
have more of operative reports while a small clinic will normally have more of
operative reports while a small clinic will normally have more of office notes
or follow up reports. CBay has solutions of all of these types of possible
clients. Very broadly, CBay offers the following four types of solutions:
1. CATTS
– CBay‟s automated Transcription Tracking System allows hospitals and clinics
on legacy systems to tap CBay‟s networks of 2500 transcriptions in the US and
India.
2. CBayScribe:
A sophisticated recording, routing and distribution portal that is combined
with unrivalled transcription expertise to meet the needs of small and medium
sized physician practices.
3. CBay Flo –
An advanced solution for recording, routing, transcription and reconciliation, with
HL7 integration of large hospitals and clinics.
4. A+ Network –
An end to end dictation, transcription and document management platform offered
to large integrated healthcare networks.
Each
of these solutions has several production units attached to it. There are some
production centers that operate on multiple platforms. Each of these has a
separate QA center to monitor and control quality. Through a part of the same
organization, they operate independently as they cater to completely different
profile providers and hence have requirements that are different. As each of
these uses a different software platform, the operations guidelines differ.
CATTS
CBay‟s
Automated Transcription Tracking System (CATTS), allows the doctors,
administrators etc. to view the status of a record from the moment it enters
the system until the final transcribed version is sent back to the
hospital/clinic. This software allows the users to know the status of their
dictated record all the time, every time till they get the transcribed record
back. By means of a simple query into the CATTS database, the system can
provide the status of every dictated voice file. CATTS is a manually operated
platform, which is being slowly transitioned to other more automated platforms.
CBayScribe
CBayScribe
is the first end – to –end service that gives medical practices the speed and
efficiency once reserved for large hospitals. Physicians dictate on digital recorders,
over the phone, or on a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Transcriptions are
guaranteed next day, with 98 – point accuracy. And detailed reports can be
accessed over the Internet, any time, from any place. CBayScribe aims to fulfil
the transcription needs of a physician practices, medium sized and smaller
clinics etc. with the level of security and audit trail to meet HIPAA
standards. CBayScribe provides the dictators with Olympus Dictaphone, which has
the capacity to store upto two and half hours of dictation. They can dictate
the patient records and details at their leisure and upload either all at once
or in batches as per their convenience. Report Pro allows the doctors to upload
the dictation to the CBay server or CBayScribe web services as it is called.
The webserver routes these files based on how these dictators have been
allocated to the production units, their capacity and some other criterion to
the production centers. It also automatically sends the accessory documents
such as demographic information (about the patient whose medical record is to
be transcribed), templates related information and any other instructions given
by the doctors to the respective franchisee/captive units.
CBay Flo
CBay
Flo is the latest transcription platform devised by CBay‟s software development
team in Bangalore. It enhances the ease with which transcription jobs are
managed easily. CBay Flo facilities ease of operation at every step of the
transcription process right from capturing the dictators from a legacy server
or from its dictation server to allocation of dictations to stipulated
transcriptionists automatically, reducing the time needed for the
transcriptionist to access the dictation. CBay Flo uses a Six Sigma process for
quality management. This process ensures the accuracy of the document in meeting
customer requirements with regards to consistent quality and turnaround time.
CBay Flo has various delivery mechanisms for the delivery of transcription
reports. The reports can be printed or faxed or can be directly delivered to an
HIS (Health Information System). This allows the reports to be generated using
RTF, PDF and Plaintext formats. CBay Flo facilitates a free archival of all the
transcribed reports on its servers. CBay clients can use this facility to
obtain an older transcribed report. CBay Flo is a completely HIPAA complaint
solution for managing transcriptions. It uses 128 – bit encrypted channels for
the transfer of jobs and a complete audit trail for each job. There is also a physical
security provided to servers, which host the dictators and transcription
reports. The Electronic signature E – sign feature provides a mechanism of
remote Internet signing with automatic tracking of records on every edit for
compliance auditing purposes.
A+ Network
A+
Network is the winning combination of leading edge HIM software and unrivaled
transcription expertise. A+ Network tracks when and where each report is
accessed and by whom. Every activity such as dictating, transcribing, viewing,
printing, faxing, QA editing, and physician – signing occurrence is audited
with HIPAA – complaint audit reports. In order to provide a fully outsourced, exceptionally
flexible turnkey transcription service combining unrivaled transcription
expertise and leading HIM software, CBay has tied up with Arrendale Associates.
The A+ Network handles everything from integrating the existing, dictation
process, full transcription, comprehensive document management and achieving.
All of this is done on CBay‟s secure servers. 7x24x365 access over the Internet
is protected by complete audit trails and high – level security to meet and
surpass strict HIPAA requirements.
Question:
1.
Discuss in detail about the solutions offered by CBay to the healthcare
providers.
Caselet 2
Company
Background
Suyash
software Private limited started as a franchisee of CBayScribe in the month of
May 2002 in Nagpur, Central India. The year 2003 was very difficult for
healthcare BPO franchisees as a number of companies had shut shop due to
quality issues and several people had become unemployed. All of this had made
people skeptical about the profession and its long – term potential. “Since
Suyash began as a franchisee of CBay, getting business was never any issue with
us and hence we could concentrate on quality and employee development,” says G.
R. Thengdi, chairman of Suyash Software. “Nagpur has a good educational base
with thousands of graduates being churned out every year. Unfortunately employment
opportunities are not commensurate with the supply of graduates. This means
that a large chunk of the population is perennially in search of jobs. Our
company targets this very group, grooms them in the nuances of the healthcare
BPO job and provides them a career which is life- long, solid, progressive and
satisfying,” he adds.
“As
a franchisee of CBay we got a tremendous head start, right from the recruitment
of transcription staff to orienting them in the rigorous quality requirements
and standards of CBay in particular and HIPPA in general, to advise on
technological setup. CBay helped us thoroughly at every stage,” says Samit
Admane, Production Head at Suyash Software. CBay has pooled its capsule and
every franchise or production unit has access to this.
“Currently
the company is fully involved in offering only transcription services to the
clients of CBay. But we might plan to move up the value chain in the near
future. This would mean offering other related services such as medical coding,
billing etc,” says Thengdi.
Career Opportunities
Training
is the first and only entry point into the profession. Graduates of any
discipline are taken. However science graduates learn faster as they are
already familiar with the human body, anatomy etc (as these are part of the
biology course at the final school-leaving exam syllabus). The training programme
is divided into various modules include courses on medicine, anatomy,
pharmacology, English grammar, transcription style and method, accent training
(to understand, not to speak), typing skills, training in using Internet search
engines, basic computer and keyboard skills etc.”Quality consciousness, time
virtues that need to be ingrained at this stage itself,” feels Shirish
Baptiwale, head of training at Suyash. “Once these virtues become virtues
become a habit, you have long-term good employs with you,” he adds. Suyash has
a full-fledged training centre and conducts training programmes throughout the
year. Topics like medicine and pharmacology are quite daunting for students
coming in from non – science backgrounds and they also need to be constantly
motivated and encouraged. “The first one month is difficult, after which they
get into the groove,” says Dr Swapan Dutta, who teaches medical subjects at the
Suyash Academy of Medical Transcription. New recruits at Suyash are selected
from among the trainees or hired directly as an MLS if they have already
undergone a training programme elsewhere and pass the entry – level
transcription test. Growth is completely performance – based. “Of course, other
things like attitude to work, attendance and sincerity are also rewarded,” says
Thengdi. Suyash has had instances of MLS becoming editors in matter of months
simply because they demonstrated the necessary qualities mentioned above. The owners
are directly involved in all aspects of the business, even day – to – day
operations. The company follows open – door policy and anybody can at any point
of time talk to anybody in the company, including the top management. This
gives everybody the confidence that they will be listened to and get the same
opportunities as anybody else. In addition to the salary there is an incentive
scheme that automatically rewards hard work and sincerity. “Suyash aims to be
one o the best employers, and provide its employees more than just a job. The company
also regularly organizes programmes to distress its staff members. The first of
May every year is celebrated as Suyash Day, when all members participate
actively to make it memorable. In winter, a picnic is organized for everybody.
All birthdays are celebrated, and a Diwali party is a regular affair. We have
several plans in the pipeline to make working with Suyash a happy and growth –
oriented journey,” adds Thengdi.
Future
This
future is here to stay; no backslash or any other problem can stop the outsourcing
of jobs in the healthcare sector. This is because here there are no job losses.
No American loses his/her job because of outsourcing; it is used to bridge the
severe demand – supply imbalance in the US. “This is a sound long – term career
with growth opportunities not only within the company but even outside it,
i.e., entrepreneurial opportunities are plenty. India has already established
its track record of providing quality service in the tightest of time
schedules. We must take advantage of this opportunity and become a part of the
profession,” feels Thengdi.
Question:
1.
Discuss in detail about the career opportunities with Suyash software.
Section C: Applied Theory
1.
Explain porter‟s Five Forces Model of Competition with reference to the BPO
Industry in India.
2.
Discuss in detail the main challenges of BPO Industry.
3.
What are the different models of Business Process Outsourcing?
CONTACT:
PRAKASH
Mob:
+919741410271 / +918722788493
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