Knowledge Process Outsourcing: BPO’s smarter big brother
Those who hear KPO for the first time may think that it’s just a typo of the otherwise well-known BPO industry, but Knowledge Process Outsourcing is actually an emerging new industry in its own right. KPO is more than just a letter away from BPO (Business Process Outsourcing); KPO offers specialized services that call for a highly trained and experienced workforce.
BPO companies take pride in process expertise and their ability to efficiently process large volumes while maintaining standards of quality. In knowledge process outsourcing, the goal is more focused on the quality of service and the workforce’s knowledge and expertise. KPO companies usually take care of business processes that require highly skilled workers and professionals from different fields; domain expertise and high-end qualifications are required to fill such positions.
Doctors, lawyers, writers, IT professionals, and accountants, among other professionals are employed by knowledge process outsourcing companies since the tasks delegated to these high-level offshore staff include jobs that require analytical and technical knowledge like patent filing and research, insurance claims processing, and investment valuation and research, among others. KPO jobs may require some decision-making as well. It can be said that KPO jobs involve more core processes compared to BPOs since those only take care of non-core processes.
Basically, BPO involves following a predefined set of processes while KPO handles knowledge intensive processes that require expertise and experience to deliver high quality service.
The knowledge process outsourcing industry is growing in different countries, including India, China, the Philippines, Canada, Russia, and Israel. The mentioned major KPO service providers each have their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as specialties. India for example specializes in IT services; the country turns out several IT professionals in a year, while also providing and improving the infrastructure and telecommunication equipment needed. KPO service providers cater to different companies from different industries, including market research firms, business consulting companies, financial institutions like banks and investment companies, legal firms, animation studios and many others.
Developing countries can benefit from knowledge process outsourcing since it isn’t just another source of revenue like BPOs: being a leader in KPO service providers can increase the value of a country’s manpower.
Projects given to knowledge process outsourcing companies can be as big or as small as the client requires (as opposed to the BPO’s usually massive workloads) so even small and medium-sized companies can afford to outsource some of their processes. Companies looking to cut down can choose to get offshore accountants or lawyers to support or replace finance or legal departments. Companies can dip into a KPO service provider’s talent pool and get great cost savings from the difference in salary ranges in different countries.
Salaries in knowledge process outsourcing companies tend to be higher than those offered in BPOs; also, employee recruitment in a KPO is stricter in terms of qualifications and skill set requirements.
Arguably, the knowledge process outsourcing industry is more like a higher end type of BPO though some industry experts agree that KPOs are the expected improved versions of BPOs.