Introduction to IT and ITeS, BPO services

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. When you call a bank's helpline, who answers, and where are they sitting? Often it is a trained team in a service centre, maybe in another city. Today we will learn what I T is, what I T enabled services are, and how B P O services work.

Let us begin with the basic term. I T stands for Information Technology. It uses computers, software and networks together. With them we store, process and send information quickly. Your school website, a UPI payment and an email are all examples of information technology at work.

Now a second term. I T E S stands for I T enabled Services. It means a service that is delivered with the help of information technology. Here the service is what the customer pays for, and technology is only the tool. Because work travels over the internet, it can be done from any city, or even another country.

Here are five common I T enabled services. A call centre answers customer calls for banks and mobile companies. Data entry means typing information from forms into a computer. Medical records work turns doctors' notes into typed patient reports. Online support answers customers through chat and email for shopping apps. Payroll work prepares salary slips for the staff of other companies.

To understand B P O, we first need the word outsourcing. Outsourcing means a company gives some of its work to another company to do. Think of your school hiring a bus company instead of buying buses. The school then focuses on teaching, its main work. Outsourcing often saves money and time as well.

Now we can understand B P O. B P O stands for Business Process Outsourcing. A business process is a regular task, like billing, answering customers or keeping accounts. A B P O company does that task for another company. The company that gives the work is called the client.

B P O work is of two main types. Voice B P O means talking to customers on the phone, like a mobile company's helpline. Non voice B P O means work without calls, like email replies, chat support and data entry.

There is one more way to divide B P O services. Front office work deals directly with customers, like sales calls and helplines. Back office work happens behind the scenes, like accounts, payroll and record keeping.

B P O can also be grouped by where the work goes. In domestic, or onshore, outsourcing, the work stays inside the same country, like a Delhi company using a team in Pune. In offshore outsourcing, the work goes to a faraway country, like an American company using a team in India. In nearshore outsourcing, the work goes to a nearby country.

You may also hear the term K P O. K P O stands for Knowledge Process Outsourcing. It needs experts, such as people with degrees in finance, law or science. Examples are market research, legal document work and data analysis.

India is one of the biggest B P O destinations in the world, for four reasons. India has a large, young workforce that speaks English. Costs are lower for the client companies. Because of the time difference, Indian teams can work while clients in other countries sleep. And India has good telecom and internet networks.

Pause and predict with this example. A hospital records doctors' notes as voice files. A company in another city listens and types them into reports. Is this voice or non voice B P O? It is non voice, because the workers do not talk to any customer on the phone.

Let us revise what we learned today. I T means using computers, software and networks to handle information. I T enabled services are services delivered with the help of I T. B P O means one company does a business process for another. B P O work can be voice or non voice, and front office or back office. And India leads because of its skilled workforce and lower cost.