Sikkim Manipal varsity to offer MBA in BPO

With the IT enabled services (ITES) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is expected to cross the $17-billion mark and generate over 1.1 million jobs by 2008, Sikkim Manipal University has introduced a Master of Business Administration (MBA) course in BPO to cater to the ever growing manpower requirements of the IT industry.

The university will offer the course under the distant learning programme.

The new course has been introduced from the current academic year and the university will enroll around 1,600-1,800 students at its five centres in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

"With the ever increasing demand for the BPO industry, Indian School of Advanced Studies has launched the course to be offered by Sikkim Manipal University. So far no other university provides full-fledged professional degree on BPO. Our new course will train those who aspire to start a career in the BPO industry," M V Reddy, chief operating officer, Pioneer eBizz Ltd, told Business Standard on Tuesday.

Pioneer eBizz, one of India's largest, IT products direct marketing company, is marketing the course.

Indian companies doing back office work for multi-nationals are keen to align education with the needs of the BPO industry.

Even the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has recently held discussions with the University Grants Commission (UGC), the nodal body for universities in India, to see whether specific courses can be offered for the BPO sector.

The two-year MBA course is divided in four semester. The first semester will have papers on management process and organisational behaviour, Internet application, marketing management, human resource management, operation management, financial management, and management information systems.

The second semester will include strategic technology management, management of technology transfer, business process re-engineering, enterprise resource planning, e-customer relationship management and supply chain management, conflict management and negotiation skill and history of management case study.

The third semester comprise introduction to business process outsourcing, technology aspect of BPO, setting up of BPO organisation- a strategic view, data protection and data security, training methodology in BPO organisation, BPO business in third country and project management.

And the fourth semester the students will learn, telemarketing: inbound and outbound, healthcare and clinical and other process outsourcing, financial outsourcing, outsourcing in bio-tech and other technical areas. The final semester will also have project, where students will be deputed to BPO firms to gain practical experience.

"The BPO course will definitely increase the talent pool of the country. The acceptability rate at BPO companies are less than 10 per cent in our country, which will definitely increase after introduction of such courses. Even the cost of recruitment and training of manpower will be reduced," said Kaushal Mehta, founder and CEO, Motif India Infotech Private Ltd.

The major highlights of the course includes Accent Neutralisations and Spoken English classes. "India has the distinct advantage of having a talent pool of English speaking people, leading to the growth of BPO sector in the country.

"But speaking English is not enough to work in a BPO company. We train extensively in accent neutralisations, US economy and consumer relationship management (CRM), which are basics to work in the BPO industry," said Reddy.