Marketing Strategy for Chinese BPO Companies

摘要

BPO (Business Processes Outsourcing) has been an established business in the west since the the mid - 1990s, with some 30 years of history in the US. In recent years, owing to globalization and internet technology, BPO industry has reached new heights in popularity. According to the National Association of Software and Service Firms (NASSCOM 2002) , the American market remained the leader in IT services spending followed by Western Europe, Japan, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The global IT outsourcing market has grown from US $96 billion in 1998 to US $ 151 billion in 2000 (IDC, 2000). Some lower labor cost countries are becoming the destinations for BPO. Obviously, India is a winner in such field with revenues of US $3.9 billion and a 40% growth rate in 2004. Indian companies such as Wipro and Infosys have likewise become global players in the consulting and IT sector. In comparison, China is not yet a major player in services although it is already a destination for embedded software and for financial firm back - office business processes and application development, and a competitor in call centers for Japanese and Korean firms. The revenues from IT service in China is only US $ 1. 1 billion VS US $ 7. 7 billion for India and US $ 8. 3 billion for Ireland. So it is urgent for China to be one part of the global services revolution and to find a way to pose a big challenge to India! This paper focuses on marketing strategy that is required for achieving a high market share from the global BPO industry for Chinese companies. The paper begins with an illustration of BPO industry in the world. Secondly, it introduces the driving factors of BPO, such as rapid globalization, the desire to reduce costs, focus on core competence, etc. Thirdly, the paper makes a SWOT analysis of the BPO sector in China from a marketing point of view. Lastly, the paper attempts to give application of more than 4Ps of marketing mix to Chinese BPO enterprises.