Below are some of the most frequently used phrases and words in the BPO industry, along with their related definition

A

Agent: A person designated to receive and/or make calls in behalf of a client serviced by a call center. He or she is sometimes referred to as "call rep" or call center representative, or customer care representative.

After-Call Work (ACW): Also known as wrap-up or post-call processing (PCP). ACW is the work done by a call center representative aside call making or call taking such as entry of customer data and when necessary, call back customers to complete a transaction.

Agent ID: Refers to as the identity code assigned to an agent to be able to log in into the ACD system.

Agent efficiency: Is the average recorded performance of a call center representative per transaction such as the time spent on a customer including post call processing.

Audiotex: Is the voice processing capacity that allows the callers to automatically retrieve audio messages which were recorded.

Adherence to Schedule: It is a general term which refers to how the agents are found to adhere to their work schedules.

Announcement: Is a recorded message and is played to the callers.

B

BPO: Is the acronym for "Business Process Outsourcing."

Business Process Outsourcing: It is a process of delegating the non-core business functions to a third party service provider. Here the non-core business functions means back office or those jobs that do not constitute the core business functions.

C

Call Center: A centralized office where calls are transmitted and received.

Captive Center: Is an operation possessed by an offshore organization. The activities conducted offshore but are not outsourced to a third party.

Co-Sourcing or Cosourcing: Is the agreement between the outsourcing vendors and the internal staff. Both parties accomplish specialized business functions.

Cost Per Call: Is the total fixed and variable expenses that is divided by the total calls for any given time frame. Collateral Duties: Are the non-phone activities – such as data entry- that are designed and adaptable during times when the call load is found to be dawdling.

D

Delayed Call: Is a call in waiting and cannot be answered right away.

Dialed Number (DN): Is the dialed phone number made by a call center agent to commence a call.

E

E-Sourcing: Is one of the latest forms of outsourcing in which the Internet is the channel used to deliver a range of services. In E-sourcing, the application service model (ASP) is utilized to allow the transport of business process outsourcing (BPO) via the Internet.

F

Function Process Outsourcing: Generally, the business processes of a company conclude with the customers paying the bills. However, there are several internal processes that are administered to support people within the company, and are often administered by just one department. These departments are travel, human resources, accounting and finance, and other call center services. When these BPO services are outsourced, along with the aiding technologies and supply chains that facilitate these services, then it is called as a functional process outsourcing.

G

Gainsharing: It is a contract structure where both the customer and the service-provider share financial gains in the value that is decided mutually. An example of this can be the service in which the provider receives a share of the savings that it generates for its client.

H

Heresourcing: Is also known as local outsourcing. Heresourcing is the act of outsourcing within the same boundaries of the country.

I

Information technology Outsourcing (ITO): Is the outsourcing of Information Technology (IT) services including applications and infrastructure to a third party service provider.

Insourcing: Is the method of moving an outsourced process to the internal department of a company, which is to be supervised completely by the in-house employees.

J

Joint Venture: Is the amalgamation of onshore and offshore companies that agreeably perform as a business unit such as a manufacturing startup. A joint venture usually offers a long-term solution and necessitates huge amount of capital investment.

Just-in-Time Sourcing: Majority of the organizations adopt an incessant sourcing process that takes place on a project-by-project basis. Here, the sourcing resolutions are regarded to last only as long as the projects need them. The shared services centers are usually managed this way, with the aid of the company's internal customers who are free to take their business on a project-by-project basis via a source they deem can best contribute to the outcomes they seek; whether that source is in the external or internal of the organization.

L

Logged On: Is the condition where a call center has to logged on to a system whether the agent may or may not be ready to receive any calls.

Look Back Queuing: Is the capacity for a network or a system to look back to the initial queue after the call has overflowed to a secondary queue and facilitates to evaluate the conditions. If the clogging is cleared off, the call can be sent back to the initial queue.

M

Monitoring: Is also known as Position Monitoring or Service Observing. This is the process of listening to the telephone calls of the agents for the purpose of sustaining quality. Monitoring can be done in three ways: 1) via silent process where agents do not know when they are being monitored; 2) side-by-side process, where the person monitoring the calls sits next to the agent and monitors the call; or 3) record and re-evaluate where the calls are recorded and then later played back and evaluated cautiously by the quality team.

N

Next Available Agent: A call distribution process is utilized to send calls to the next agent who is available to take calls. This process seeks out to sustain an equal load across skill services or group. The Next Available Agent automatically reverts the call to the Longest Available Agent.

Network Inter-flow: Is a technology utilized in multi-site centers to build an proficient way of distributing calls between sites. With the integration of sites using network circuits such as T1 circuits and ACD software, calls are routed from one site to another and may be queued continuously for agent group in remote sites.

O

Offshore Outsourcing: Is the outsourcing of any BPO operation like information technology, a business process, or manufacturing to a firm whose operation is based outside the country. This is also knows as near-shore outsourcing or close-shore outsourcing. The delegation of non-core business to a third party service provider, outsourcing can be provided on and off-premises. Outsourcing can be in the same country or in a separate country.

P

Predictive Dialing Equipment: A computerized system that automatically dials the telephone number for a call center agent. Generally, the number of call in a call center is higher than the number of agents available. But there is a system that uses pacing algorithms to forecast when agents will become free to take another call.

Profit Center: Is an accounting expression that refers to a specific department or function in the organization that produces revenues for the company.

Q

Queue: Holds the callers until a call agent becomes free to take them. Queue can also refer to a list of items in a system waiting to be processed, for example like e-mails.

R

Request for Information (RFI): Is a document that calls for potential service providers to present general information pertaining to their business capabilities and strengths usually bearing in mind the kind of requirement.

Request for Proposal (RFP): Is a document that calls for potential service providers to propose terms and conditions for the solutions that address a set of requirements.

S

Scope of Services: Are the services offered under an outsourcing agreement.

Screen Monitoring: Is a system where the call center supervisors are able to remotely monitor the activities of agents' via their computer terminals.

Sourcing: Sourcing is everything that the organization has to outsource. This can be external, internal, or a combination of both.

T

Tactical Outsourcing: A type of outsourcing that is done to accomplish operational proficiencies. This kind of outsourcing is approached as a competition between existing internal operation and outside service providers.

U

Unavailable Work State: Is a state wherein an agent that is used to identify a mode not associated with handling telephone calls.

Universal Agent: Generally refers to either to an agent who can manage all kinds of call or to an agent who can manage inbound and outbound calls.

V

Vendor: Sells services or goods to other party in the economic production chain. In BPO sector, the term 'vendor' is generally applied to supplies of services and goods to their respective clients.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): Is a system where no telephone is required. VOIP permits two parties to talk over the Internet using their computers.

W

Wide Area Network (WAN): Is a network connection in which multiple computers are connected across a wide, normally with the use of digital data circuits.

Workforce Management (WFM) Software: Is a kind of software that depends on the number of obtainable modules like calculation of staff requirements, forecast call load, organizing schedules and track real-time performance of individuals as well as groups.

Z

Zero-Based Sourcing: Is a kind of sourcing decision for each and every facet of a business' operation. It is re-justified through a planning cycle from an assumed base of zero. This approach guarantees that the organization is neutrally and reliably re-testing its internal operations against the best available external solutions.

Zip Tone: Is an audible notification that a call has arrived.