BPO Summit 2015

An opportunity worth billions
A novel conference was held in Dhaka on December 9-10, 2015. It was called the "Business Process Outsourcing Summit 2015". An industry which is still in its early stages in Bangladesh, has been acknowledged and has been emphasized through this conference. The participating speakers who are experts in their field, discussed scaling up the BPO industry to US $1bn by 2021. They called for a road-map with collaborations of the industry and related policy support to achieve this.

First day held these sessions:

• Infrastructural and Operational Readiness depicted Bangladesh's strengths in labor and investment, but posed concern on power infrastructure and financial organinsation. 
• Entrepreneurship and Investment highlighted prospects of Bangladesh as a destination for foreign BPO investment. 
• Connecting Startups was a very interactive session, covering experiences and stimulating questions about entrepreneurship, startup suggestions and how this industry can be supported
• Future challenges of ICT for the BPO industry outlined mass education and English language handicaps as hurdles.
• Opportunities of Outsourcing Client Services from an IT perspective revealed that Security was a doubt, however cost-effectiveness and focusing on core competencies was a strength.   

Second day hosted these sessions:

• "Bangladesh youth to drive BPO industry" focused on the youth playing a potential part in the industry, but difficulties can arise from the lack of operational knowledge.
• Global BPO Industry: Best practices -  discussed instilling confidence to develop the communication prowess, vision and fresh nature of the industry
• Government as a client - identified government as a business client with a huge expenditure capability; it can be supported by individuals, start-ups and SMEs as external parties
•  Opportunities in the domestic market for outsourcing detailed the possible market exploration; for government and also specifically for start-ups
• Opportunities and challenges in banking outsourcing underlined English language barriers and lacking enough developmental skills as future challenges
• The role of higher education institutions for BPO industry featured how universities can play a role: in making students fluent in English and Bangla, while providing greater practical experience.
• Connecting with untapped skills: Polytechnic, Vocational and Technical (a2i) - speaking about how once again education, specifically English skills must be developed, while proper job allocation towards prospective individuals was also emphasized

With an interesting conclusion about farmers owning smartphones over food, it was an exciting first day for the BPO Summit 2015.