Papers are invited that have a strong emphasis on Business Process Outsourcing and modeling of business process. Presentations from key industry players who will describe their approaches to and experiences of BPO will be particularly welcome.

Conference Scope

Topics of interest include, but will not be limited to:

Paper Submission

Submissions are invited in the following categories:

-         Full paper: 5 pages

-         Short paper: 3 pages

-         Posters/Case Studies: 2 pages

-         Workshop proposals: 2 pages

Papers are to be submitted in Rich Text Format and should follow the format described in the BPOM Submission Instructions document.

Each submission should identify a primary contact and include his/her address, phone number, fax number and email address. Submissions are to be made on the following email :

srbonomally@utm.intnet.mu

Reviewing Process

All paper submissions will be examined by the Programme Committee and, if deemed suitable for this conference, will be sent to two referees for double blind peer review. Based on their recommendation, the Programme Committee will then decide whether the submission should be accepted as is, revised or rejected.

Conference Programme DAY 1

Conference Programme DAY 2 & 3

The Hon Rama Krishna SITHANEN,
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance & Economic Development

Mark Hill
General Manager of Teleforma, USA
Theme: Strategic Positioning of Mauritius in the Call Centre Industry –  Planning the future

Dr Majed Al-Mashari
Department of Information Systems
College of Computer and Information Sciences
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Selected papers will be published in the Business Process Management Journal in Emerald publication and other Journals.

Tracks

• IT Outsourcing
• Call Centres & Customer Relationship Management
• Data Capture & Back Office Processing
• BPO in Financial Services
• Niche BPO markets

Mauritius is far from the giant BPO providers but is working hard to go beyond its reputation as an attractive holiday destination and provide a competitive BPO offering in various sectors such as call centres, telemarketing, customer relationship management etc. Many local operators will thus be presenting case studies and sharing their experience in setting up and managing BPO operations. International operators which have set up businesses in Mauritius will discuss on factors which helped them choose their BPO locations. Workshops including product demonstrations targeted for the BPO industry will also be run (these might be attended separately). International consultants and researchers will give visionary keynote speeches and talk about the global strategies and trends in the BPO industry.

This conference aims at bringing together BPO researchers and practitioners together to analyse BPO issues from a vendor-related perspective – it is more often treated from the customer’s perspective in developed countries, rightfully so as most BPO customers are from these countries. Many successful vendors are from developing countries and there are issues specific to these countries which may not be addressed in other BPO conferences.

With more and more countries joining the bandwagon and gearing up to provide even lower cost services to international customers, it is expected that competition will grow fiercer among the BPO destinations. Moreover, success for the BPO vendors brings together rising costs due to a lack of talented staff – something which has affected even the BPO giant India . This is why this conference aims at encouraging discussion on how to maintain competitiveness on a worldwide scale in the BPO industry. Different BPO destinations have got different endowments and thus it is also important to see which value-added services are more appropriate for sustained development in different vendor countries. Nevertheless, learning about strategies recommended for BPO customers will also be a topic for discussion in the conference – it is important for vendors to understand how customers choose their BPO destinations.

Programme Chair
Dr. Nawaz Mohamudally
Ag. Head, School of Business Informatics and Software Engineering
University of Technology, Mauritius

Members
Prof. Patel
London South Bank University, UK

Prof. P. Coupe
University of Technology, Mauritius

Assoc. Prof. R. Durbarry
University of Nottingham, UK

Dr. M. Motah
University of Technology, Mauritius

Dr. H. Chittoo
University of Technology, Mauritius

Dr. K. Neu
University of Technology, Mauritius

Prof. Ganessan
VIT, India

Mr Balatzian
Universite de Technologie Compiegne, France

Organising Chair
Dr. Nawaz Mohamudally
Ag. Head, School of Business Informatics and Software Engineering
University of Technology, Mauritius

Organising Secretary
Ms Sapna Bonomally
University of Technology, Mauritius

Members
Mr Ravi Foogooa
University of Technology, Mauritius

Dr Motah
University of Technology, Mauritius

Dr Neu
University of Technology, Mauritius

Mrs R Geerjanan
University of Technology, Mauritius

Mrs Keeran
University of Technology, Mauritius

Miss B Durgahee
University of Technology, Mauritius

Mr Vinaye Armoogum
University of Technology, Mauritius

Mr R Heerasing
University of Technology, Mauritius

Mr Veeru Botia
University of Technology, Mauritius
Mr Mahen Soobron
Central Informatics Bureau -
Ministry of IT & Telecommunications

Mr Vyankoj S Mulloo
National Computer Board

Mr Patrick Wong
Ministry of Finance & Economic Development

Mrs Pratima Sewpal
Board of Investment(BPO Secretariat)

Mrs Roupa Imrit
Enterprise Mauritius

Mr T Sobraty
Rogers Call Centre

Mr Vidia Mooneegan
Cendris

Mr Arvind Boodhoo
Teleforma

Mrs Claire Nemorin
Infomil

Mrs Francoise Marechal Charlotte
National Productivity & Competitiveness Council

Mr Y. Servansing
Industrial and Vocational Training Board

Introduction

Business Process Outsourcing is transforming businesses in different parts of the world. On one side, businesses in developed countries use this opportunity to improve their competitiveness and on the other hand, new companies are being spawned in developing countries to provide the required services at a lower cost.

Providing services in an outsourced mode is challenging and the task is even more daunting when it is done offshore. In many outsourcing deals, the objectives are not well defined, the contractual arrangements are not properly designed, the relationship is badly managed ending often in disasters. Moreover, there has also been a backlash in the western world against offshore outsourcing as there have been and there will be further job losses. It is the inevitable side effect of globalization of the knowledge economy