IT-Enabled Services and Business Process Operations (BPO/KPO)
What this domain tests
How a process runs inside a BPO/KPO delivery centre: the flow of work, the service-level measures, quality checks and escalation.
Core concepts
- Process flow: work arrives (call, email, scanned document, ticket) → queued → handled by an associate → checked → closed and reported.
- Metrics: SLA (service-level agreement - the contractual target), TAT (turnaround time for one transaction), AHT (average handling time), FCR (first-contact resolution), CSAT (customer satisfaction), shrinkage (paid hours not on production: breaks, leave, training), attrition (staff leaving).
- AHT = talk time + hold time + after-call work (ACW) ÷ number of calls.
- Quality: sampling a percentage of transactions against a scorecard, calibrating reviewers so scores agree, giving feedback and coaching.
- Escalation matrix: L1 associate → L2 subject expert → L3 process manager → client contact, with defined time limits at each level.
Worked example
An agent handles 40 calls in a day with 220 minutes of talk time, 30 minutes on hold and 70 minutes of ACW. Reasoning: total handling = 220 + 30 + 70 = 320 minutes; AHT = 320 ÷ 40 = 8 minutes. If the SLA says AHT must be under 9 minutes, the process is compliant. Dividing only talk time would understate AHT and wrongly show compliance.
Traps that cost marks
- Reporting talk time as AHT.
- Confusing SLA (the target) with TAT (the actual time for a transaction).
- Escalating immediately without documenting the issue; escalation needs notes and a reason.
- Writing that a BPO may share customer data freely - confidentiality clauses bind the vendor.