We were born - actually years too ahead of time - deep inside a thick, just-bound leather file that tossed across five excited pairs of hands on that unusually cool Texas afternoon in October 1999. Labeled BigLeap in long hand, the file held tight a sheaf of papers with content ready to rock an entire industry. The power of knowledge was beginning to unravel once again. That momentous afternoon, five professionals from United States and India with backgrounds in management consulting, outsourcing, service process design, and quality had just completed a truly gargantuan, rigorous, painstaking, year-long project of scripting the world’s very first human competence standards for professionals working in the global Business Process Outsourcing Industry - creating a seminal body of knowledge that confidently rose far above mere call centers and covered the more exciting forms of BPOs.
Thus, we were kicked alive, though, the real hosannas were yet to be raised because we had to remain in the freezer for years as BPO was yet to begin warming up to the idea of universal credentialing.
Therefore, it actually took us years to become what we are now. In fact, even BigLeap, which could be seen as version 1.0 of what is now the HCMS21, matured to some semblance of its present shape only in 2004. Needless to say, during this period, HCMS underwent numerous semantic and technical revisions and we also completed the credentialing of nine certification programs for three key levels of BPO operatives – Senior Associates, Team Leaders, and Managers. This, in a way, heralded the birth of the world’s very first cross-domain BPO certifications - the CCIS®, CBPS®, CFPS®, CTSS®, CBTS®, CBOM®, CBPM®, CBTM®, and CBQM® Certifications – long before even the most optimistic of BPO protagonists could see the emergence of non-voice service domains of Technical Helpdesk, Transaction Processing and Finance and Accounting.
Three years later, even as the global BPO revenues outside United States touched the 10 billion dollar mark, we launched HCMS21 Release 2.4. In all possible ways, this was a watershed year for us as for the first time, standards were written for the entry level Associates/ Agents and the world got its first qualification benchmarks for entry-level BPO /Contact Center positions. Within 2 years, the CCIP®, CBPA®, CFPA®, and CTSA® certifications would cross over 30 nations and end up becoming vital employability-building tool for nations and universities. In 2007, we completed the scripting of the Service Delivery Master Standards and Talent Management Master Standards, but the attendant BSDQ® and BTMQ® range of certifications for BPO enterprises took another one year of intense testing and global validation. The same year, we also completed the validation of eight other BCI human competence certifications – those at the Functional Leader and Business Leader level – the CBOL®, CBPL®, CBQL®, and the CBBL®.
By year 2007, we had intensified the process of appointing Certification Training Providers across the world. Today, some of the world’s largest training companies stand appointed as authorized Certification Training Provider Partners - A network that has enabled BCI Certifications to reach almost 300 BPO locations globally. In early 2008, the two enterprise certification series were signaled for launch – the BSDQ® (BSDQ22/ BSDQ14/ BSDQ9) and the BTMQ® (BTMQ10/ BTMQ7). And now in 2009 the three Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) human competence certifications – CMAP®, CFAP®, and CLPS® – for Marketing Analytics, Financial Analytics, and Legal Processes are undergoing rigorous credentialing for 2010 release.
Today, a decade later, we are up and ready to revitalize the global BPO Industry which is boldly beating recession and stands poised for another giant leap.
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