The BBC Is Outsourcing Services To India

The UK broadcaster, BBC, is outsourcing some of its services to India. The services it will be outsourcing are accounting and financing services, and will include sales transaction processing, financial management services, purchasing, payroll processing, artist and contributor payments and customer support. Xansa will be working with BBC Finance in order to deliver these services. They will also be working with Siemens Business Services.

They have selected the Indian company, Xansa, as the supplier of the outsourced services and will be entering into a ten-year contract. Outsourcing these services to Xansa will cost the BBC 8.5 million pounds a year, but should save the BBC 20 million pounds a year. Over the ten years of the contract, this will result in a saving of 200 million pounds. This saving will help BBC reach their target of investing 355 million pounds in programmes and services.

The services provided by Xansa will be done from locations in India and the UK. Customer support and other services that involve voice-contact will be done from the UK. Transaction processing and other similar services will be done in India, from Xansa's shared service centre at Chennai.

Xansa was chosen after a process that evaluated how different companies performed against certain criteria. Four companies were put on a shortlist; Capita, EDS, Xansa and Infosys BPO. They were evaluated against the criteria of value, cultural alignment, the ability to drive improvements, financial processes, service delivery capability and transition and exit planning.

It is expected that the new contract should be signed in November. Xansa is expected to take responsibility for the outsourced services in July next year.

Previously, the BBC had outsourced some of its services to Medas. Medas was also supplying the transaction processing services for the BBC. BBC group finance director, Zarin Patel, thanked Medas for their support throughout the past nine years.