Wahidur Rahman Sharif

Managing Director

Digicon Technologies Limited

Mr Wahidur Rahman Sharif is the founder and Managing Director of Digicon Technologies Limited since its inception (2010). He started Digicon Technologies Limited as one of the first BPO companies in Bangladesh with a vision to provide unparalleled expertise and efficiency to existing business processes with a mission to deliver solutions through the right sets of people and technologies to ensure maximum value for business. Team MBR was in a conversation with Mr Wahidur Rahman Sharif and was fortunate enough to receive his take on the BPO industry in Bangladesh.

Raiyan Rabbani: The BPO industry is experiencing rapid growth, with Bangladesh being the second largest supplier of online labor. What factors besides cheap labor, do you think are accelerating this growth?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: As a large number of students are graduating every year, we are powered by a young, motivated, and passionate workforce. Also, because of the shortage of employment opportunities, especially for freshers, people are becoming more interested in working in the BPO sector. The local market is growing and the government is outsourcing its citizen services through the BPO companies.

Raiyan Rabbani: The government has undertaken several initiatives to train the potential young talents through various training programs. Do you think that these initiatives are helping build a labour force in order to cater to the industry’s diverse needs? How can the private sector intervene to help drive forward the initiatives?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: The government has undertaken some great initiatives to train young talents in various sectors, such as information technologies, professional customer service, back office management, and some other vocational training courses as well. These programs, indeed, will boost the country’s economy in terms of creating a skilled workforce and thus catering to the diverse needs of the industry. At the same time, public sector organisations involve industry experts during the planning or requirement gathering phase so that industries can benefit from the skilled resources trained under those training programs. Alongside the government-provided training, I think it would be great if the private sector came forward and conducted some workshops on real industry needs and on-the-job behaviour so that the youth are ready for jobs before they are offered.

Raiyan Rabbani: There are a wide variety of offshoring services, ranging from web development to data entry. What are the broad categories of services provided by our local BPO industry? Do you think that our local industry has the potential to expand the categories of services, including AI and automation?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: Service providers in our industry have been providing a wide range of offshoring services, which include but are not limited to sales and customer operations, telemarketing, data and document processing, e-mail and chat support, digital marketing, virtual assistance, etc. Industry partners are helping clients to optimise and transform business processes, to be more data-driven, AI powered, and cloud-enabled, to work smarter, scale faster, be more productive, and eradicate costs across the enterprise with intelligent operations.

Raiyan Rabbani: One major barrier in the BPO industry is the lack of an efficient payment getaway, as it takes a lot of time to receive payments alongside a hefty amount of paperwork. Do you think that the introduction of PayPal will facilitate such transactions? What are the initiatives BPO firms are undertaking to make international transactions smooth?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: PayPal’s Xoom service is available in Bangladesh. But, the PayPal Wallet is not. Even wallet service companies can bring their foreign currency without any hassle. Bangladesh Bank has given few policies to help with this matter. Not only PayPal, there are more payment gateways that are available now.

Raiyan Rabbani: Since the BPO firms have to maintain unusual working shifts due to their dealings with clients from different time zones, younger people who work here tend to see this sector as a temporary career choice. What are the ways in which this industry can attract and retain the right talents?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: BPO provides young professionals with a stepping stone into a professional career. There are challenges in retaining talent in this industry. However, I think all the industries as a whole are becoming global, so catering services according to different time zones is a need of the time. I am sure the youths are aware of that and are well prepared to work in odd shifts, which would in turn help them to continue their studies if needed. As this industry employs younger generations, industry partners ensure best HR practises to maintain a friendly, enthusiastic, and yet professional workforce. This industry offers transferrable skills. Employees have started to see that and it is helping them for their future career.

Raiyan Rabbani: Since other companies outsource their activities to the BPO industry, there are contracts signed between the companies and the BPO firms beforehand. What are the key points BPO firms focus on while signing such contracts?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: Basically, any BPO firm focuses on some basic elements while signing a legally enforceable contract. There is agreement on both sides, which is shown by a scope of work, set KPI/SLA, and agreed-upon payment terms, contract length, etc.

Raiyan Rabbani: A good number of firms are operating in the BPO industry, and more are coming up every year. What are the future prospects and challenges of operating in this industry?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: BPO in the future will include not only tasks that can be automated but also highly technical operations. One area of growth is knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), a subset of BPO, which requires highly specialised expertise in areas such as digital marketing, healthcare, and banking. Big opportunities still exist in the internet market. On the other hand, dealing with highly demanding customers, tight budgets, crazy work hours and schedules, customer satisfaction, and attrition are just some of the challenges faced by this industry. Finding skilled resources is still the biggest challenge.

Raiyan Rabbani: Due to the increased availability of outsourcing platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, etc., skilled individuals are providing various services independently. Do you think that the opportunities for BPO firms are shrinking due to the increased availability of such platforms? Do BPO firms also take the help of such platforms to source contracts?

Wahidur Rahman Sharif: Usually, clients who want the broadest offshore services are eager to work with a BPO company rather than any freelancing platform. At the end of the day, it depends upon the volume and scope of work for something that is not secure in nature. Critical and sensitive in nature, clients are looking for BPO companies. Those platforms actually help with country branding and later, those freelances become entrepreneurs and enter into the industry.