The Importance of BSDQ22

Outsourcing managers worldwide are increasingly looking for vendors that display the capabilities of handling large volumes of business-critical processes in ever narrowing industry verticals at lowering marginal costs. This marks a giant twist to the whole game of outsourcing. For a BPO Vendor, this means a paradigm shift in no uncertain terms, if it wants to retain current clients and add new ones. The need is to prove one’s capabilities to deliver across verticals all the while retaining the same levels of functional delivery standards on ever lowering costs.

The BPO Services Delivery Certification by BCI has been developed to evaluate and assess the delivery capabilities of a BPO Vendor on stringent third party standards system, which itself reflects global bottomline expectations on delivery quality in BPO. BSDQ22’s true importance lies in the fact that it’s Standards and assessments cover all types of BPO Vendor organizations and not just Call centers or Customer Contact Centers.

Easily, this implies that even a KPO offering services in Market Research to its clients, can now meaningfully go in for a Delivery Capability Certification as BSDQ22 is extremely versatile in its architecture with two concentric levels of assessments – first, a generic, domain independent core and second, a roving, domain-dependent outer shell.

The BSDQ22 Clan of Certifications

BCI’s BSDQ22 – The BPO Service Delivery Certification – is a robust “device” to assess and certify the all-round capability level of a BPO services organization to deliver results and performances as desired, expected and contracted by clients outsourcing their processes to the BPO Services Organization/ Vendor. These Certifications are based on the BCI Service Delivery Master Standards (SDMS).

The BCI BSDQ22 Clan has 3 certification variants – each corresponding to three levels of service delivery capabilities of a BPO organization. These are:

The BCI BSDQ22 Certification – Advanced/ Highest Level
The BCI BSDQ14 Certification – Moderate Level/ Middle Level
The BCI BSDQ09 Certification – Entry Level

Applicability & Validity of BSDQ22

The versatile architecture of BSDQ22 enables it to be deployed on virtually any type and size of a BPO services delivery organization across domains, geographies, cultures and legal environments. Following is a sample list of types of BPOs that are currently covered under BSDQ22:

• Call Centers/ Contact Centers (Captive, Third Party, Outbound, Inbound)
• Knowledge Processes Services units
• HR Processes Services units
• Research Processes Services units
• Help Desks & Technical Support Services units
• Transaction Processing Services units
• Financial Processes Services units
• Medical Transcription Services units
• Many others as well

All BSDQ22 Certifications are valid for a period of 3 years from the date of award. BCI conducts review audits every six months to ascertain the consistency of compliance to the SDMS. The continuation of a BSDQ22 certification is, therefore dependent on favorable review reports that either do not detect significant deviations from the prescribed standards or detect deviations which the Certified Entity can conveniently bring back under control within a short period of time. In the event of a BSDQ22 Certified entity failing review audits (alongwith all the attendant benefits and privileges), a decision to withdraw the BSDQ22 may be taken.

Advantages of BSDQ22 for BPO Organizations

BSDQ22 is the most comprehensive Global Delivery Capabilities certification yet in the BPO space and as such offers a number of business and efficiency benefits to certified organizations. Some important ones are:

1. Enters the league of Global BPOs:

Assurance that the organization is functioning on global standards because BSDQ22 certification is awarded after ensuring that a BPO follows best-in-class practices, processes and systems

2. Inspires Current Clients:

Assures current clients about the BPO’s delivery capability and inspires them to increase business transactions. A BSDQ22 certified BPO therefore can expect to retain current clients better and demand a price premium as well as bigger business volumes from its current clients.

3. Attracts New Clients:

A BSDQ22 certification is an effective business development tool as it is seen by outsourcing customers as a delivery capability proof by a global body like the BCI.

4. Improves Organizational Efficiencies:

BSDQ22 certified BPOs show higher probability of functioning at optimal efficiencies because of well-toned processes and systems with globally benchmarked measures that prevent wastages and underperformance penalties.

BSDQ22 – The Generic Architecture

BSDQ22 assesses through 4 proprietary “toolsets” - Capability Spheres; Capability Reflectors; Capability Scoring System and Delivery Capability Master standards (SDMS). Anatomically, BSDQ22 is composed of 22 Capability Spheres – essentially the areas in which a BPO needs to show its capabilities. A BPO is assessed along each of these 22 areas using the toolsets – Capability Scoring System and Capability Reflectors.

In essence, every Capability Reflector in each Capability Sphere is rated using a Capability metric. This leads to an aggregate Capability score, which then is compared with the BCI Service Delivery Master standards (SDMS) to arrive at a particular BSDQ22 Level for the assessed organization.

Evaluation Across 22 Capability Spheres

The following is the most exhaustive set of Capability Spheres, which is deployed in BSDQ22, BSDQ 14 and BSDQ09 assess and certify considering 22, 14 and 9 of the following Capability Spheres respectively.

1. Top Management Quality
2. Location, Capacity & Resource Uniqueness
3. Employee Quality
4. Physical Infrastructure
5. Technology Infrastructure
6. Facilities Management
7. Client Interface Management
8. Workflows Management
9. Knowledge Management
10. Disaster Management
11. Employer Brand Equity
12. Employee Recruitment
13. Employee Development & Training
14. Performance Management
15. Quality Management
16. Work Culture & Climate
17. Legal Compliances Management
18. Verticals Specialization Degree
19. Process/ Task Handling Competencies
20. Work Delivery Technology
21. Supplier-base/ Partner Management
22. Internal Research & Development

BSDQ22 Capability Reflectors & Scores

Assessment in each Capability Sphere is done along 5 dimensions called Capability Reflectors. This assessment is presented in the form of a Capability Score. The Maximum Capability Score attainable is 100 in each Reflector and hence 500 in any Capability Sphere. The SDMS guides auditors and assessors during the scoring process and also in taking the final Certification decision.

Getting a BSDQ22 Certification – The Broad Roadmap

A BPO organization attains a BSDQ22 Certification only after the BSDQ22 Standards Board (BSB) is thoroughly convinced and satisfied that the subject organization’s (SO’s) performance data is BSDQ22 Standards compliant. All BSDQ22 pre-certification activities in a country or a geographical zone are handled by BCI’s Authorized BSDQ22 Audit Partner (BAP) in that area.

It should be noted that the attainment of BSDQ22 Certification is progressive and is contingent on the attainment of BSDQ09 and BSDQ14. An SO, therefore, gets BSDQ22 certifications in the following order – BSDQ09, BSDQ14 and BSDQ22.

The Broad Certification Process:

Step 1: RFI-based Organization Study by BAP to prepare Audit Activities Program (AAP)


Step 2: BSDQ22 Launch Seminar involving BAP Team Leader and the Top Management of the SO to discuss the Audit Activities Program and the scope and logistics of activities.


Step 3: Finalization of theBSDQ22 Certification Preparation Document (BCPD), which will act as the Master Guide for the SO BSDQ22 Project Team (BPT)


Step 4: Organization-wide baseline study - BSDQ22 Status Audit (BSA) to compile the current state of practices, systems and processes etc. in accordance to SDMS Guidelines. This is also the stage in which the auditors assess to what extent the SO is immediately fit for BSDQ09, BSDQ14 or BSDQ22.


Step 5: Gap analysis by BAP and Gap Report submission to the SO for improvement action and implementation (including the BSDQ22 Gap Modulus – the measure of deviation from SDMS


Step 6 (optional): BAP Intervenes in systems restructuring etc. as a consultant to bring them in line with SDMS requirements.


Step 7: SO undertakes to implement improvement in systems and processes on its own as prescribed in the Gap Report in Step 5.


Step 8: BAP conducts an organization-wide Pre-Certification Systems Check to measure the degree of compliances to SDMS and deviations from them, if any, once again.


Step 9: In the event of complete compliance with the SDMS, a certification decision is taken regarding award of BSDQ09, BSDQ14 or BSDQ22.


Step 10: Communication of the Certification decision – either an award or recommendations for further improvement.

For more details, please email us at: bpocertifications@skillroots.com