Did you know, India has the 2 nd largest education technology (EdTech) market after the USA.

The digital age has ushered a transformative wave in the otherwise conventional class-room education system in India. The emergence of over 4450 EdTech startups in the nation, seamlessly facilitating online education and coaching to over 300 million students (and counting) at a global scale, amply reflects that this sector is here to flourish and thrive way into the forthcoming decades.


Even though the journey of EdTech started somewhere in 2004 with the emergence of smart classrooms and satellite-based learning systems, it was not until the Pandemic days (2000-2022) that it became more of a necessity than an option. For an industry that was growing at a relaxed pace until 2015 is now growing exponentially at 20% CAGR to touch $2.8billion during 2001-2025 period.
As per market predictions, the number of smart phone users in India will rise to 1billion by 2026 making it feasible for people from the length and breadth of the nation to access online education easily and effectively, while overcoming the inherent shortcomings of severely lacking classroom infrastructure, especially when it comes to accommodating the stupendous growth in young population of learning age.

 

BPOs – The Bedrock Of Exponential EdTech Growth - 

Did you know, online up-skilling courses cost 53% less than their classroom counterparts.

So, how does the BPO sector come into the picture?
Taking a look at the sheer volume of EdTech expansion, it is practically impossible to cater to every individual student requirement through conventional, manual, paper-based operative means. Therefore, behind the emerging scene of tech-based online educational innovation, BPOs are playing an essential role in shouldering critical responsibilities to catalyze the growth and success of this dynamic industry.
Here are 8 unique reasons why BPOs have emerged to become the pillar on which the superstructure of EdTech rests -

 

1. The Driving Force of Scalability – 

EdTech companies often face unpredictable fluctuations in their workloads, particularly during peak enrollment seasons. This is where BPOs come to the rescue, offering the scalability needed to handle sudden surges in student registrations, inquiries, and administrative tasks. According to
Grand View Research, the global BPO market size is expected to reach $465.1 billion by 2028, emphasizing its role as an integral pillar of scalability.

 

2. Elevating Student Support to New Heights –

Intelligent and innovative BPO support has helped in addressing two core issues faced by students globally; availability and language barriers.

These advantages have played a key role in helping EdTech startups in India to take their presence overseas, easily and profitably.


3. Maximized Efficiency in Administrative Operations –

Complete control on voluminous yet scattered data is one of the key values that BPOs bring to the EdTech sector. Given that EdTech enterprises grapple with overflowing data ranging from student records to course materials, BPOs help in data entry, data cleaning, and data analysis; all digitized and automated, ensuring smooth, effortless operations at all levels.
BPOs further enable reduction in paperwork by streamlining administrative tasks like enrollment, registration, maintaining student records, cataloguing, creating digital educational content bank and grading through automated processes. This not only saves time, but it actively contributes towards eradicating laborious file-stacking as well, that paves the way for effortless operational accuracy.

 

4. Realizing Cost-Efficiencies -

By outsourcing tasks like student support, data processing, back-office operations, sales force implementation, market research, data management etc. EdTech firms can avoid the overhead costs associated with maintaining physical facilities. The infrastructural costs thus saved can be channeled into reinforcing new educational initiatives. Furthermore, BPOs contribute heavily in saving labor cost by facilitating the availability of skilled workforce at a fraction of the cost of in-house hiring.

 

5. Focusing on the Core Mission –

BPO services allow EdTech companies to focus on core decision making, planning and implementing newer and more innovative learning methods by shouldering secondary tasks that otherwise consume the lion’s share of time and resources. This focus on core competencies is pivotal in a sector where, staying relevant and competitive is the only survival strategy.

 

6. Ensuring Compliance and Quality –

Different nations have different policies, rules and regulations for operation of EdTech companies. EdTech ventures that contemplate global exposure, need to be aware about each and every regulatory nuances so that problems associated with non-compliance can be averted. BPOs however, are trained in regulatory compliances and can thus offer ready-made, error free solutions that are in tune with the educational policies of individual nations. Offering high quality compliant services helps EdTech firms maintain their relevance at a global scale.

 

7. Subject Expertise –

EdTech companies can now bank on BPOs for instant access to teams that are already proficient in the subject matters they teach. This removes a
chunk of additional and rather expensive responsibilities in the part of EdTech companies like hiring / training inhouse staff and developing comprehensive
employee retention programs. Reputed BPOs keep themselves prepared with the right infrastructure and expertise so that they can instantly accessed to address all queries accurately, at the shortest possible time and across all streams and courses.
EdTech startups that aim to get a kick-start in this already competitive industry can make the most of this benefit.

 

8. Agility in Response to Market Flux –

Adapting to changes in demands, living up to the call of AI, VR and machine learning and understanding the evolving learning requirements of students world-wide, necessitates herculean agility in the part of EdTech companies. Since inhouse / manual efforts in this respect is as good as no effort at all, BPO
services can remedy the gap by providing ample flexibility in tracking trends through agile market research and offering competitive solutions with near-perfect accuracy. This agility is essential for launching new courses, expanding into new regions or implementing cutting-edge technologies within the domain.

 

What Happens Next

Did you know, schools in nearly 188 countries had to shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic, that directly affected 1.5billion students and 63 million primary and secondary teachers, globally.

The agility with which the EdTech sector could cater to the suddenly-crumbling educational system during the emergency is laudable, and a considerable share of the success can be credited to BPOs. The symbiotic relationship between the two sectors however, is expected to create ripples
of long-term industry advantages like significant cost cutting, easy global reach, cutting-edge performance from day 1, catering to improved learner engagement and most importantly, making affordable yet effective education available at all levels.

 

Reference:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/the-popularity-of-indian-edtech/articleshow/100652882.cms?from=mdr

https://www.kserve.co.in/how-outsourcing-can-help-edtech-businesses-improve-their-business-operations/

https://www.theoctopustech.com/how-bpo-services-help-edutech/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/outlook-2023-future-of-edtech-sector-in-india/

https://community.nasscom.in/communities/talent/edtech/the-edtech-story-1-the-edtech-landscape-a-brief-overview.html#:~:text=Indian%20Edtech%20journey%20started%20in,venturing%20into%20providing%20online%20education.