India BPO Trends Blog

Neighbours Evil Eye

P. Venkat — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 07:15:24 +0000

This article in today’s Economic Times, sums up what I have been also saying for a long time.

Good management jargon may be used to explain away, what is basically an unethical act. Free market be true, but is it ethical to take away from some one else what he has spent time and efforts in building up.

And if every one gets into the same game of poaching, then how long will we remain low cost destination?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/629963.cms

BPO Hiring issues

P. Venkat — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:17:22 +0000

So now we have a call center in Pune that is enticing candidates with most luxurious SUVs to drop and pick up.

And they also expect call center agents to switch or jump jobs because of that.

Whatever happened to good old fashioned things like career, job enrichment, HR policies etc etc.

It only reflects the desperation of an Recruitment Manager who is extremely desirous of making the numbers, come what may.

In the short term approach, the long term desire of building a dedicated corp of team players is forgotten.

Clutching at straws is the expression that comes to mind.

Venkat

BPO Hiring issues

P. Venkat — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 08:34:09 +0000

The resource crunch for BPOs is being reached faster than what anyone thought would happen.

The following picture says a thousand words.

This is a large size hoarding that is being displayed on the main streets of Pune, India. Besides quite a few choice locations, this billboard is also being displayed in moving trucks that are parked at key road intersections.

Just sit back and think. A call center is becoming so desperate for employees that they are trying to lure potential candidates by offering better vehicles for pick up and drop for the night shifts.

The looming labor shortage

P Venkat — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 05:36:32 +0000

Hello,

It looks like India’s BPO boom would have to face reality rather sooner than expected.

The labor shortage, which I have been talking about earlier is now catching the attention of mainstream media.

This article in the CIO Today magazine carries highlights from the Nasscom McKinsey study about the pitfalls of the scenario going forward.

The study carries some strong messages if India needs to keep the momentum going.

Meanwhile the fight for scarce resources is on amongst the players who have already landed here.

This results in shortage even to the domestic industry and other sectors. For example, a NY based law firm setting up operations here in Mumbai has taken about 300 Lawyers and para legals at salaries that are double what the market pays for such skill sets. This no doubt results in a shortage of lawyer for law firms who were themselves otherwise overburdened by the growing economic activity.

Venkat

Two flooding

P Venkat — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 00:37:58 +0000

Whew…some of my regulars might be wondering why I am not blogging more often.

Well, my inability to contribute regularly started off with my travel to the US. A week or two before the trip, I was busy getting all the things I needed for the trip in order. While on the 2 week trip itself, I did 8 cities in about 10 working days. Except on two occasions over weekends, I did not sleep on the same bed for two consecutive nights. After coming back, I got busy meeting the deliverables that I had promised during the trip.

But what is more of a co-incidence is the two flooding that occurred. While I was in the US, Mumbai ( and to some extent Pune ) received unprecedented 110 year record rainfalls. While Mumbai was flooded and non operational for over a week, our own delivery center faced flooding issues and had to shut down for two days due to power outages that exceeded the capacity of the Generators to keep powering.

Now that I am back in India, I am witnessing the news of the Katrina Hurricane and the damage that it has left in its wake.

While most disasters are unforeseen there can still be some degree of planning. Multiple locations being made fully operational is one of them. Both from the clients side and the vendors side.

The lessons are clear. If you want to be able to quickly tide over disasters, Disaster Recovery Management is critical.

Venkat

Vital Link Outsourcing

Indian BPOs - 3 breeds - 1/?

P Venkat — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 23:07:31 +0000

Many general participants do not realize that there are 3 distinct breeds of BPOs.

Each one of them have their own origins, imperatives and other such characteristics.

What are they?

1. Pure Play Third Party BPOs

Owned independent of the customers. Some background in the industry vertical / processes. Serves many customers and mostly no single customer forms a large percentage of its turnover.

2. Captives

Owned and set up by the customer. A captive back office for a US / UK corporation. Processes are defined and move to India.

3. Software Backed BPOs

Owned or promoted by Indian software companies. May share many characteristics with Pure play third party BPOs but are different enough to be mentioned as a separate entity.

What are their characteristics? How do they differ? Why should I know more about them?

Venkat

Indian BPO’s help out in London Blasts

P Venkat — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 05:10:07 +0000

After all the bad press in the UK arising out of the Sun’s so called sting operation here is some good news.

Indian call centers which handle National Rail’s calls were jammed due to the surge in communication needs arising out of the London blasts and rose up to the occasion.

P. Venkat

CEO

Vital Link Outsourcing

The Sun Tabloid BPO fraud

P Venkat — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:47:25 +0000

There has been yet more fraud and this too is unraveling itself in its myriad ways.

Most the world knows the penchant of British tabloids for yellow journalism. And the free availability of all sorts of content whether copy protected / data secured or not in South Asian countries.

Combine both of them and you have something that hogs the headlines in our Industry for a few days. But digging deeper into the facts, it is becoming murkier by the day. In fact what are facts and what are not is itself becoming confusing.

But then this kind of sting could have worked anywhere in the world. Even back home in UK. Nuclear secrets have been sold for far lesser motives and even lesser pecuniary gains.

When it comes to Data Security even in the US systems have been hacked into and identities stolen.

But then business is going on as normal.

The Economic Times reports that Fortune 500 companies favor India.

Venkat

India Outsourcing BPO Costs - 5/?

P Venkat — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:34:12 +0000

Hello,

Here is reason No 4 on why costs in Pune are coming to be on par with that of Bangalore and Chennai.

4. Geographic mobility:

With the internet, as they say Geography is now History. While this easily applies and is apparent to flow of information, riding on the back of such information is a cross pollination of culture and weakening of ethnic affinities. Cheapening air travel and no frills airlines have given a further impetus to physical mobility.

At least with in a country this applies easily. Crossing international borders can still invite impediments such as visas and quotas etc. often designed to maintain a higher protective barrier for domestic labor.

Food and tastes for food have become uniform all over the country. No longer does the Tamilian hanker after idlis and dosas only diet. He or she is quite comfortable with rotis and sabjis. And the Puneites do not stick to waran bhat either.

Young folks are more willing to move. They have fewer responsibilities. An email account and a mobile with roaming rates dropping all the time, helps them to keep in touch with their parents, if they so desire.

So with cross flow of labor intra country labor arbitrage opportunities should disappear if not become minimal.

But then this is even more so in the US of A. How have costs behaved in the Silicon Valley / North East as against the Central / Midwest?

What influences costs in various cities and why do certain cities continue to remain cost effective?

Watch out in the next.

Venkat

India Outsourcing BPO Costs - 4/? ( Poaching )

P Venkat — Sun, 29 May 2005 11:04:21 +0000

Hello,

Continuing with my list of reasons as to why costs in Pune are coming on par with that of Bangalore and Chennai..

3. You sow and I will reap:

Most of the BPOs always want to staff in a hurry. In Tamil there is a saying that goes something like..If I see the dog I do not have the stone to throw at it..and when I have the stone..the dog is not to be seen. Lest my US readers who love their dogs more than we do here, take umbrage, the saying refers to a street mongrel with rabid tendencies and not that darling you dote upon at home. But I digress.

Coming back…when a BPO is set up, it is a chicken and egg story. Which comes first? Customers or employees. You should have one to have the other. In case my US readers are still bristling, this is where the dog and stone analogy kicks in. If you have customers…and you know their needs…you know whom to hire. But if you hire ahead of the sales then you add to the monthly burn. And you can never be sure of the length of the sales cycle and the customer commitment. So Sales, being the magicians that they are, indulge in some poetic license when it comes to stating delivery capabilities.

But once the sale is closed and the initial pilot has gone through successfully, customers get greedy. The clients’ manager who has P & L responsibility wants to cut costs by sending more work to India. He has tasted success and wants to reap it all in. A quarter coming to an end adds a tremendous sense of urgency to stone that dog. The term ’scaling up’ gets bandied about a lot in the late night / early morning conference calls.

Sales has till then, knowing how to do its job well, given an impression that in Pune / Bangalore / Chennai you can get the required skill-sets freely roaming on the streets in numbers greater than the snakes and tigers combined. In case some of my Indian readers take umbrage at using ‘tigers’ and ‘poaching’ in the same mail please excuse me. But I tigress.

The clients’ manager, taking huge gulps of his Kool-aid, wants to see head count go up starting yesterday. Sales starts telling Head of Delivery to now start delivering. They have got the customer and their job is now over. The Delivery Head sees prospects of egg ( or chicken, or whatever ) all over his face. He yanks the HR guy who in turn spoils the sleep of the head hunters. The word is out on the streets…300 new hires in one week. Bonuses if targets are met.

The head hunters have until then also done a good job of their own Sales to the HR Manager. Led him to believe that required skill-sets in abundant numbers are all practically jostling for space in his rolodex and databases. Why..just last week he had to remove all the snakes, tigers, chicken, egg and dogs combined to create more space.

The Head Hunters have to now do what they have to do. Get the head count. But where to get ready made skilled trained staff from. Go up to the competition down the street and offer something more. Something more..like may be…double the salary.

But what about delivery costs, the CA ( CPA ) in me might ask. But the Head of Delivery and the HR Manager will themselves be offered double salary at some point of time before the bean counters roll in.