• December 2006
  • Outsourcing: Beyond Bangalore
    After 10 months of working with software developers in Bangalore, India, Bill Wood was ready to call it quits. The local engineers would start a project, get a few months' experience, and then bolt for greener pastures, says the U.S.-based executive. Attrition rose to such a high level that year that Wood's company had to replace its entire staff, some positions more than once. "It did not work well at all," recalls Wood, vice-president of engineering at Ping Identity, a maker of Internet security software for corporations. Frustrated, Wood began searching for a partner outside India. He scoured 15 companies in 8 different countries, including Russia, Mexico, Argentina, and Vietnam.
  • BPOs on call even during holiday season
    When the clock strikes 12 to ring in the New Year, Anoop Sridhar, a BPO executive in Bangalore, could well be selling a laptop to some customer in the US or the UK.
  • i-flex writes program for big BPO play
    After products and services, i-flex Solutions, is now drawing up plans for a big BPO play. The software major has incorporated a new firm, i-flex Processing Services (IPSL), that will serve as the umbrella for all its BPO service offerings. Currently, BPO accounts for less 5% of its revenues, while its products and services contribute about equally to the total revenue.
  • Assocham asks for Rs 100 cr fund for BPO, KPO
    Industry body Assocham has demanded creation of a Rs 100 crore Venture Capital Fund to enable various domestic outsourcing industries to take on global giants and retain their strength in the global market.
  • Aussie Bank, St George sticks outsourcing 76 jobs to India
    Amid raging controversy over outsourcing of jobs, Australia's leading bank, St George's Bank has said it is sticking to its decision to send 76 computer services jobs to India due to competition.
  • Taiwan quake causes tremors in Indian BPOs
    The strong earthquake in Taiwan on Tuesday night that cut undersea cables, telephone lines and internet pipes, has put the BPO industry in India on a 'sporadic mode'.
  • Speculation over EDS offer hike for Mphasis
    MphasiS has gained close to 7% in the last week, closing at Rs 288, down marginally from Tuesday’s close. Speculation is rife that in case EDS wants its open offer to be successful, it will have to increase the price significantly above the current market price.
  • Expansion of software firms, small BPOs stuck in SEZ logjam
    As controversy continues to court special economic zones (SEZs), the expansion plans of many small and medium software and BPO firms are being hit. Many of them have already postponed their plans to invest in new locations till there is more clarity on the continuation of tax holidays for the existing Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme under Section 10 A and 10 B of the Income-Tax Act.
  • M2M to Acquire KNOVA
    In general, it appears to be a good strategy for the firms, Rebecca Wetteman, vice president of Nucleus Research told CRM Buyer. "Adding self-service capabilities to Onyx's technology portfolio will give M2M a more complete CRM offering; there's likely some upsell opportunities for KNOVA in Onyx's customer base, too," she explained.
  • Aussie banks plan to outsource to India
    Leading Australian banks, including ANZ and St George, are planning to send their back office jobs to India. A media report said an analysis of the latest statements by the so-called "four plus one" leading Australian banks suggests there was a slow but growing movement to transfer processing work done here to lower-cost countries like India.
  • BPO staffs get richer in the year-end
    Ushering in the New Year at work? Don’t be disheartened - as a BPO employee you may end up a tad bit richer if you resist the temptation of taking that year-end break, and instead make it to office.
  • How HIPAA Affects CRM and Vice Versa
    The aim of CRM is to meet -- and grow -- the wants, needs and expectations of customers in order to increase the profitability of the CRM sponsor. The goal within healthcare organizations isn't much different. Hospitals and clinics want to remain top-of-mind with existing patients while attracting and retaining prospects in their communities.
  • Santa brings bag of goodies for those who slog it out
    Ushering in the New Year at work? Don’t be disheartened — as a BPO employee you may end up a tad richer if you resist the temptation of taking that year-end break, and instead make it to office.
  • Outsourcing: Beyond Bangalore!
    After 10 months of working with software developers in Bangalore, India, Bill Wood was ready to call it quits. The local engineers would start a project, get a few months' experience, and then bolt for greener pastures, says the U.S.-based executive.
  • Hyderabad police cares for BPOs during X'mas
    Late night partying and revelry may be the flavour of the Christmas and the New Year season, but the Hyderabad police is not leaving anything to chance when it comes to the safety of the young IT/ITeS employees.
  • IT, BPO sectors grow higher profile in GDP charts
    INDIA’S software and ITeS industry has together contributed 4.8% to the gross domestic product in 2005-06, according to a year-end review released by the ministry of communications and information technology. The industry’s contribution to GDP stood at 1.2% during 1999-2000.
  • SMEs poised to join offshoring
    The momentum of offshoring in the IT industry will increasingly become more globalised with newer locations and also see increased participation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the years to come, according to Tholons, an investment advisory and management firm.
  • Outsourcing radar picks up medical representatives
    INDIAN pharmaceutical companies are outsourcing a portion of their medical representative workforce, in a bid to become more competitive. The move supports expansion into newer geographies in the domestic market, and could be aimed at reducing the hold of trade unions.
  • Infosys BPO to target hospitality industry
    Bangalore-based Infosys BPO is targeting the hospitality industry for its outsources processes offering. The company has formed a strategic alliance with New York-based hospitality consultancy major HVS International.
  • H'bad police cares for BPOs during X'mas
    Late night partying and revelry may be the flavour of the Christmas and the New Year season, but the Hyderabad police is not leaving anything to chance when it comes to the safety of the young IT/ITeS employees.
  • IT, ITes to contribute 7 pc to GDP by 2008
    The IT and will contribute to seven per cent of the country's GDP by 2007-08 from 4.8 per cent in 2005-06, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
  • A Look Back at CRM in 2006
    The fact is that and there are documented Salesforce customers who are now buying the development and deployment technology without regard for the CRM components. A marketplace is emerging for on-demand applications, development, and deployment services. With a viable market in place, traditional vendors will continue to feel the heat.
  • Nipuna wins $25-m animation deal
    Nipuna Services Limited, Satyam’s BPO subsidiary, today announced that it has signed a $ 25 million “edutainment” deal with 4K Animation Limited, UK for the execution and delivery of two European animation projects.
  • BPO hubs claim top slots in inflation charts, metros lag
    Be it transport costs or housing costs, but prices for the salaried class in major BPO centres are rising faster than in metro centres like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

    According to the latest consumer price inflation (CPI for non-manual employees) data, inflation for the salaried class has crossed 7% in October. But it is BPO centres like Hyderabad (7.7%), Pune (8.5%) and emerging centres like Bhopal (11.7%) and Jaipur (8.5%) that had higher inflation.

  • WNS eyes buyouts and new verticals
    WNS, the Mumbai-based BPO services, is looking at adding new service offerings and acquisitions in the near future. WNS is one of the first BPO companies with bulk of its operations in India, to go public in the US.
  • Sutherland India to hire over 3000 next year
    Business process outsourcing firm Sutherland Global Services has expanded to a second city in Philippines setting up operations in Clark, doubling its headcount in the country to 2000 people. The US headquartered company already has two centres in Philippines capital Manila. It would expand its headcount to 3000 people in the next 12 months there, the company said.
  • EBIT- Spheris plans to double its headcount
    Spheris India, the Indian arm of the US - based medical transcription company, plans to double its headcount at its Coimbatore facility.
  • Philippines firm to acquire Affinity Express
    The Filipinos have come. The Ayala Corp, a diversified conglomerate from the Philippines, with a market apitalisation of $11.5 billion, is believed to have acquired Affinity Express Inc, a graphics BPO, for over $25 million.
  • BPOs plan to share office, infrastructure
    Indian BPO corridors are abuzz with the idea of sharing office space to put their high-cost idle infrastructure into optimum use.
  • Young at heart, old on skills
    It’s easy to mistake the Chennai campus of Scope International, the BPO arm of Standard Chartered Bank, for a posh B-School. Young men and women, who could still pass off as students, walk around in groups. In front of a trendy canteen inside the campus, young people sit around in chairs and discuss, as if there is an important exam ahead.
  • iGATE to double headcount
    iGATE Global Solutions, a mid tier IT and BPO services company will be doubling its headcount of its testing services and is aiming at 10% of its topline to come from this segment in the next fiscal.
  • IBM Daksh gets Pavan Vaish as CEO
    IBM has appointed Pavan Vaish as the CEO of IBM Daksh. As co-founder of Daksh e-Services, Vaish has played a key role in growing Daksh from a start-up in 2000 to what it is today, a leader in the industry.
  • IT pros dance their way out of stress
    Dance your way out of stress - that is the new fitness mantra for thousands of young IT and BPO professionals in the country.
  • BPOs have right to union: ILO
    The International Labour Organisation said on Wednesday the employees of Indian BPOs are well within their rights to unionise themselves while the national level unions can reach out to them.
  • Genpact plans SEZs, hires over 800 a month
    Genpact, a leading BPO player, on Wednesday announced its expansion plans in Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur. It has received an in-principle clearance to set-up three special economic zones from the ministry of commerce in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur. Discussions are in advanced stages with the three state governments.
  • LPO may not take off in a hurry
    The Indian IT industry's ambitions of becoming the primary destination for legal process outsourcing may fall short as myriad issues ranging from dearth of professionals to lack of cost arbitrage would clamp it down.
  • 10 outsourcing bases in China by 2010
    China has decided to develop 10 outsourcing base cities by 2010 to transform the Communist giant as the most favoured outsourcing destination of multinationals.
  • Teaching work ethics to Indian BPO employees
    Laxity at work and lack of responsibility have often been cited as major drawbacks of call centre workers in India, but now an Indian-American plans to teach BPO (business process outsourcing) employees a thing or two about work ethics and delivering quality.
  • Contact Center Platform Enhances Customer Interaction
    All together there were five areas CosmoCall enhanced in this upgrade. Besides video calling, the company also redesigned the e-mail and voice mail interface, and added new call transfer, security features and reporting features. Version 5 has also enhanced access to call detail reports.
  • Is women BPO staff safe in Bangalore?
    The heightened security measures following the alleged rape and murder of Pratibha Srikanth Murthy last year seems to have been lowered in due course. Reasons vary. From the authorities lowering the guard, to women employees feeling stringent security arrangements are not required.
  • Pratibha murder case trial to start in Jan
    The trial of Shivakumar, the accused in the Pratibha Srikanth Murthy murder case, is yet to begin, even after a year has passed since she was murdered. Police said the trial would commence next month.“The trial of the accused will start from January 2007,” Gopal Hosur, Joint Commissioner of Police, told CyberMedia News today.
  • Evolving virtual representative spooks BPOs
    One of the big threats to the $8.4-billion business process outsourcing industry is not that some other country will be able to take away the work from India but that virtual representatives (v-reps) might take up the jobs of a BPO agent.
  • US firm has lessons for lax desi BPO staff
    Laxity at work and lack of responsibility have often been cited as major drawbacks of call centre workers here, but now an Indian-American plans to teach BPO employees a thing or two about work ethics and delivering quality.
  • RPO imperative for Indian HR managers
    Over 80 per cent of HR managers believe recruitment process outsourcing plays an important role in recruitment and over 50 per cent have evaluated and used RPO in their companies, according to a survey.
  • Can Your Firm Be Sued for a Data Breach?
    In July 2003, California Senate Bill 1386 went into effect, becoming the first state law providing for mandatory notification in the event of a breach. Some 30 states have enacted similar legislation. Although these laws do not provide for a private cause of action, they could still contribute to increased litigation because more consumers will know about data breaches.
  • Taxman makes a case for netting foreign BPOs here
    Challenging a finding of the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR), the department of income tax (DIT) has told the Supreme Court that it has a right to tax a slice of the global income of Morgan Stanley on the ground that Morgan Stanley’s BPO operations in India, constituting a permanent establishment (PE), perform an integral role in its securities trading operations.
  • Synygy plans to double headcount here
    Synygy Inc, the sales performance management solution provider plans to double its headcount in India in the next two years. The company has 200 employees in India.
  • Illegal Web calls by BPOs face axe
    After blogs and websites, the government is planning a clampdown on BPOs and KPOs over, what it feels is, illegal use of internet telephony.
  • Thousands of BPO jobs that pay BIG
    Business process outsourcinglives. Initially, it was driven by foreign companies that shifted work to India to save on labour costs. But with time, it has thrived and evolved. Now, a number of Indian companies too are farming out work to specialist outfits to keep expenses down. These outfits comprise the 'domestic BPO' sector.
  • Infosys may log onto Nasdaq 100
    Leading Indian software firm Infosys Technologies could probably be rubbing shoulders with other corporate giants listed on the coveted Nasdaq 100 as a direct consequence of its secondary offering of 30 million American Depository Shares (ADS).
  • TCS, Wipro bid for C&W's outsourcing agreement
    Domestic IT majors Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro are believed to be front-runners for a multi-million outsourcing deal from UK-based telecom and networking major Cable & Wireless.
  • Pyxis, an Indian KPO adventure in the derivative segment
    Knowledge process outsourcing is not only about high-end processing, legal work and healthcare outsourcing. It is a knowledge-rich industry and most players have carved out their niches in this multi-billion dollar industry.
  • BPOs target 'quick-exit' staffers
    Think twice before you abandon that BPO job in a hurry. BPO companies such as Genpact, IBM Daksh and HCL BPO are cracking the whip on employees who leave without intimating the company or refuse to serve their notice period.

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