Is this the beginning of the end for the fast-growing BPO sector? Sceptics have for some time been pointing to the double whammy of skyrocketing attrition and absenteeism as a potential stumbling block. Add to this the increasing number of disillusioned MNCs gravitating towards the exit sign, and the dismal picture is complete. Consider: Not too long ago, Wipro's BPO (formerly Spectramind) lost a part of the outbound voice work it would do for CapitalOne; then AXA Business Services lost a portion of the captive work it used to do from Bangalore. Now it's the turn of Sykes, a Tampa (Florida)-based call centre firm to cut its workforce, according to a filing it has made with the us Securities And Exchange Commission. Sykes says it will move "some" Indian work, with some reports pointing to half the $4 million (Rs 17.6 crore) in revenues generated from this centre being repatriated to other centres in the Asia-Pacific (in the Philippines and China) and workforce in Bangalore being slashed by 50 per cent.
Sykes' rejig comes only a few months after it had ambitiously announced it would hike its India employee numbers to 1,500 from 600 currently. Sykes, of course, isn't an exception. Recently, AT&T, which has been acquired by us telecom giant SBC, also cut work to its Indian vendors. And before that, computer maker Dell had repatriated some work for top-end corporate customers from its Bangalore operations.
So what's igniting this mini-exodus? For starters, many vendors, especially those in the small and medium category, often fail to deliver on service level agreements and have limited domain skills. Attrition remains the main issue, one coo says, adding that by the time an operator has spent six months training a new agent, he or she has jumped ship, necessitating further hiring. Even a large centre like Wipro BPO has 90 per cent attrition rates. "Customers now want to see Indian operators take a more proactive approach... take interest in process re-engineering," one executive says, adding that the days of simple "garbage in-garbage out" mentality are history. Infosys' Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy's recent prediction that call centres may get obsolete once VOIP and voice recognition technology matures will hopefully act as a wake up call for pure-play contact centres to focus harder on data processing work.
PS: Wipro Spectramind has been renamed as Wipro BPO after the integration was over.
Courtesy: BT
Sykes' rejig comes only a few months after it had ambitiously announced it would hike its India employee numbers to 1,500 from 600 currently. Sykes, of course, isn't an exception. Recently, AT&T, which has been acquired by us telecom giant SBC, also cut work to its Indian vendors. And before that, computer maker Dell had repatriated some work for top-end corporate customers from its Bangalore operations.
So what's igniting this mini-exodus? For starters, many vendors, especially those in the small and medium category, often fail to deliver on service level agreements and have limited domain skills. Attrition remains the main issue, one coo says, adding that by the time an operator has spent six months training a new agent, he or she has jumped ship, necessitating further hiring. Even a large centre like Wipro BPO has 90 per cent attrition rates. "Customers now want to see Indian operators take a more proactive approach... take interest in process re-engineering," one executive says, adding that the days of simple "garbage in-garbage out" mentality are history. Infosys' Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy's recent prediction that call centres may get obsolete once VOIP and voice recognition technology matures will hopefully act as a wake up call for pure-play contact centres to focus harder on data processing work.
PS: Wipro Spectramind has been renamed as Wipro BPO after the integration was over.
Courtesy: BT
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