Call Centre Industry in India

2003-11-08T07:29:00.001-08:00

BBC NEWS | Business | Call centres 'getting slower'

Calls should be answered in 10 seconds. Customers are kept waiting up to 25% longer to have their calls answered by call centres than four years ago, a new survey has suggested. Callers have to wait an average 29 seconds longer to have their calls answered compared to 24 seconds in 1999.

Call centres located in the United States are the worst for answering the phone quickly while European-based centres are the quickest.

"The trend of making customers wait longer in queues is a worrying one, which does nothing to enhance the reputation of the industry," Andrew Briggs spokesman for the report's authors Dimension Data said.

Missed targets

Call centres across the globe are failing to meet their own customer service targets.

The number of calls answered within 10 seconds - the industry recognised standard of best practice - has fallen since 1999.

Fewer than six out of 10 call centres managed to answer the phone within 10 seconds.

In 1999 the survey found that more than 70% of call centres managed to meet the 10 second standard.

Customers based in the US fare the worst with only 43% of calls being answered within 10 seconds compared to 70% in Europe, 59% in Africa and 58% in the Asia-Pacific.

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2003-11-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Business | Call centres 'getting slower'

2003-11-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

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2003-11-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

FT.com / Business >> Another reason for call centres shifting to India.

Call centres keep customers hanging on
By Louisa Hearn in London
Published: November 7 2003 9:50 | Last Updated: November 7 2003 9:50

Call centre waiting times are 25 per cent longer than they were four years ago as companies cut back on investment in technology, according to new research findings.

The study, conducted on behalf of London-listed IT group, Dimension Data, researched call centres worldwide and found that waiting times for calls to be answered is growing rather than shrinking.

The length of time customers waited to have calls answered averaged 24 seconds in 1999, but by 2003 this had widened to 29 seconds.

The proportion of calls that were answered within the industry benchmark of 10 seconds fell from 72 per cent in 1999 to 59 per cent this year.

The study found that US customers had received the poorest service with only 43 per cent of calls being answered within 10 seconds compared with 70 per cent in Europe, 59 per cent in Africa and 58 per cent in Asia-Pacific.

The research also indicates that customers are adapting to longer waiting times. The average waiting time in a queue before hanging up was 71 seconds compared with 49 seconds in 1999.

Andrew Briggs, chief executive of customer interactive solutions for Dimension Data, said: "Customers appear to be bearing the brunt of budget restraints and reduced investment. This is a false economy as businesses need to understand the long-term impact of keeping customers waiting is that they run the risk of losing them."

In terms of response times, those who left telephone messages fared far better than those leaving email messages, in the 2003 study. Phone messages were on average attended to within 9 hours whereas responses to customer emails took around 22 hours.

Call centre staff accounted for 3 per cent of the employed population in the UK this year, but suffered substantial attrition problems. Staff turnover for the year was estimated at about 25 per cent in Europe and the UK.

Possibly contributing to this is evidence that UK salary levels have remained comparable to those in 1999.

The industry has also been undergoing a shift for several years toward outsourcing to lower-cost regions such as India, where staff costs are substantially lower.

Although the research did not indicate how this was impacting salary levels, it reports that Africa has the least well paid agents with 94 per cent of centres paying an annual salary of less than $10,000.

2003-11-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | Bank closes call centre

The Newcastle call centre will close by the end of next year. Hundreds of people face losing their jobs after a UK bank announced it is closing a call centre on Tyneside.

Lloyds TSB has announced it is closing its Newcastle call centre, where more than 900 staff are employed, by the end of next year.

Finance union UNIFI reacted angrily to the announcement.

In a statement, Lloyds TSB said: "This has been a very difficult decision and has only been made after considerable thought and discussion.

"We operate in a fiercely competitive environment and it is vital that we find ways of running our business effectively and competitively, in order to continue to invest in the service and products we provide to our customers.

Industrial action

"We aim to manage any reduction in jobs with care and sensitivity through natural staff turnover and redeploying staff elsewhere within the Group.

"In September 2003, we announced our intention to have 1,500 jobs in India by the end of 2004, of which these roles are a part.

"No other Lloyds TSB contact centres are affected by this move."

The centre in Newcastle currently employs 986 people. Some staff are employed in part time roles, so this is equivalent to 750 full time roles.

Bernadette Fisher, UNIFI's national officer said: "This is a callous move by Lloyds TSB, jumping on the outsourcing overseas bandwagon accelerated by HSBC earlier this month, and shows that despite all Lloyds' statements on social responsibility it has no respect for staff, customers or local communities.

"It is purely in the business of generating profit without a conscience."

The union is consulting with members about the way forward, and it says a proposal for industrial action has not been ruled out.

2003-11-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

The flight to India : The jobs Britain stole from the Asian subcontinent 200 years ago are now being returned
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Comment | George Monbiot: The flight to India

George Monbiot
Tuesday October 21, 2003
The Guardian

If you live in a rich nation in the English-speaking world, and most of your work involves a computer or a telephone, don't expect to have a job in five years' time. Almost every large company which relies upon remote transactions is starting to dump its workers and hire a cheaper labour force overseas. All those concerned about economic justice and the distribution of wealth at home should despair. All those concerned about global justice and the distribution of wealth around the world should rejoice. As we are, by and large, the same people, we have a problem.
Britain's industrialisation was secured by destroying the manufacturing capacity of India. In 1699, the British government banned the import of woollen cloth from Ireland, and in 1700 the import of cotton cloth (or calico) from India. Both products were forbidden because they were superior to our own. As the industrial revolution was built on the textiles industry, we could not have achieved our global economic dominance if we had let them in. Throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries, India was forced to supply raw materials to Britain's manufacturers, but forbidden to produce competing finished products. We are rich because the Indians are poor.

Now the jobs we stole 200 years ago are returning to India. Last week the Guardian revealed that the National Rail Enquiries service is likely to move to Bangalore, in south-west India. Two days later, the HSBC bank announced that it was cutting 4,000 customer service jobs in Britain and shifting them to Asia. BT, British Airways, Lloyds TSB, Prudential, Standard Chartered, Norwich Union, Bupa, Reuters, Abbey National and Powergen have already begun to move their call centres to India. The British workers at the end of the line are approaching the end of the line.

There is a profound historical irony here. Indian workers can outcompete British workers today because Britain smashed their ability to compete in the past. Having destroyed India's own industries, the East India Company and the colonial authorities obliged its people to speak our language, adopt our working practices and surrender their labour to multinational corporations. Workers in call centres in Germany and Holland are less vulnerable than ours, as Germany and Holland were less successful colonists, with the result that fewer people in the poor world now speak their languages.

The impact on British workers will be devastating. Service jobs of the kind now being exported were supposed to make up for the loss of employment in the manufacturing industries which disappeared overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. The government handed out grants for cybersweatshops in places whose industrial workforce had been crushed by the closure of mines, shipyards and steelworks. But the companies running the call centres appear to have been testing their systems at government expense before exporting them somewhere cheaper.

It is not hard to see why most of them have chosen India. The wages of workers in the service and technology industries there are roughly one tenth of those of workers in the same sectors over here. Standards of education are high, and almost all educated Indians speak English. While British workers will take call-centre jobs only when they have no choice, Indian workers see them as glamorous. One technical support company in Bangalore recently advertised 800 jobs. It received 87,000 applications. British call centres moving to India can choose the most charming, patient, biddable, intelligent workers the labour market has to offer.

There is nothing new about multinational corporations forcing workers in distant parts of the world to undercut each other. What is new is the extent to which the labour forces of the poor nations are also beginning to threaten the security of our middle classes. In August, the Evening Standard came across some leaked consultancy documents suggesting that at least 30,000 executive positions in Britain's finance and insurance industries are likely to be transferred to India over the next five years. In the same month, the American consultants Forrester Research predicted that the US will lose 3.3 million white-collar jobs between now and 2015. Most of them will go to India.

Just over half of these are menial "back office" jobs, such as taking calls and typing up data. The rest belong to managers, accountants, underwriters, computer programmers, IT consultants, biotechnicians, architects, designers and corporate lawyers. For the first time in history, the professional classes of Britain and America find themselves in direct competition with the professional classes of another nation. Over the next few years, we can expect to encounter a lot less enthusiasm for free trade and globalisation in the parties and the newspapers which represent them. Free trade is fine, as long as it affects someone else's job.

So a historical restitution appears to be taking place, as hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them good ones, flee to the economy we ruined. Low as the wages for these positions are by comparison to our own, they are generally much higher than those offered by domestic employers. A new middle class is developing in cities previously dominated by caste. Its spending will stimulate the economy, which in turn may lead to higher wages and improved conditions of employment. The corporations, of course, will then flee to a cheaper country, but not before they have left some of their money behind. According to the consultants Nasscom and McKinsey, India - which is always short of foreign exchange - will be earning some $17bn a year from outsourced jobs by 2008.

On the other hand, the most vulnerable communities in Britain are losing the jobs which were supposed to have rescued them. Almost two-thirds of call-centre workers are women, so the disadvantaged sex will slip still further behind. As jobs become less secure, multinational corporations will be able to demand ever harsher conditions of employment in an industry which is already one of the most exploitative in Britain. At the same time, extending the practices of their colonial predecessors, they will oblige their Indian workers to mimic not only our working methods, but also our accents, our tastes and our enthusiasms, in order to persuade customers in Britain that they are talking to someone down the road. The most marketable skill in India today is the ability to abandon your identity and slip into someone else's.

So is the flight to India a good thing or a bad thing? The only reasonable answer is both. The benefits do not cancel out the harm. They exist, and have to exist, side by side. This is the reality of the world order Britain established, and which is sustained by the heirs to the East India Company, the multinational corporations. The corporations operate only in their own interests. Sometimes these interests will coincide with those of a disadvantaged group, but only by disadvantaging another.

For centuries, we have permitted ourselves to ignore the extent to which our welfare is dependent on the denial of other people's. We begin to understand the implications of the system we have created only when it turns against ourselves.

# posted by Ankush @ 1:30 PM

2003-09-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

India still top destination for US firms: Forbes

[ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 02, 2003 ]

India continues to be the prime destination of outsourcing for the American companies as the country turns out 75,000 IT graduates and two million English-speaking graduates every year.

India is the leading recipient of the outsourcing of information technology functions like software development and maintenance, and also business process outsourcing. The latter includes back-office functions like accounting, human resources, call centres and data analysis, according to an article in Forbes magazine.

English speaking IT graduates, low wage structure and attractive labour pools take India to the top position, the study concluded after comparing it with six other destinations -- China, Russia, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico and Ireland.

Though labour costs have crept upward over the years, these have been offset by falling telecom rates, the article stated and added that typical salaries range from $5,000 to $12,000 for technical staff, while back-office salaries range from $3,500 to $7,500.

In its comparative analysis of seven countries, the article praised India’s IT-friendly policies thus: “Outsourcing is so ingrained in the fabric here that the Indian government has a national minister specifically for IT. The government favours IT foreign ownership and imposes no export taxes.”

About the country’s IT infrastructure, the Forbes piece states, “With redundant telecom and utility infrastructure, there is very good reliability within India's special IT parks. Reliability can be spotty outside the parks or in more remote areas.”

Application development, maintenance, call centres and financial processing are the areas of expertise for Indians. But experts believe that the country would become a hotbed for more critical analytical jobs in the future.
"Simple base level back office payroll and data entry will got to rock-bottom-wage countries over time and countries like India will move up the chain and take on more complex software and product development services," John McCarthy, an analyst with Forrester Research, was quoted as saying.

Analysts predict that, by 2015, more than three million white-collar jobs in the US will be farmed out to other countries, up from 300,000 today, the article stated.

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2003-09-04T05:09:00.000-07:00

Call centre boom in India is here to last
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2003 - Times News Network

LONDON: Two years from now, the Indian call centre market will be bigger, better-entrenched globally, significantly better paid, but a lot less Indian at root and branch, key trend-spotters have said in the West's first post-boom survey since India became back office to the world.

The big "shake-out" in Indian call centre outsourcing market will be dominated by large Indian IT conglomerates, hardly any small Indian players, but most crucially of all, by large Western MNCs.

Evan Kirchheimer, one of the analysts who prepared the long-awaited report on Indian call-centres, told TNN: "We estimate that five to seven per cent of Western agent positions will move to India in the next few years. But much of the outsourcing will be through trusted partners in the West or by a partnership with well-known Indian system integrators".

The report is expected to set off frenzied speculation about whether India's call centre boom is ending. But Kirchheimer stressed, "India will not lose out. We constantly tell companies to view India not as a short-term but a medium to long-term bet. It won't lose out because of its IT skills and education standards".

Kirchheimer, who works with the independent London-headquartered market analyst Datamonitor, said the report was prepared at the request of "our clients", some 300 companies interested in Indian outsourcing.

Datamonitor identified some 51,000 current contact-centre agent positions in India and the start of what Kirchheimer called a 21st-century gold rush by Western companies to India.

MNCs will have "Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) dollar signs in their eyes", the survey said. Like the multi-national consultant Accenture, the Western MNCs will plough capital directly into India or form strong Indian partnerships to resell Indian capacity. This will raise demand for call centre agents, raise their salaries and burn-out time, the survey said. It will also bring foreign exchange into India, Kirchheimer added.

India has weathered the storm and may continue to do so because its agents have low salaries, "60 per cent less than Western agents… Indian contact centres have access to over 250-million English-speakers and …a pool of 15 million Indian college graduates a year", the report said.

2003-09-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

‘India well poised to ride BPO wave’
Says a Forrester survey; throws light on how India stands better in competition over other countries for pursuing BPO business over the next four years.

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Source: IRIS

BANGALORE: Investors in Indian IT stocks have reasons to feel happy, if one goes by the latest findings on BPO outsourcing by Forrester. Even leading Indian software companies have opened up BPO divisions to supplement their revenues and make up for pressures on volume and margins resulting from the current downturn in the US economy.

Forrester`s survey throws light on how India stands better in competition over other countries for pursuing BPO business over the next four years. Forrester surveyed over 82 senior IT executives and held in-depth interviews with 12 BPO early adopters. The survey brings out the fact that BPO vendors across the globe are promising more than what they can deliver. The issue boils down to the lack of breadth in the vendors` capabilities, which in turn is causing problems for clients.

While there is severe competition for BPO business from China, Russia, the Phillipines, Canada, Mexico and Ireland, India has its own strength. With 75000 IT and two million English speaking graduates being turned out every year, India is an attractive destination for US companies wanting to outsource. China does not pose serious competition at the moment as most of the around 50,000 technical graduates churned out of the universities every year migrate to US and Europe.

US companies outsource a variety of services. Of these, `simple bulk transactions`, such as processing of stock trades or credit card transactions is the easiest for providers to master. The market size of this segments is forecast at $58 billion in 2008. It is also the largest BPO segment, with forecasted revenues of $58 billion in 2008, out of a total of $146 billion for all segments put together, according to Forrester. Here, one cannot rule out the possibility of countries like Uruguay and Vietnam competing for the `simple bulk transactions` segment more and more.

BPO services covering human resources and finance and administration call for more sophisticated skills from vendors. This segment is almost as big as the first one with expected revenues of $57 billion in 2008. India can well hope to grab more and more of this segment as IT system integrators in human resources services and in finance and accounting.

Then there is the segment of high-volume vertical processes such as the administration of insurance policies and the processing of loan applications. This is a small segment with forecast revenues of $6 billion in revenue in 2008. Vendors are expected to battle here fiercely.

Notwithstanding the current growing pains in the downturn, companies are likely to invest more and more in BPOs. And Forrester believes that the overall BPO revenue will hit $146 billion in 2008. India`s BPO revenues are estimated to grow to $ 1.2 bn in 2003, from their 2002 levels of just below a billion.

Even as the Indian IT companies grapple with pressures on their billing rates, the unfolding BPO scenario certainly offers a promise.

2003-08-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

News: call centre india

2003-08-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Tremendous Opportunities in BPO sector in India

The continuously growing BPO sector in India is the new call for young generations of the country who are on the verge of make their careers. The BPO industry boom in India is bringing along with numerous of job opportunities for young as well as old from various different backgrounds.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in India gives tremendous opportunities for professionals pertaining to different backgrounds. BPO undertakes tasks of various natures. There are opportunities in operations, quality maintenance and control, client servicing etc.

People with clear voice modulation can account for call center facilities thriving in India. All the major Product and Service providing companies longs to have a strong customer based program to enhance their customer base. As such they implement call center facility that deals with customer through telephones. The inbound and outbound calling ensures that there is a constant touch with the customers.

Other specific areas concerned with BPO industry include Project Management, HR, Accounting, Business Development, and Technology. BPO in India with its uninterrupted at present provides opening in all these segments.

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BPO in India: The Current Status!

The growth of BPO in India is parallel to the growth of employment amongst the youths who may not professionally skillful. But the existing demand in BPO in India requires well-read youths who can undertake trivial activities to for the swift functioning of their client.

The growth of BPO sector in India is evaluated mainly due to the strong basic principles of the companies worldwide. Companies around the globe are realizing that miniscule operations such as book-keeping, inventories and relative activities needs to be strong for the smooth functioning of the firm. As such, outsourcing became of utter importance. While outsourcing was becoming very important, it needed to be done in lowest, minimum cost. Hence, India came as their reply for outsourcing, which marked the growth of BPO in India.

Despite the rumors of attrition that the BPO sector is going face in the coming year, the growth in BPO seating facility is poised at 68% within the next one year. This by no means can be quoted as corrosion in the industry. BPO in India is the direct result of the growth in retail marketing and the operation lying within. Youngsters in India are starting with five-figure pay scale; the fascination towards BPO in India is looking for positive growth.

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Indian BPO segment expanding rapidly

HCL Technologies, the Indian software giant from New Delhi, is planning to expand its back office services facility by two and half thousand by the end of 2003 fiscal year, reports from the sources said. The move is to meet the rise in the existing clients requirements in outsourcing activities. Even yesterday, Philips NV has shown interest in opening their BPO operations in India.

Gurgaon based BPO Daksh eServices is also poised to capture stake in Etelecare International, a call center company with headquarters in US and strong presence in Philippines. These and various others economical shifts in the BPO industry in India signifies that the country is the next big thing in the business outsourcing sector.

The recent moves by the US firms in favor of outsourcing in India, also the supports the fact the India is the best thing happening to the BPO industry. The rapid expansion is in itself becoming a major revenue generator for Indian economy. The entire growth about the BPO’s in India is due to nominal low-to-nominal employment cost. Flexible policies adopted by the Indian Govt. alongside other factors also make huge presence of BPO in India.

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The Increasing Demand for BPO services in India!

Studies by outsourcing-center.com found that 64% of those who executed outsourcing services preferred India for their back-up commercial activities. Contrary to it Philippines, Malaysia and China together got only 2-3% of the total share. This puts India inevitably ahead of its closet rivals and making it the future destination as the BPO destination.

The yardstick to measure the presence of BPO in India can be seen in the global economic preferences. With the companies in US looking forward to remit their outsourcing or back up operations to India, the demand here – in India for quality BPO services is ever growing. Even Philips NV of Netherlands is looking at India for locating its global business process outsourcing (BPO) center, the finance director of Philips India, Bruce Inglis, said. Thus Philips NV becomes another major business house looking for India for its BPO operations.

Major US firms like DEL, LG, Ford, GE and many others are outsourcing business from India. Reports from Gartner estimates that by 2004 offshoring will be on the priority list for all US companies. And India is ready to grab most out of it. Studies reveal that 80% of US executive boardrooms will have discussed offshore outsourcing. And India remains their first priority for BPO.

2003-08-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

[ Thu Aug 21, 01:09:48 PM | Ankush Johar | edit ]

Inquiry into call centre jobs
Human Resources-Centre, UK - 19 Aug 2003

India imports UK teachers to train call centre staff ZDNet.co.uk, UK - 19 Aug 2003
A team of retired teachers from the UK is in India training call centre
staff, reports the Hindustan Times. Led by a retired teacher ...

Probe into loss of call centre jobs
icWales, UK - 17 Aug 2003
... The Communication Workers' Union is campaigning against plans by telecoms
giant BT to create 2,200 call-centre jobs in India. There ...

Inquiry into call centre 'exports'
icBirmingham, UK - 18 Aug 2003
... The Communication Workers Union is campaigning against plans by telecoms
giant BT to create 2,200 call centre jobs in India. There ...

Union to launch call centre jobs inquiry
The Scotsman, UK - 17 Aug 2003
... launch an inquiry into the movement of call centre ... Unions estimate there are 6,000
call centres in ... mainly administrative and technology-related, jobs to India ...

Indian call centre agents drilled by former UK teachers
Silicon.com - 19 Aug 2003
A team of retired teachers from the UK is in India training call centre
staff, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. Led ...

M ’ sia seen as ideal hub for call centre ops
Star, Malaysia - 18 Aug 2003
... the region in Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, the Philippines, India ... recent
visit to Kuala Lumpur, Pearce told StarBiz the company's call centre ...

Goanet-news]20 AUG 2003: GOACOM DAILY NEWS CLIPPINGS
Goa Today, India - 7 hours ago
... India has the potential to generate 13.8 b dollars for off-shore BPO ... (GT) AKIKO
CALLNET EYES GOA: Akiko Callnet, a training institute for call centre ...

MPs to probe call centre job cuts
ePolitix, UK - 18 Aug 2003
... to call centres to places like India," he told the Independent newspaper. Trade unions
have expressed growing unease at the state of the of the UK call centre ...

IT investments in Karnataka up 52%
The Hindu Business Line, India - 17 hours ago
... previous year, said Mr BV Naidu, Director, Software Technology Parks of India ... companies
close to 13 are business process outsourcing (BPO) and call centre ...

I met an automobile designer from Detroit over the weekend. He is ...
Radio Singapore International, Singapore - 10 hours ago
... speech last weekend, referred to this phenomenon. India has become more.
than just a call centre. It is also becoming the software centre, the. ...

Mufti makes first mobile phone call to PM
The Hindu, India - 14 hours ago
... and dialled the number of the Prime Minister, who was waiting for the call ... The Centre
was making strenuous efforts to improve connectivity with the State, be it ...

Nortel sees growth coming from India, China
Hindustan Times, India - 22 hours ago
... GAIL India Ltd. In addition to wireless equipment, Nortel sells call
centre equipment to India's thriving outsourcing industry.

Indian and Chinese mobile markets tipped to boom
ZDNet.co.uk, UK - 20 hours ago
... and GAIL India. In addition to wireless equipment, Nortel sells call
centre equipment to India's thriving outsourcing industry.

West Bengal bandh begins, security tight
NDTV.com, India - 6 hours ago
The Socialist Unity Centre of India and CPI-ML (Liberation) sponsored 24-hour West ... Last
time, on January 10, its bandh call had met with mixed success. ...
SUCI calls for bandh in West Bengal - NDTV.com
Another Bengal bandh hits govt's makeover plans - Indian Express
SUCI calls Bangla bandh - Deepika

Dyson production moves to Malaysia
Telegraph.co.uk, UK - 10 hours ago
... The growth of India as a software and call centre economy has seen British companies
transfer thousands of jobs overseas while low-cost east European companies ...

India: Outsourced call centres' other toll
Index on Censorship, UK - 18 Aug 2003
... The Times of India reports that a 'Spoken English' for call centre hopefuls
in New Delhi will set them back a substantial 17,000 rupees ($370). ...

Study ranks SA worst for labour law flexibility
Business Report, Africa - 4 hours ago
... India has been singled out as the country that has been winning most ... outsourced contracts
because of its low labour rates, particularly in the call centre ...

Oh Canada – challenging in call centre offshoring
Silicon.com - 14 Aug 2003
... Although countries such as India, Malaysia and the Philippines hog the headlines
when it comes to outsourcing abroad – or ... Datamonitor call centre ...

300 jobs for new call centre
Glasgow Evening Times, UK - 14 Aug 2003
... It also represents a major coup for the city as many call centre jobs are now
being moved abroad to countries such as India in an attempt to cut costs. ...

BPO clients may get a call from the taxman
Economic Times, India - 17 Aug 2003
The government is all set to examine whether the non-resident company that has
outsourced business processes to a call centre in India should pay tax here. ...

Call centre jobs joy
Glasgow Evening Times, UK - 14 Aug 2003
... It also represents a major coup for the city as many call centre jobs are now
being moved abroad to countries such as India in a bid to cut costs.

Vancouver Sun
Vancouver Sun, Canada - 37 minutes ago
... Call 604-984-4951 to arrange audition time ... of stories, embroidery, photos, and video
from India's ... Evergreen Cultural Centre 1205 Pinetree, Coquitlam 604-927-6550 ...

Shocked friends hope and pray for Paes
Times of India, India - 19 hours ago
MUMBAI: Gokulasthami was not a happy occasion for India's tennis ... is under observation
at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre ... I hope he gets better and will call him ...

Unions:'Repeal industrial action laws'
Reading Chronicle, UK - 19 Aug 2003
... Call centre jobs ... countries will come under the spotlight, with a warning by the Communication
Workers Union that 100,000 jobs could relocate to India ...

Job growth in India to be nice, steady: Manpower
Economic Times, India - 19 Aug 2003
... Software companies outsource jobs to India because of lower labour costs. ... companies
like AOL Time Warner's America Online unit to set up its call centre ...

US banks transfer analysts' work to India
Financial Times (subscription), UK - 19 Aug 2003
... $6bn and $8bn in the four years to 2002 on IT and call centre ... more complex tasks as
the relationships improved, though at this point no analysts in India ...

Banks move analysts' work to India
Financial Times (subscription), UK - 19 Aug 2003
... to make the research business more profitable, and employees with MBAs can be hired
in India ... $6bn and $8bn in the four years to 2002 on IT and call centre ...

MTNL arm appoints SISL as BPO consultant
The Hindu Business Line, India - 19 Aug 2003
... The value-added services include businesses such as Internet and call ... Rs 100 crore,
and will be, arguably, the biggest telecom training centre in India. ...

Stunted growth
Hindustan Times, India - 17 Aug 2003
... which could have helped in job creation, is also not coming to India ... is around the
corner' are insisting that the service sector, especially call centre ...

[ Thu Aug 21, 01:09:38 PM | Ankush Johar | edit ]
Inquiry into call centre jobs

MPs in the UK have announced an inquiry into the loss of thousands of call centre and IT jobs to countries such as India.

Martin O’Neill, chairman of the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee, plans to question companies, including BT, which has recently opened two centres in India, at a hearing later this year.

The questioning will form part of a wider inquiry into the failure of the IT revolution to create as many jobs as had been expected.
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Banks move analysts' work to India (From the Financial Times )

US investment banks are moving analysts' jobs to India as they review equity research departments in response to Wall Street scandals and the bear market.

Banks including JP Morgan Chase and outsourcing companies such as Office Tiger say they are not replacing existing jobs but are shifting tasks normally done by junior analysts, such as number crunching and financial modelling, to allow senior analysts the opportunity to publish reports and interact with clients. Joydeep SenGupta, a partner at business consultancy McKinsey in New Delhi, said every major investment bank and some asset management companies had either outsourced research or were exploring the issue.

JP Morgan Chase said: "Our objectives are to provide support for our existing sector teams, improve productivity, and continue to differentiate the quality of our research." It added that the outsourcing started in May.

The number of jobs transferred so far is small. Nasscom, an Indian industry trade group, said 100 to 200 equity research jobs had been moved.

Banks say the arrangement helps to make expensive US-based analysts more productive. Analysts are being asked to cover more companies and sectors in an effort to make the research business more profitable, and employees with MBAs can be hired in India for about $25,000 (£16,000), compared with salaries of $100,000-$145,000 and high benefit costs on Wall Street.

Research has typically been funded by equity trading revenue and investment banking revenue, both of which have slumped, and the ties between investment bankers and analysts are closely watched by regulators following April's research settlement.

Nasscom says US banks saved between $6bn and $8bn in the four years to 2002 on IT and call centre initiatives. Industry experts said it made sense for Wall Street to try out more complex tasks.