Aegis' new venture to groom tomorrow's managers

MUMBAI, INDIA: Aegis Limited, a major player in the field of business process outsourcing (BPO), today said that it has joined hands with leading academic and industry partners to launch a new venture in education to groom future-ready managers.

Aegis, Indian Institute of Management — Indore (IIM-I), Service Quality Centre (SQ Centre), and Customer Operations Performance Center (COPC Inc.) have come together to launch Institute of Customer Experience Management (ICEM), a first-of-its-kind institute designed to train students specifically for the service industry (retail, BFSI, ITeS etc.) through focusing on the customer experience and customer lifetime value, said a press release.

The inaugural center opens in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, with the first batch commencing classes from August 2010. ICEM plans an intake of 400 students for the 15-month post graduate residential program, which has been designed by IIM-I, SQ Centre, and COPC Inc. in consultation with the industry, it added. Subir Ghosh, president, Aegis Global Academy, is spearheading the venture.

Aparup Sengupta, managing director and global CEO, Aegis Ltd said India is a service economy and hence for the services sector, customer is the very raison d'etre.

“While we have several institutes teaching other business aspects like finance and marketing, academically customer experience management has still not found its due recognition even though the industry very well understands and appreciates its importance. This disconnect results in huge training cost and re-orientation for the employer and employee,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Ravi Chandran, director, Indian Institute of Management — Indore, said that there is an urgent need of the hour for people specialized in the aspects of customer experience management and customer lifecycle management, concepts that drive profitability in the services industry.

Aegis said it has already tied up with leading services companies in banking, telecom, insurance and retail for industry-academia partnership and also for interning and placements opportunities for the students.