Esprit de corps called for BPOs

NEW DELHI: This co-operation can be easily achieved in terms of sharing common aspects of the business like transportation, training facilities and even electricity generation

Speaking at the second India BPO summit 2004 in New Delhi, Raman Roy, President and CEO, Wipro Spectramind said that India Inc., should rise up to realize the full potential of BPO industry and the industry should start learning to co-operate rather than compete.

"We are in to compete with global players in countries like Malaysia and Phillipines, so within India the industry should start co-operating with each other," Roy explained.

Talking on the issue of BPO industry co-operating and competing at the same time, R Venkatesh Iyer, CEO Smart Serve said that there are many ways where co-operation can be developed in this industry.

"We can co-operate in terms of HR policies, training facilities and electricity generation which can be shared if two BPO units are situated close by. We can even share the transportation mechanism and save on the running costs," he informed.

Sujit Baksi, President India and Global Head Operations, vCustomer said that the co-operation level can even be taken upto the disaster recovery or the business continuity level. "If it is feasible then BPO companies should try and share the DR plan. It will help them in saving to quite an extent, here they can define which capabilities they want to put on the shared front," he added.

Commenting on the lack of basic BPO education infrastructure in the country, Roy said that India should take lesson from other South East Asian countries like Malaysia or Philipines.

"All these Asian countries are teaching US GAAP, credit card management and other related topics much in depth to its student community. There are no institutes in India, which are doing that as of now. Whatever education is required by the BPO industry is only being provided by the industry players, I think government can do a much better job by facilitating the basic infrastructure needed for successful BPO operations," Roy explained.

"The Indian BPO industry is sure going to touch $3.5 billion mark by the end of this year. As of now there are more than 170,000 people being employed in this industry, at the end of this year this figure would go upto 230,000 people. So the industry is moving fast but what are we doing to realize the potential of this industry?" Roy quipped.

Stressing on the need to look at the big picture, Dan Sandhu, CEO for Vertex India said that there is a need for the country to devise a proper game plan to realize this big potential that the country has.

"Now the issue is to grow in terms of value and this can only happen if foreign customers find quality in having an India operations. Though, US will continue to provide large chunk of BPO business, companies should also try and look for other geographic opportunities. European Union is getting stronger day by day so it also has a huge potential, Indian companies should try and target the EU countries as well," Sandhu added.

The event saw more than 120 movers and shakers of the BPO industry discuss various topics ranging from - Client Acquisition and Relationship Management to Technology and Infrastructure and from People and Process related issues to Strategy formation.

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