Nipuna gets eSCM Level 4 certification

HYDERABAD: Nipuna Services Ltd, a BPO and sister concern of Satyam Services Ltd, has become the world's first BPO having attained Level 4 eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (eSCM) certification.

eSCM model that has five capability levels has been developed by the globally reputed IT Services Qualification Center at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

The company intends to go for Level 5 certification in the next two years. Currently, only five companies, including Nipuna have adopted this certification model. Accenture in India and three firms in South Korea are those firms that have adopted this model. These four companies are certified Level 3.

B Ramalinga Raju, chairman, Satyam Computer Services said, “Five years ago even when the BPO industry was in a nascent stage, we identified the opportunity and approached CMU to establish a de facto quality standard for BPOs. For the last two years, our team in Nipuna has been collaborating with CMU and is one of the founding partners of this model.”

He further added that Nipuna not only is the founding member but is also the first to adopt and attain certification at Level 4.

Kishore Rao, principal consultant Quality, Nipuna said, “eSCM has three purposes - to enable service providers appraise and improve their ability, provide high quality services, and differentiate themselves from competitors.”

According to Jane Seagal, professor, CMU, eSCM consists of various practices like people management, performance management, threat management, service delivery, contracting, etc. And each practice is associated with one of the five capability levels.

Rao said, “eSCM model is fast catching up and more companies are willing to adopt this model. Soon, we will hear two Indian companies and one or two Singapore-based companies adopting the eSCM model.”

According to Rao, eSCM is a far better model than Customer Operations Performance Center (COPC) model that was devised in early 2000. “COPC is more metric-driven and focuses on the delivery side. Moreover, it was devised keeping in view the call centers, where as eSCM is for both voice and non-voice BPO's,” said Rao.

CMU devised version I of eSCM model in early 2001, followed by version II in 2003.