Perceptions impede outsourcing decisions

BANGALORE: Global outsourcing to India has been happening well over two decades. The recent economic crash in the US has made business houses in the land of opportunity to sit up and think of means to improve bottom line and operational efficiency.

Outsourcing is one of the options. The BPO sector is not really nascent and has only witnessed plenty of action in recent times. But perceptions continue to impede outsourcing decisions in the Western World. Geo-political being the biggest. "A bomb blast in Mumbai will immediately make people in the West think that we are in war with Pakistan," stated MD Ramaswami, a veteran of the contact center in India for over two decades.

"A couple of clients cancelled their trip to Bangalore because of the bomb blasts in Mumbai. For them these two cities are very close as seen in the map," added Ramaswami who runs a consulting services company, Celtycs exclusively for the BPO and contact center industry.

Language or Linguistics is considered to be the second biggest hindrance for bagging outsourcing projects for any contact center in India. "It is also perceived that India is not up to the mark in speaking or able to understand the English spoken by their customer. Any amount of training and practice leave them still having doubts about the capabilities of the accent and style of our command of the spoken English in India," said Ramaswami.

Finally if the communication is not clear the quality of service meted out is bad and this again reflects on the level of delivery capabilities by Indian contact centers.

Despite these challenges the contact center industry in India is flourishing and promises unprecedented growth.