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NEW DELHI: Convergys Corporation has announced that it plans to increase the number of contact center agents it employs in India based on client needs for an additional 2,500 people by the end of the year.
“Convergys agents continue to provide our clients and their customers with an outstanding customer experience, excellent performance, and unmatched quality that consistently meets and exceeds their expectations,” said Sukant Srivastava, Managing Director and Country Manager for Convergys’ Customer Management business in India.
Convergys offers employees comprehensive training, competitive wages, fast track growth, engaging work culture that is conducive to professional and personal growth.
The employees benefit from the opportunity to service customers of the leading global brands across the telecommunications, financial, and automotive sectors, and thus gain an unparalleled breadth of experience as they build their careers in the booming BPO sector.
Convergys currently operates from New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore. It has more than 13,000 employees in India.
Source: The times of India
October 6th, 2008
MUMBAI: UK’s largest business process outsourcer, The Capita Group Plc, is betting big on the life and pensions business and on India.
The outsourcer, which was in the news earlier this year for having won a £722-m deal from Prudential against Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is pursuing opportunities worth over a £1 billion in the life and pensions segment, Capita chief executive Paul Pinder said.
The Prudential deal has also doubled Capita’s India strength from 1,400 to 3,000 employees, and if the recent inauguration of its Pune facility is any indication, India is set to figure more prominently in its growth plans. Excerpts:
How do you see your India count growing?
About 20 years back, Capita was only 30-people organisation. Today, we are 32,000, and we are growing business at a 20 per cent compounded rate. We intend to continue to build on our growth in the UK market and I feel that India will grow considerably faster.
TCS won an $850-m deal with the Pearl Group some years back. Did you bid for that as well?
The deal that TCS won four years ago was actually the last big deal that we didn’t win. But we have Pearl as a client as well, and today, we are the biggest supplier to Pearl. The Pearl book is a very big. So actually, there are four different suppliers –TCS, Capita, Liberata, and UISL (Unisys Insurance Services Ltd).
We have something like 7-million policies that we administer, and TCS has something like 4 million. To put it in perspective, the Pearl Group recently acquired the whole of Resolution’s book.
Did the contract involve people transfer?
Yes, we got roughly 2,000 people. People transfer seems to be one of the ways you’ve grown…
Yes, 22,000 of our people have come to us through contracts or acquisitions. Manpower integration is a challenge, but its part of what we do. So hopefully, we’ve got good processes for it.
What was your most challenging contract?
The most ambitious contracts we’ve done are not where we take over an existing service or staff but greenfield contracts. Probably, the London Congestion Charging (LCC) contract because it was so new, so controversial, and had such high visibility.
What we had to do there was deliver 450 man years of service development effort in 11 months — very tight timelines with huge penalties if we failed. Nothing of that sort had ever been done before. You could either say we were very brave or slightly mad.
The LCC contract has now gone to IBM. So, are you seeing more competition from the likes of IBM?
Not actually. I can only think of two instances in our history where we’ve lost to IBM. One of the reasons why we’ve been successful is because we’re very disciplined about what we are prepared to do.
We will deliver a very high level of customer service but equally, we expect to run it so it is financially viable to us. In that particular instance, IBM had a strategy for wanting a worldwide traffic management business and therefore, they took a view that it added value to them from a marketing perspective.
In our 20-year history, we’ve renewed hundreds of contracts. We’ve failed to renew only in three separate cases, which are again when a competitor has taken a particularly aggressive pricing stance.
In today’s context, don’t you think undercutting will become more frequent?
We’ve seen a number of new entrants come into the market and do exactly what you said. Some of these players win, but they have to live with the consequences later on.
You seem pretty bullish about growth despite some of the recent events…
There are effectively three threads that drive Capita’s business. The first thread is that clients want to be sure that they get measurable improvement in service quality.
Second aspect that clients are looking for is contractual certainty that they are going to get a much cheaper service. So, in some of the contracts we are entering into, we’re actually contracted to save something like 30-35 per cent of costs over the term of the contract.
The third thing clients are looking for is to manage the contract in a way that it not only saves them money but also enhances the profitability of their business.
So, the financial drivers are not just about how cheaply we can do it, but what can we do to make our clients’ business more profitable. India enables us to deliver all three aspects, which is why it is absolutely essential to us.
Source: The Times of India
October 6th, 2008
CHENNAI: As tech companies go slow on hiring this fiscal, manpower training and placement firms are witnessing a shift in demand for skill-based training from IT to non-IT sectors.
These institutes, which offer courses in technical subjects as well as soft skills also have placement tie-ups with public and private companies, across verticals. So far, nearly 80 per cent of the students from these institutes have found jobs in IT/ITeS companies.
But with the economic slowdown in the US causing Indian IT firms to ‘hire cautiously’ this fiscal, there has been a perceptible decline in IT recruitment and training this year. A W George, business head, Hero Mindmine Institute avers that the rate of IT recruitment has “come down by about 30-40 per cent” when compared to last year.
“Domestic and MNC tech firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, HCL, Patni, IBM, HP and Dell are all said to have embarked on a conscious cost-cutting mode,” he says. George predicts a “definite rise in training in non IT sectors” in the coming months.
R Kannan, managing director and chief executive officer of AssessPeople says, “We have been witnessing growth in hiring trends in companies in the retail, telecom, infrastructure, and manufacturing sectors for the last few months.”
This trend, he adds, “Is likely to continue and may even accelerate due to the slowdown in sectors that are affected by the current financial crisis and the consequent availability of manpower.”
Courses in retail, manufacturing , hospitality, healthcare and telecom are in demand now. However, the skill requirements for these sectors will be different from that of IT. “The intensity and rigor of re-skilling will need to be high,” says Kannan.
But not everyone is as optimistic about the placement situation improving in the near future. Ajit Mathai of Hewitt Associates (India), a Human Resources outsourcing and consultancy firm, believes that the overall drop in consumption due to inflation and the ongoing financial crisis will soon impact the retail sector too.
“New entrants may not consider training in retail as not all companies in that sector are hiring aggressively. There is a drop in consumption across the country and many stores are closing down,” he says. Perhaps, he adds wryly, “The good old PSUs can attract more talent now.”
Source: The Times of India
October 3rd, 2008
BANGALORE: Healthcare BPO firm Omega Healthcare Management Services plans to add 7,000 employees to its India facilities.
CEO Gopi Natarajan said the company anticipates its client base will double and revenues grow four-fold by 2012.
Omega, which currently employs about 2,000 staff at its Bangalore and Chennai facilities, will invest $50 million to expand in India and grow sales from $15- $20 million to $70- $90 million. Bulk of the hiring will take place in Bangalore, Natarajan added.
The US-focussed company, whose investors include private equity firm Healthedge and Enam Holdings, provides services such as medical coding, billing, claims processing and healthcare revenue management.
“Other countries don’t have such a complex healthcare delivery system. Out of the 290 million Americans, around 245 million have insurance and around 90 per cent of the revenue cycle management space is untapped,” he said.
Omega Healthcare operates through intermediaries and, through its 65 clients, caters to some 20 hospitals and 500 physicians. By 2012, it sees itself operating through 125 intermediaries and serving 100 hospitals and 15,000 physicians.
“Medical coding and voice-based processes are growing. Only 9 per cent of work has been outsourced and the rest remains untapped,” Natarajan said.
Source:The Times of India
October 3rd, 2008
NEW DELHI: The BPO-KPO sector in India is facing the heat of the US slowdown, particularly following recent events in the financial markets.
Businesses of a host of small- and mid-sized firms have taken a further hit in the industry since a major chunk of business comes from banking and financial services firms in the US.
“The slowdown is going to impact the BPO firms in India. This will eventually result in overall slowdown of the BPO industry. But now a large pool of professionals will be able to provide quality services to the Indian BPOKPO industry at much lower prices,” says IDBI Capital Market Services research head Shahina Mukadam.
According to a report released by Nasscom, the BPO and KPO industry together generated Rs 1,160 crore revenue and provided employment to 7 lakh people in 2007-08.
The share of the US in the Indian BPO-KPO export market was 61 per cent, making it the largest contributor to exports in the segment in 2007. Ahmedabad-based KPO, Azure Knowledge Centre, foresees a slowdown in the financial services by 25 per cent and in the insurance services by 15 per cent by the end of this year.
Azure Knowledge Centre director Jay Ruparel says, “The debacle in the US will create a lot of uncertainties regarding the continuity of current financial services contracts and also raise doubts as to how the future contracts are signed with the US financial companies.” So far, this company has hired four people from Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.
“The employment scenario in the KPO-BPO industry is going through an extremely dull patch and this in turn will have an effect on the growth in this industry,” says Karvy Stock Broking vicepresident Ambareesh Baliga.
Gurgaon-based KPO, The Smart Cube, has 130 employees at present and it is expected that the employment rate of the firm will go down by 30 per cent till next year.
The Smart Cube managing director Sameer Walia says, “Future hiring rate of BPOs will be far worse off as compared to the KPO firms. The BPO employment rate is projected to decline by 60 per cent within a span of one year.”
However, Exevo COO Vivek Sharma says, “I see an immediate-term negative impact, which will continue for around six to nine months. But in the long term, any other financial institution will fill up the space vacated by Lehman Brothers. We have received around 50 resumes from ex-employees of Lehman Brothers in the past two days.”
Source: The Times of India
October 1st, 2008
NEW DELHI: India’s flagship outsourcing industry expects some pain from the latest global financial turmoil but insists it could emerge a winner with companies shifting more work to the country.
The sector, an economic mainstay that generates $40 billion in annual export revenues, traditionally views bad times as offering potential as Western companies cut costs by moving work to cheaper destinations offshore.
Industry body Nasscom believes the trend will be the same this time, though it could take longer. “There will be a short-to-medium-term impact which we define as three to four quarters,” Nasscom chief Som Mittal said.
Some of the pain from the bankruptcy of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merrill Lynch and the US government’s bailout of insurance giant AIG — all ravaged by credit woes — is already being felt.
IT companies are cutting hiring plans and share prices of India’s IT companies are under pressure. But there’s some positive fallout as Indian legal process outsourcing firms doing bankruptcy work report a rise in business.
“Companies are seeking to outsource to India, where legal work costs a tenth of what US lawyers charge,” said Sirisha Gummaregula, chief operating officer of legal support firm Quislex.
“Over time, the financial crisis should lead to much stiffer controls that “will all be IT-and systems-driven,” said Mittal.
“This should lead to more business for India’s “tech titans” like Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services whose skilled, English-speaking, low-cost work force planted the nation on the global business map,” Mittal said.
“We have a fairly deep understanding of our customers’ operations now. This would be the time to help partner them,” he told reporters.
Still, the latest financial crisis has come at a bad time for the sector. The US-led credit crunch, rising pay costs and currency fluctuations had already hit profits, along with competition from outsourcing rivals like Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Mexico
Earlier this year, Nasscom forecast the sector’s revenues would grow by 21-24 per cent to $50 billion in the year to March 2009 — strong but not the scorching 30-per cent-plus growth seen earlier in the decade.
Mittal said the forecast could be “tempered down” from that level by a “minor few percentage points — if at all.”
Over the next few months, analysts do not expect Indian IT firms to sign any big contracts in the so-called BFSI sector — banking, financial services and insurance — that represents nearly 50 per cent of their income.
“There’ll be a period of stocktaking by Western companies where they put their houses in order and where there’ll be no really significant decisions,” said Partha Iyengar, research head at global consultancy Gartner.
Even before the latest turmoil, the sector was already seeking to diversify to offset reliance on the US, which takes 60 per cent of its exports, seeking out new business in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
The sector has also been aggressively bidding for contracts with the burgeoning Indian corporate sector, earlier dismissed as too small.
“It’s a great support in these times having an Indian economy growing by 7.5 to 8.0 per cent,” said Mittal.
The sector has also been cutting dependence on the financial arena by getting into such areas as retailing, transport, health care and manufacturing.
“There’ll be robust growth surely coming through — the industry has diversified. There are lots of unpenetrated areas,” Mittal said.
Longer term, industry executives see a major role for India’s IT sector. “There’ll be a huge restructuring (by Western companies). This will bring a lot of opportunities and there’s a big role to play for India’s IT sector as it already has a credible reputation,” said Ganesh Natarajan, chief executive of Zensar, a leading outsourcing firm.
Source: The Times of India
September 30th, 2008
PUNE: A study on job opportunities in various tier II cities in the country points out Pune as the leading employment provider destination, followed by Lucknow and Pondicherry.
Pune with a share of 16.5 per cent emerged number one job provider while Lucknow and Pondicherry accounted for 12.30 per cent and 10.50 per cent respectively out of the total jobs tracked by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in the last quarter of fiscal 2007-08.
Titled as ‘Tier II and III Cities New Employment Centre’, the study highlights Pune’s top five employment generating sectors comprising IT, ITeS, Banking, Education, and Automobile.
The top five sectors in Lucknow which have created vast employment opportunities in the period under reference include Education, Banking, FMCG, Insurance, and ITeS.
In case of Pondicherry, these are Aviation, Banking, Energy, FMCG and Hospitality, the ASSOCHAM study says.
Source: The Times of India
September 29th, 2008
HONG KONG: Hewlett-Packard will be expanding its retail business in India to further strengthen its consumer leadership. HP will roll out 7,500 new stores in 1,000 cities and experience stores across Asia Pacific region.
With these new stores, HP will broaden its consumer reach to 25,000 retail partner stores in the region by 2010. ‘‘We have a massive plan and a large number of new stores will be based in India,’’ Christopher Morgan, senior vice-president, Imaging and Printing Group (IPG), HP Asia Pacific and Japan, said.
Besides big cities, HP will focus on increasing its retail presence in non-metropolitan cities like Jaipur, Morgan said while addressing the two-day HP Asia Pacific regional press event in Hong Kong on September 16.
This will help consumers of non-metropolitan cities to enjoy access to retail partner stores merchandising HP’s full range of consumer offerings. In addition, HP is driving deeper engagement with key consumer segments with new alternate experience centres.
‘‘Consumers today value personalised experiences. These centres will further complement and strengthen HP’s growing retail footprint,’’ said See Chin Teik, senior VP, personal systems group (PSG), HP Asia Pacific and Japan. These centres will reach out to consumers for an intuitive, enjoyable and convenient shopping experience particularly for women, youth and families.
It will introduce a special edition notebook PC in collaboration with world-renowned fashion designer Vivienne Tam early 2009 to take care of women’s interests in fashion. To cater to the need of youth, it will come up with world’s first EA experience store in Hong Kong with a wide range of HP desktops and notebooks.
These are installed with game specific, desktop icons and skins contributing to enhanced experience for gamers. To attract families, the HP has tied up with Indian retail group Future Group to set up photo centres that will inspire them to do more with their digital photos. The centres would provide users access to an easy-to-use, safe and convenient photo printing experience.
Source: The Times of India
September 29th, 2008
NEW DELHI: Indian software and services growth could be slower than expected in 2008/09 as a global financial crisis crimps demand for such services, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) said.
Nasscom may revise its growth projections in December, a top official said on Monday. The association in July had forecast revenue growth between 21 per cent and 24 per cent to about $50 billion in the year to March 2009.
“There will be short to medium-term impact, which we define as three to four quarters. I won’t be surprised if the numbers are tempered down,” Nasscom President Som Mittal told reporters.
The US financial system was shaken after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the rescue of American International Group rattling Indian outsourcing firms who earn roughly half their revenue from US.
However, the financial turmoil has led India’s information technology firms to explore new territories in Europe, Asia and Middle East to lower their dependence on the United States, Mittal said. The US government’s $700 billion bailout fund to buy bad debt is likely to lead to recovery of the markets, Mittal said.
“We are hopeful that whatever impact is there is limited to short to medium term,” he said
Source: The Times of India
September 29th, 2008
FRANKFURT: Tata Consultancy Services, India’s top software services exporter, is interested in Siemens’ IT Solutions and Services (SIS) unit, a German newspaper reported.
Talks between the two companies would begin next week in Munich, where Siemens is based, Germany’s Boersen-Zeitung said, without saying where it obtained the information from.
Siemens declined to comment. A couple of days ago, sources close to the company said that Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher was considering the divestment of SIS’s external business, the paper said.
Siemens is in the midst of a major overhaul and regrouped its divisions into three main sectors to benefit from global growth trends — energy, industry and health care — at the beginning of this year. Indian outsourcing firms like Tata Consultancy Services and rival Infosys Technologies are expanding in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to cut dependence on the US market, which accounts for more than half the sector’s revenue.
On Friday, Indian software services firm HCL Technologies launched a rival bid for Britain’s Axon Group Plc, for which Infosys is also bidding, sending Axon’s share up sharply in on hopes of a bid battle.
Source: The times of India
September 29th, 2008
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