Aegis Plans to Acquire BPO Firm In Africa!

Mumbai: Essar group’s BPO arm Aegis Ltd is looking to acquire a Business process outsourcing company in Africa.

Essar Global Chairman Shashi Ruia said in a press conference that Aegis is looking to acquire a BPO company in Africa; however they did not disclose the details.
Aegis BPO's Chief Executive Aparup Sengupta said that, they wanted to have their footprint in South Africa as it is one of the developing BPO market. He added that, the acquisition or assets purchased will be in the area of customer lifecycle management space.

Over the last three years, Aegis BPO has acquired 12 firms worldwide. Recently it has acquired an Australian BPO service provider, UCMS group which was bought for AUD 45 million last month.


Last year in October, Aegis BPO has acquired NASDAQ listed offshore BPO firm for 1,057 crore. This has enabled the Essar Group Company to add Philippines to its list of delivery locations.

The company had earlier said that in a press meet that, it had plans to acquire four BPO companies. The merger and acquisition team of Aegis at any point of time evaluates at least six targets. Therefore this time it is eyeing in an African BPO company.

BPO Vendors Plan to Extend Offerings !

Bangalore: Some firms like Wipro BPO are adding newer processes to their service offerings. Even Hinduja Global sees growth in areas like customer service management from other verticals. Other companies like Kale Consultants plans to add more platforms.

The Indian BPO industry is relatively less affected during this current downturn than its other counterparts. The business process industry is planning to expand its services offerings to cater incremental growth as existing customers look to outsource more to reduce costs.

Mr. Ashutosh Vaidya, head of Wipro BPO said that the company is adding more processes to cater to the growing needs of customers. As the sales cycle stay elongated the BPO vendors expect growth from existing customers. Even small BPO firms like Caliber Point, one of the subsidiary of Hexaware Technologies is seeking for more projects from its existing clients.

Mr R. U. Shrinivas, CEO, Caliber Point expects to leverage the expertise of its parent Hexaware to build newer solutions and processes. This is so because about 30 percent of its customers are seeking to do more work.

The independent BPO firms are however looking for partnership with the IT vendors to launch solutions. Mr Partha De Sarkar, CEO, Hinduja Global Solutions, said that it does not make sense for them to develop solutions on their own as they are capital intensive and the returns on investments are unpredictable. Mr. Sarkar said this while stating that his firm has partnered with system integrators, software vendors and hardware companies.

Hinduja is bidding as a consortium for projects and sees good demand in areas such as customer relationship management across different verticals which has partnered with Talisma and Astute Solutions.

Kale Consultants which mainly offers platform based back office services in areas such as billing, ticket sales audit and revenue accounting plans to add more platforms in other areas too. Mr. Vipul Jain, CEO of Kale Consultants said that, some of their customers are using one or two platforms. He added that, people are more willing to outsource while looking at the value proposition more strongly.
According to National Association of Software and Services Companies, the Indian BPO industry is expected to grow at a rate of 15 percent marginally ahead of the IT services.

President Approves Of Malabon Call Centre Training Program!

Manila, Philippines: The local government of Malabona, one of the cities in Philippines announced free training seminars for prospective call centre agents. It has recently graduated 90 individuals who are now on their way to work in the county booming business process outsourcing service.

The vice mayor of Malabon Arnold D. Vicencio said that, all of the above mentioned individual will be given certificate of attendance and completion by this June.
Vicencio added that most of their call centre trainee graduates are undergoing training in call centre firms in Makati and Ortigas to learn about the various BPO services. A call centre is a centralized office where an agent handles telephone calls on behalf of the client or business. The one who takes calls is known as customer care specialist or customer service representative.

The clients include telemarketing companies, mail-order catalog houses, transportation and freight handling firms, hotels and IT companies. Generally, the size of the operation is defined in terms of number of seats. A seat consists of station with two or three people alternating in several shifts to provide 24 hour support services. The main target of BPO industry includes United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

Vicencio added that presently his staff is planning their second call centre training session and said that the classes will start in July for the next batch. The students who enroll in this program will be taught how to speak correct English, correct usage of grammar and diction. They will also be trained on basic usage of call centre equipments like speaker phones and computers.

The Malabon vice-mayor added that, all instructors are accredited by the Technical Education Skills Development Agency (TESDA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Therefore there is no doubt that, they will offer best training to the students.

Vicencio also said he decided to arrange for a training program after knowing that, the BPO industry needs an additional of 1,20,000 workers this year as recorded by DOLE. This growing demand has prompted President Gloria Macapagal- Arroya to pass an order for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) to immediately conduct training and other re-tooling programs that would transform computer engineer and other skilled professionals into highly professional call centre agents.

President Arroya earlier justified that this re-tooling directive for engineers and electronic manufacturing after learning that despite financial crisis employment opportunities are still there in the BPO industry. These are animation, medical, transcriptionist, software developers and other call centre services. President called the BPO industry as the new symbol of competitiveness.

Till now, Arroyo administration had released P500 million for high school vouchers so that, the young generation can study in high schools. Another P500 has been invested in finishing schools where scholarships will be available for a young Filipino. This will help him or her to cope up with the requirement of the industry especially fluency in English language. She added that they have moved the value chain and Philippines will continue to support the BPO industry with right policies.

Egypt as an outsourcing destination :- Egypt is a distinctive emerging offshoringlocation offering unique advantages with a strong government support.Egypt has a large graduating talent pool of 330,000 students enjoying considerable European languages capability.

http://sourcingthoughts.blogspot.com/

This blog covers parent's and students insecurity about opting BPO as a career option.There is a great dilemma about bpo , that whether Bpo is a long term career option or just a place to make some good bucks.

Infosys Plans to Hire from Smaller Towns!

Bangalore: Infosys BPO Ltd, the domestic business process outsourcing wing of Infosys technologies is heading to small towns looking for potential employees.
The company will hire employees at lower salaries in small towns and the resulting cost efficiency will help Infosys BPO grow faster despite its late entry in the domestic market. These new hires are being offered 10-15% less salary than their counterparts.

Apart from all this, lower rentals and a less intensive training schedule will enable Infosys BPO to pass on 30% cost efficiency to its clients.
Amitabh Chaudhry, the chief executive officer of Infosys BPO said that, the Indian BPO market will expand rapidly over the next five to seven years. The officials at Infosys BPO expect to double the revenues.

This new strategy is a win –win situation for both Infosys BPO and its employees. The employees will no longer have to work in the graveyard shift. The company will be flexible in hiring employees at lower costs so that after 24 months they will be ready to serve the international clients if required.

Ghana Government Develops Data Centers To Support BPO's !

Accra, GNA- The communication minister Mr. Haruna Iddrisu on Tuesday said that, the government was working to establish a national data centre to suppport the development of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

The BPO industry is an information technology enabled service in which the clients from other parts of the world subcontract BPO services for which they have the advantage of low competitive edge over the local firms which have high competitive edge in the that area.

He added that the, government was working up to install the fibre optics across the country to support the activities of the BPO industry. This will help in the growth of the economy and make it the most preferred destination for business process outsourcing.

The minister confirmed this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding( MOU) between the Ghana Telecom University College( GTUC) and the Rising Data Solutions( RDS), a Ghanaian multinational BPO service provider. This was done so to implement and design a BPO specific training course to be implemented by the GTUC.

As per the terms of the MOU, the RDS would enhance the communication and professional skills of the qualified GTUC students to work with them through training programmes by the GTUC faculty. This would be through staff interactions,exchange of experiences and best practices.

The speech by Mr. Iddrisu, was read on his behalf by Mr. Botingna Al-Hassan, a director at the ministry. In his speech he said that,BPO has become a fast developing industry driving the economies of many developed countries.

It has been estimates that BPO industry could provide jobs to about 37,000 youth in Ghana with an added value to the economy of the country by 750 million dollars.

Mr. Iddrisu said that, the country had requirement in the BPO industry and the college graduates need to be trained so that they could earn a decent living.

Therefore GTUC and RDS signed the MOU saying that, it would help the youth to equip with required skills to enter the industry.

Dr Osei Darkwa, President of the GTUC, said that the BPO industry is currently faced with shortage of skilled manpower, which is one of the factors for its slow growth.

Therefore to develop a talent pipeline BPO industry GTUC signed the MOU with RDS in the short and long term. This would ensure a continuous supply of trained manpower required for the industry.

Dr. Darkwa expressed the hope that, the collaboration with RDS would equip the students in the areas like communication skills,computer skills,telemarketing,listening skills, accent neutralisation and keyboard skills which are required to succeed in the industry.

Mr. A.J Whitman, Public Relations Manager of the RDS said, the signing of MOU was a landmark
in developing human resource and relationship for the growth of the BPO industry.

He also added that, RDS was committed towards creating more number of job opportunities and use its ability to drive the industry by using its strategic partnership that would allow development of skills based on knowledge sharing.

BPO Solutions For Online Dating Forum !

Manila, Philippines: A reputed business process outsourcing( BPO) solutions provider in Philippines named eTelecare Global Solutions will offer a customer care services to the subscribers of major online dating forum.

The president and chief executive John Harris said that, the company would provide BPO services like billing inquiry,acquisition,technical support,profile management and customer retention. The identity of online company was not disclosed.

This online dating company has millions of subscribers all the world who live in many countries and speak many different languages. Harris said that the, company plans to invest in process, technology and people. eTelecare Global Solutions intends to create real and sustainable value for this client. It would an opportunity to expand their relationship globally.

eTelecare has its delivery centres in United States,Philippines,Nicaragua and South Africa. Presently the company has plans to expand its business in Cape Town. The company has opened up its delivery centres in South Africa to provide services to the Europeans, North Americans and to the in- country clients in English, French,Dutch,German,Portuguese,Italian and other European clients.

Harris also added that,eTelecare was selected to deliver high quality services, achieve performance level and subscriber retention rates compared to the internal service centres.

Pakistan-One of the Attractive Outsourcing Destination !

According to the consulting management firm A.T Kearney, Pakistan has become the 20th most attractive outsourcing destination across the globe. The concerns are only about the instability of Pakistan and the growing displaced population due to ongoing military operations with Taliban. The country made significant jump on A.T. Kearney’s 2009 Global Services Location Index released on May 18. The position of Pakistan jumped from #40 in 2007 to #20 in 2009.
As per the reports, the Middle East and North Africa are among the most attractive destination in ever-changing geography of popular outsourcing destination. Both of these have skilled work force and enjoy proximity to Europe. The index ranks among the top 50 countries worldwide which have expertise in providing outsource activities like IT services, support services, customer care, contact center and back office. Among the listing countries like Jordan and Egypt are some of the top locales.
The countries have been marked on 43 different attributes related availability of skilled labor, business environment and financial attractiveness of a country. Factors like cost effectiveness is a huge motivator like giant companies for places like Pakistan. This is one reason why it scored so highly. When the same was released in the year 2007, about 40% of its weighting was given for financial attractiveness.
This is global index; and it gives an insight at where the companies globally outsource their work. There are plenty companies in the Middle East that outsource work to Pakistan. The percentage of US companies outsourcing work to Pakistan is less. If conditions stabilizes in Pakistan then it might attract become an attractive outsourcing destination.
Presently Pakistan faces a Humanitarian crisis with up to 2 million displaced due to intrusion of Taliban militants in the Swat valley. Similarly Mexico has seen growing violence due to drug trafficking since the last Global Services Location Index released in the year 2007. It only dropped one slot in the index that from #11 from #10 over the two years.

Tata Group Defers Plan to Set Up Rural BPO !

The famous TATA group has decided to defer its plan of setting up a rural business process outsourcing( BPO) unit near the proposed steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa by two years. The reason being the infrastructure for the center is not yet ready and the construction was hindered by an agitation by the locals. The locals protested the development of the six million-tonne greenfield steel project in the Jajpur district of Orissa.

According to a senior official the company is now planning to start a rural BPO in its own traditional bastion Jamshedpur. It has plans to replicate the model in Orissa and in couple of other areas. The company has already identified a school building for the proposed site in the Sakchi area of the steel city which is owned by the Tata group.

After the completion of the project and once the center becomes operational the 250 run seater will run in four shifts. The project aims to provide employment to 1,000 rural youth from Jharkhand as said by an official.

The company official also added that they had plans to open this rural BPO in Jamshedpur as a template which would be operational by the end of this year. Once the center is operational, the company aims to start similar centers in Orissa which might take eighteen months after the first center. There are plans to open 3-4 such centers.


The Tata group has already identified Kalinganagar in Orissa as the one of the location to open a rural BPO in Jharkhand. The exact location is yet to be finalized. The company is planning to open one more rural BPO center in Orissa.

Last year in May, Tata steel had planned to establish rural BPO center in Kalinganagar which aimed at providing employment to the local educated youth. The locals agitated against the displacement and loss of livelihood by the company's mega steel plant in the Jajpur district.

The center was supposed to be established by Tata Business Support Services( TBSS), which is the BPO wing of the Tata sons. This is in partnership with the Tata Steel Rural Development Society, a corporate NGO managed and controlled by the Tata group.

The company had even started recruiting locals for the center and had sent few of them for training to TBSS headquartered in Hyderabad. According to sources the new recruits have been placed in Hyderabad. Presently, they have been trained to handle Tata Teleservices’ customer support in Orissa.

Ghana Tops In Business Process Outsourcing

According to a study made by AT Kearney, Ghana tops in business processing outsourcing in Africa. After seven years of dealing with IT projects, reforming the higher education sector and implementing tax breaks with the BPO industry, Ghana has reaped huge profits.

The report titled “ The 2009 AT Kearney Global BPO Services Location Index” ranked countries for their abilities to handle BPO services. It used a weighted combination of scores on 43 measurements grouped under three criteria which were prospects of finance, availability of skilled work force and business environment.

Though India has led the ranked globally but Ghana is no far behind among the overall ranking in sub- Saharan Africa in terms of actual BPO revenue. South Africa is still the continent's leader in providing quality BPO services. Ghana' s rank was boosted by financial issues.

Ghana scored the highest and followed closely to India for being a quality BPO service providers. The ranking was among 50 countries on the basis of financial attractiveness which included compensation cost,infrastructure costs,tax and regulatory costs.

Yaw Owusu, managing director of Gateway Innovations, part of a venture to promote BPO in Ghana said that, Ghana scored 3.26 which was considerably higher than South Africa which scored 2.28.

Most of the countries have engaged in endless conferences and market research,but the west African nation has worked to have strong police work force and political stability to protect civilians and private property.

Ghana's investment to attract offshore clients started seven years ago, when government set up an incubation facility firm for IT start up companies. Then the government started investing on higher education to incorporate skills which were required to compete global BPO outsourcing service providers. It also set up a special secretariat for IT enabled services and BPO so that, Ghana could be projected as one of the lucrative destination for offshore outsourcing. Meanwhile the private companies set up the Ghana Association of Software and It services Companies( GASSCOM)

According to the Kearney report, Mauritius- the island nation ranks at 25th position. It is due to the availability of high skilled labor and favorable business environment. Presently Mauritius has 1.2 million population and it is in the process of joining the OECD, a symbolic entry into the club of advanced economies. The main strength of Mauritius are in the value added service area. It has boosted business from IT software and services from companies like Oracle and Ceridian- a human resource outsourcing firm.

Presently Ceridian has many vacancy as it serves the francophone market in the CyberTower,the government sponsored technology park. Even companies like Accenture and Infosys use Mauritius for their global delivery functions.

Though Ghana remains at the top position according to the survey carried out by Kearney for BPO desirability, South Africa remains the largest offshore destination in Africa. It has cluster of successful contact centers in Cape Town along with several research and development operations around its aerospace hub in Pretoria.
This year, South Africa dropped to 39th place in desirability rankings after it lost points in all three individual metrics.

The government of Ghana has created a free zone area right outside Accra and other areas in different parts of the country, where companies specializing in Business Process Outsourcing can set up operations.

The best part is that the companies in the free zone area can pay zero taxes for 10 years from the date of commencement of operations and only 8% of the tax after a period of 10 years.