The UKs second largest BPO firm, Vertex, is moving some of its key support and administrative functions to its offshore centre in Gurgaon. The 1,800 people strong offshore facility services about a fifth of its customer contracts, and will now also handle Vertexs own functions in finance and accounting, analytics, human resources, IT and workforce management.

About 120150 positions have been moved to India and about 100 more positions could be offshored at a later stage, said Vertex managing director private sector and utilities John Hall.

Vertex ownership changed hands early last year when a consortium of private equity firms led by Oak Hill Capital Partners acquired the UKheadquartered BPO from United Utilities. The bid also saw interest from some large Indian IT and BPO providers such as Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro.

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There is an opportunity for India’s BPO industry, as US-based Contact Centers are failing to engage in significant proactive CRM on behalf of its customers, according to a research report becoming available in India today.

Altitude Software, a leading independent contact centre solutions vendor, and ContactBabel, contact center industry analysts, today announced findings on the Outbound and Call Blending activities of US Contact Centers, from the “US Contact Center Operational Review 2007”, based on a study of the performance, operations, technology and HR aspects of 204 Contact Centers.

The research, sponsored by Altitude Software, shines a new light on US Contact Center’s Outbound CRM “lost opportunity”, with only 26% of contact centers surveyed engaged in proactive customer service, and a mere 11% actively cross-selling or up-selling to existing customers. Feeding into this state of affairs is a clear “technology gap” in contact centers, with 45% using only basic (or preview) dialers and 55% using predictive and progressive dialers, better suited for legislative compliance and for sensitive “CRM calls”.

“The report findings underline the extent to which contact centers are failing to make an intelligent use of the available technology to deliver proactive customer service – which can be a strong brand builder as well as an effective call avoidance tactic.” said Steve Morrell, principal analyst at ContactBabel.

“India’s BPO industry needs to put itself in a position where it can help companies addressing the US market reinvent customer service through “proactive customer care”, enabling contact centers to use outbound calling to increase customer goodwill” stated Mr. Sanjay Sapru, Altitude Software India Country Head. “Businesses can use the contact center to proactively contact affected customers/groups when service disruptions are anticipated. Or they can pursue customer satisfaction follow-up after service fulfillment. This business approach can prevent inbound call peaks, allow for better staffing and resource management, and above all increase customer satisfaction”

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NAVI MUMBAI: A picnic to the picturesque Diveaagar beach at Shrivardhan, Raigad district, turned into a tragedy when six employees of Reliance BPO drowned on Monday afternoon.

Fourteen BPO employees from the Koparkhairane-based Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) had gone to Shrivardhan on Sunday evening. Around 12.30 pm on Monday, four men and two women from the group were unable to come back to the shore due to the high tide.

The Raigad police said the bodies of five victims—Manoj Parmar (35), Mohammed Nasir (35), Neelkanth Iyer (25), Kingston Paul and Mamata Nahak (25)—had been recovered. A search was still on for the sixth victim, Noor Mansuri, on Monday evening.

CHENNAI: Leaders of the BPO publishing industry has urged the government, the CII and the NASSCOM to introduce courses for publishing BPO, with specific curriculum, to meet the huge demand from other nations.

The curriculum could be a special, exclusive course or part of an existing curriculum, Sriram Subramanya, vice-chairman, CII Puducherry, and founder, Integra Software, said, addressing a conference on publishing and BPO services here on Wednesday. The number of employees in the sector was likely to reach 74,000 by 2010.

However, with the lack of specific courses to train candidates in e-publishing, it was unlikely that this huge demand for resources could be met. The industry could generate $1.46 billion by 2010 as revenues through off-shoring at an estimated growth of 35 per cent a year.

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As India takes center stage and demand for employees rise by thousands, the big question weighting heavily on the one’s job hopping for BPOs is: “Am I choosing the right organization”?A good research and experts experiences penned below-before you start queuing up for elusive jobs promising unbelievable perks and promotions-might help.

BACKGROUND : As simple as it may sound.BPO that belong to the big league will always have a good background.Check for details of management hierarchy and experience.See where they start from and where they reached.Browse.Ask relevant questions during your interview.

STABILITY :  A lot of BPOs that start with bag full of promise rise like a rocket and fall like a meteor.Reason?Poor track record with clients, unprofessional work ethics and extended deadlines his revenue.Invariably it leads to the process of down sizing or wrapping up.Ask for how good are employees rated on standards set by the clients.

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