India’s BPO services exports in 2007-08 grew 21.4 per cent to Rs.264.23 billion, up from Rs.217.60 billion in the previous fiscal, according to a new study. In dollar terms, the growth was even more impressive at 36.6 per cent to $6.6 billion, up from $4.8 billion last fiscal, said the study. It ranked Genpact as the No. 1 export revenue earner with revenues of Rs.26.59 billion, up by 19.8 per cent from Rs.22.20 billion that the company earned last fiscal.

Aditya Birla Minacs, the second ranking revenue earning company last fiscal, maintained its rank this year as well. Its revenues grew 3.1 per cent to Rs.15.63 billion up from Rs.15.16 billion last fiscal.  Apart from these two top rankers, the other companies that managed to maintain their ranks this year were Wipro BPO and HCL BPO. Wipro BPO maintained its 7th rank by growing 22.7 per cent to Rs.11.47 billion up from Rs.9.35 billion last fiscal.

Similarly, HCL BPO maintained its 10th rank by growing 18.1 per cent to Rs.8.8 billion up from Rs.7.45 billion last fiscal. TCS BPO improved its ranking from 4th last fiscal to 3rd this fiscal by growing 38.6 per cent to Rs.13.64 billion, up from Rs.9.84 billion.

In terms of rankings, the most dramatic improvement has been achieved by Intelenet Global which has moved up six places to come into the top 20 at rank 15. Last fiscal at rank 21 it was not in the list at all. Intelenet Global has grown a whopping 128.1 per cent - the highest among the top 20 - to Rs.6.57 billion up from Rs.2.88 billion last fiscal. The other companies to have improved their rankings this year were Infosys BPO which moved up four places to rank eight from rank 12 last fiscal. Its revenues grew 49.3 per cent to Rs.10.02 billion up from Rs.6.71 billion last fiscal. (more…)

India’s CIO magazine has awarded HCL Technologies Ltd. – BPO Services with the 2008 CIO 100 Award. The annual award program recognizes organisations that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology (IT).

“The Bold 100 honorees stand out because they have dared to take on risk for the chance of reward in challenging business climates,” says Vijay Ramachandran, Editor-in-Chief, IDG India. “The CIOs leading these projects are smart, inventive and determined — I offer them my best wishes.”

Commenting on the win, Mr. Ranjit Narasimhan, President & CEO, HCL Technologies Ltd. – BPO Services, said, “Our organization’s strategy is to bring the right mix of technology and business to derive higher efficiencies. eNSURE IT is one such initiative which is at par with the current industry best practices. This has enhanced the value proposition delivered to our business and is a true corporate asset. I congratulate the team on this remarkable achievement.”

Mr. Vijay Reddy, Senior Vice President - Technology, HCL Technologies Ltd. – BPO Services, added, “eNSURE IT offers our customers a very high infrastructure availability of 99.99% uptime of all Network and Applications, by proactively monitoring all the critical parameters of the infrastructure. eNSURE IT has delivered a positive effect on revenues impacted by operational challenges; moreover any outages now have minimal impact on our day to day operations.”

Key driver of eNSURE IT, Mr. P V Ramadas, Vice President - Technology, HCL Technologies Ltd. – BPO Services, remembers the journey during implementation of eNSURE IT - “Those were very exciting and challenging days. The team worked effortlessly to ensure that the platform was effectively deployed to bring in an ideal mix of people, process and technology. We all rallied together to turn this vision into a reality and the platform was launched successfully due to the persistent efforts of the team and support of all stakeholders. We are extremely proud today with this added recognition.”

The CIO 100 Awards will be presented at a grand function honouring winners today at Jaipur. Source
 

Indian BPO companies have taken a fresh look at tapping the domestic outsourcing opportunity. But the approaches taken by the companies to do so couldn’t differ further.

Despite the bumps, the Indian economy is growing and so is the opportunity to outsource given the need to cut costs in a difficult environment. So, one would expect global BPO biggies like Infosys and TCS to go all hammer and tongs to grab a slice of the above USD 16 billion domestic outsourcing pie. Companies like Infosys BPO feels that it is not true.

Amitabh Chaudhary, CEO, Infosys BPO, said, “We have been very clear, it has to be profitable growth. We want growth but it has to be profitable. We don’t want to stretch our model too much by getting into India business because if we get into that, it will be easy to generate revenue.”

VK Raman, Head-BPO Services, TCS, said, “We have a small BPO presence in the domestic market, which is in single-digits. We believe that if we put our mind to it we will find the right solutions. The scope is very large, so growth can be there. We need to solve equations like cost and margins among others.”

Joining TCS in that view are BPO bigwigs like Genpact and WNS who recently announced efforts to concentrate on the Indian market. There seems to be a clear difference in opinion between old rivals Infosys and TCS on the Indian outsourcing opportunity. While Infosys won’t get going unless it’s profitable from day one, TCS is willing to invest in the long-term despite not seeing immediate profits on the table.

Five people, including a 3-year-old girl, were injured on Tuesday night when an overspeeding call centre cab rammed into them while they were relaxing on a raised platform outside their residence in J-Block, Mongolpuri. Power cut had forced them outdoors.  Eyewitnesses claimed that the driver of the cab was fleeing after hitting a motorcyclist near the Sanjay Gandhi crossing. It was then that he lost control of the car over a sharp bend and rammed into the platform, ultimately coming to halt in front of a house in the locality.

The injured - Karan (13), Ravi (16), Neeraj (17), 3-year-old Manisha and her grandfather Narender Lal (65) - were rushed to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital where four of them were discharged by morning. Doctors said that Manisha was badly hurt.  The police have arrested its driver, Dinesh, and registered a case of rash and negligent driving. The car has also been impounded. The other occupants could not be identified.

Recalling the incident, Rajni, one of the eyewitnesses, said  “The car approached us after swerving from the central road divider for 50 metres and hit a motorcycle parked on the road, dragged it for 25 metres and then climbed on to the pavement. While most of us managed to flee, five people couldn’t escape. The little girl’s leg was caught in the wheels. The car then hit another motorbike parked on the pavement and the iron staircase of house number J-1108 before coming to a halt in front of the entrance door of the house,” she said.

It took police almost half-an-hour to reach the spot, even though they were informed immediately, alleged Hosier Singh, another eyewitness, adding that the driver was under the influence of alcohol.

Disputing the allegations, a senior police officer said: “We have no information that the car was involved in another accident previously. Neither can we say for sure that the driver was drunk. We are waiting for final report. If proved we will also book him for drunken driving.” (more…)