It may be the hour of recession and lay-offs, but the government-run BPO is on a hiring spree. Multi-national telecom and banking companies are knocking on the doors of Fostera at Sanasandiram to outsource their help desk, loan collection, credit card processing, form-filling, insurance and editing work.

Over the next three months, Fostera (short for fostering rural technology), floated by the Krishnagiri district administration over a year ago, will hire about 500 young people from Tamil Nadu’s hinterlands for monthly salaries ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000. The BPO, which was working just one shift, is switching to three shifts a day to manage the tide of offers, says Fostera CEO MR Ashok Kumar.

Daughters and sons of agricultural and construction labourers, who have barely passed high school, will soon put on headphones and work the helplines for bank and insurance customers in English, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. About 300 young people have already been put through voice and non-voice training. “We look for youth with the right attitude and high energy levels. Communication skills can be instilled, but attitude cannot be taught,” he says.

Fostera, which is presently a 25-seater facility, will soon start two more call centres in Uthangarai taluk in Krishnagiri district, each with a capacity of 75. In Uthangarai taluk, which has high unemployment and illiteracy rates, marriage halls are being converted into BPOs, providing jobs for those above 18 who have finished school. Source

Logica, the IT and business services company, has announced a number of strategic appointments. The new appointments will expand the UK Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) team in line with the company’s strategy to broaden its service offerings to support its clients through the current economic climate and to target the growing BPO market. In particular, they will help spearhead Logica’s local government growth initiatives.

Building on Logica’s strengths in payroll and HR, this growing BPO capability will allow the company to design and deliver broader and more integrated back office solutions including finance administration and procurement. These services will continue to be underpinned by Logica’s traditional strengths in business transformation, complex information systems integration, and IT service delivery.

Phil Gooch, Director at Logica said, “As we begin our new year these appointments will help power Logica’s growth and build on the success we have achieved over the past several years. By combining the expertise and fresh perspective that the newest members of our BPO team bring to the table with the deep experience of our current leadership team, Logica is poised for even greater success in the years ahead.” Source

GramIT, the rural BPO initiative of the Byrraju Foundation, is in talks with various funding agencies “to expand the scope and presence of its rural BPO services,” said foundation’s lead partner Verghese Jacob. Byrraju Foundation is the NGO outfit formed by Satyam Computer Services founder B Ramalinga Raju in his personal capacity.

“The initiative has so far received funding from Raju’s personal wealth, while recurring costs were met through customer fees. But now to invest in our expansion, we are negotiating with funding agencies, which could pick up some equity or bring investments along with good customers,” he told Business Standard.

Jacob said GramIT has put its two new BPO centres planned at Chindwara and Sausar in Madhya Pradesh on the backburner as they are yet to get clients. The two centres are expected to employ 200 people.

“Each centre requires an investment of about Rs 80 lakh. Now that the funding from the Raju family has ceased, we want to expand only after we see a visible funding from the family again. If not, we will utilise the money raised from the funding agencies and commence operations at those two centres in the next three to six months,” he said. Source