Indian BPO firms are expanding their contact centre operations in the Philippines to handle growing demand. Unlike their IT services counterparts, BPO firms are largely unaffected by the slowdown and continue to see strong volumes as clients of their customers still have to be serviced. Also, some customers are looking to offshore more processes to cut costs. New client wins are adding to volumes.

Companies such as Hinduja Global Solutions, Wipro BPO and WNS Global are ramping up their presence in the Philippines, which has emerged as a hub for voice-based customer services. Almost all Indian vendors offer a significant chunk of these services from the Philippines.

Hinduja Global is setting up a second delivery centre with a capacity of up to 900 seats in Manila. “We expect it to go live by July,” said Mr Partha DeSarkar, CEO of Hinduja Global, adding that the company’s expansion was mainly driven by American clients’ preference for services to be delivered from the Philippines.

Mr DeSarkar expects good growth in the Philippines, largely from sectors such as health insurance and banking. “I would say the Philippines is becoming increasingly popular. Growth is coming from new as well as existing clients,” he added. Full News

A 25-year-old call centre employee was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his flat at Khirki Extension area of south Delhi on  Saturday. The victim, Aniruddh Kumar (25), was staying in the rented flat for past one year. According to the police, Aniruddh was working for a call centre in Gurgaon. On Saturday, his landlord knocked at his door several times but there was no response from inside. Police were informed later and they found the door locked from inside.

“The door lock was broken open after which Aniruddh was found lying on the floor. He was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. His body was shifted to AIIMS,” said a police officer.

The family of Aniruddh stays in Dehradun. “We informed them yesterday after which they came to Delhi. A postmortem was conducted. The body was later handed over to family. The cause of his death is still not clear and we are awaiting the postmortem report,” the officer added.

Doctors suggested that he could have died due to poisoning or he might have a cardiac arrest but family told police that Aniruddh was not suffering from any major ailment. The police said that they had started an inquest proceedings into the matter and are also contacting his colleagues in Gurgaon. Source