The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) kicks off here today Convergence 2009, signifying the government’s commitment to spur development in the so-called “next wave cities” for outsourcing. Convergence 2009 combines the Cyber Corridor Roadshow and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines’ (BPA/P) Talent Caravan.

CICT Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III said the event will kick off at the CICT today and make stops at Sta. Rosa, Laguna; Trece Martires, Cavite; Iloilo; Davao; Bacolod; Malolos, Bulacan; Clark, Pampanga; Cagayan de Oro; Lipa; and Cebu. It carries the theme, “Empowering the Filipino through ICT” and aims to promote opportunities in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

“The Philippine IT-BPO industry is indeed something that all Filipinos should be proud of. We have already gained global recognition,” Mr. Roxas-Chua said, referring to the declaration of the Philippines as Offshoring Destination of the Year, Manila as the third-preferred outsourcing city in Asia Pacific and Cebu as the number one emerging outsourcing city in the world. Full News

Firstsource Solutions, an India business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider, and Idea Cellular — India’s third-largest private telecom services provider — today signed a five-year, Rs 145 crore outsourcing agreement.

Firstsource will provide a suite of customer management interaction services including customer service, billing, new product information and plan details related interaction services to Idea from its centre in Coimbatore. It will be provide these services for Idea’s Kerala and Tamil Nadu customers in English, Malayalam and Tamil.

“Firstsource brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in running large customer support operations for global telecom service providers and has the ability to help us manage our rapid growth in the service areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. We believe our customers will benefit from their service capabilities” said Navanit Narayan, Chief Service Delivery Officer, Idea Cellular. (more…)

Infosys BPO Ltd, the domestic business process outsourcing operation of Infosys Technologies Ltd, is going to small towns looking for potential employees. This, the company says, will allow it hire at lower salaries and the resulting cost efficiency will help Infosys BPO grow faster despite its late entry into the domestic market.

These new hires are being offered salaries 10-15% lower than their city counterparts. This, coupled with lower rentals and a less intensive training schedule, will enable Infosys BPO to pass on a 30% cost efficiency to its clients.

Amitabh Chaudhry, chief executive officer, Infosys BPO, said: “The Indian BPO market will only grow rapidly over the next five-seven years. We at Infosys BPO expect to double our revenues, which is at 5% at the moment going ahead.” This new strategy could be a win-win for both Infosys BPO and its employees. For the employees, it will mean not having to work graveyard shifts. For the company, it will mean flexibility in hiring employees at a lower cost, who over 24 months would be ready to service even international clients, if needed. Source

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest software services firm by revenues, is competing for 5-6 business process outsourcing (BPO) deals worth up to $150-200 million, a senior executive said. The outsourcing deals are largely in verticals such as banking and financial services, retail and energy & utilities.

“In the banking and financial services space, there is a boom in the US in the mortgage and collections space,” TCS vice-president and BPO services head Abid Ali Neemuchwala said. The Indian IT firm is also seeing demand from life sciences and healthcare, telecom and media sectors.

TCS provides BPO services such as finance and accounting, human resources outsourcing, supply chain management and customer support through centres in India, China, South America and Europe.

TCS is also seeing new growth areas such as regulatory compliance and risk management emerge, in the aftermath of the financial crisis in the US and Europe.

North America and the UK remain the largest markets for TCS’ BPO business but the firm is also seeing traction in continental Europe, Latin America and India. Mr Neemuchwala said the focus of the BPO business in the domestic market is on deals in the travel and hospitality and insurance sectors. TCS is also competing for integrated IT- BPO deals in the government sector in India. Source

As the economic slowdown hit most sectors, cost rationalisation has become imperative for companies to survive. In this exclusive report Sunanda Jayaseelan get us the story of the Infosys BPO in Bangalore and how they are reviewing their HR strategy to save costs. It maybe a late entrant into the domestic market, but Infosys BPO is hoping to catch up fast. and to do that, it is adopting an aggressive policy to save costs.

Senior VP & Head - Global Delivery, Infosys BPO, Swami Swaminathan said, “If you look at Indian companies, the level of intensity of skills that you require is less and therefore we are able to hire from Tier 3 and 4 cities and get those folks here and the cost is less. It is hiring employees from tier 3 and 4 towns instead of top cities, and is offering salaries 10-15 per cent lower than its counterparts. It hopes that cut in training costs and lower rentals in smaller towns will add up to 30 per cent cost efficiencies. This is going to be its strategy to expand its presence as well. (more…)

Aegis, Essar group’s BPO arm , is setting up technology subsidiary with an investment of $100 million (around Rs 489 crore). The money will be invested in the subsidiary over the next 12 months. The company will provide end-to-end customised solutions in the areas of voice and data, networking, unified communications, managed services, info security and remote infrastructure management. The offerings are aimed at verticals such as telecom, government, power and power utilities; companies that already have an  enable IT infrastructure

Aparup Sengupta, managing director and global CEO, Aegis Limited said: “Aegis Tech will also work closely with the existing customers to offer end-to-end solutions. This synergy will deliver more value to our existing and prospective customers. We have put together a highly experienced team led by S K Jha as President.”

S K Jha, President, Aegis Tech said: “The existing technology people under Aegis group companies will move to Aegis Tech. To begin with, Aegis will have over 500 people spread across India, ASEAN, North America, Africa and Australia. The employee base is expected to reach over 1,000 in the next 12-18 months through new hires and acquisitions.” Source

At a time when the Bangalore versus Buffalo City debate spooks BPO employees in India, Essar Group’s backoffice unit Aegis Ltd will augment its workforce by 12,000, summing up the total headcount to 43,000 by end of this fiscal.
 
The company plans to hire 1,000 people every month in India and across United States, Philippines, Costa Rica and Africa where it currently has operations.       

“We will be recruiting a thousand people every month, so this year we will add 12,000 to our workforce globally. We have already hired 3,000 people since the beginning of this fiscal,” Aegis Limited Managing Director and Global CEO Aparup Sengupta told PTI here.       

US President Barack Obama had last month announced end to years of tax incentives to those US companies, which create jobs overseas in places like Bangalore. Full News

3i Infotech Ltd, a global provider of IT solutions and one of India’s largest software product companies, has announced that all its BPO businesses would be managed through 3i Infotech’s wholly owned BPO subsidiary.
 
During the financial year 2008-09, BPO services emerged as a very important component in 3i Infotech’s suite of offerings worldwide, contributing one-third of revenues of Rs 2300 crore ($500 million).

3i Infotech’s BPO subsidiary is being created as an acknowledgment of this important reality, and will offer end-to-end business process services to the BFSI and Telecom companies in the domestic market. 3i Infotech’s BPO subsidiary has its presence across 200 cities in India, and has a staff strength of nearly 7000. Source