Indian call center industry hotting up

The Indian call center industry is hotting up. More than 10,000 additional seats are expected to come up in a year.

McKinsey&Co, which foresees a global market $ 140 billion for IT-enabled services by the year 2008, has predicted that India's share could be as much as 49 billion by 2004 and $ 17 billion by 2008 thus providing employment to as many as 1.1 million Indians.

Although Ireland became a hot destination for locating such work in the past decade, the cost advantage to a US company shifting work to Ireland is no longer considered attractive by industry experts. As compared to a cost advantage of 20 to 30 percent in Ireland, this works out to well over 50 percent with India.

A compelling factor in India's favor is that companies can capitalize on its unique time zone position. India offers a virtual 12 hour time zone difference with USA and six to seven hours with most European markets.

As the number of people employed in this sector is on the rise, the industry is recognizing the need for certified help desk personnel with internationally standardized training. Presently, India lacks an organized set-up for training call center professionals. IN the absence of institutional training mechanism for IT-enabled services, trained manpower is at a premium.

Today, most processing firms are forced to resort to in-house training of fresh recruits. However the training imparted by companies, most of whom have no inkling of how a live call center conducts its business and hence no idea of what kind of trainign is required.

Cara STI Knowledge Pvt Ltd is the first such center in India to provide training and certification for help desks. Headquartered in Pune, the training cum knowledge based company aims at creating a new generation of trained and certified professionals for the fast growing help desk and call center industry in the country. Cara plans to achieve this in association with the US-based STI Knowledge Global Certification and Advisory Services.

Said Shashi Khanna, Director , STI Knowledge Pvt Ltd , "We have signed a 10 year exclusive agreement with STI Knowledge to deliver their solutions in India. Our company is authorized to certify professionals for STI Knowledge.'' Presently no company offers training in help desks (where existing customers contact the help desk through a remote operator to resolve their problems).

Manu Morjaria, Director, believed that the economic slowdown in the US makes it feasible for companies to base their help desks in India where it is still possible to set up operations at a reasonable cost. "Help desks are the future of IT enabled service industry. Certification will help to decrease the total cost of ownership, increase return on investment, position the organization with a competitive advantage, decrease attrition rates and positively impact business success,'' he said.

Cara has set up the necessary infrastructure required for a call center. The company will either provide training on locations or at its facilities located at Pune. Cara plans to expand through the franchisee route in the country at a later stage.

(CNS)