The Indian Call Center Journey


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Case Details:

Case Code : HROB005
Case Length : 08 Pages
Period : 1999-2001
Organization : -
Pub Date : 2002
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : India
Industry : IT Enabled Services, BPO

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Please note:

This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.

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Excerpts

Call Center Basics

In 2001, the global call center industry was worth $ 800 mn spread across around 100,000 units. It was expected to touch the 300,000 level by 2002 employing approximately 18 mn people. Broadly speaking, a call center was a facility handling large volumes of inbound and outbound telephone calls, manned by 'agents,' (the people working at the center). In certain setups, the caller and the call center shared costs, while in certain other cases, the clients bore the call's cost. The call center could be situated anywhere in the world, irrespective of the client company's customer base...

Indian Call Centers - Myths and Realities

There were many reasons why India was considered an attractive destination to set up call centers. The boom in the Indian information technology sector in the mid 1990s led to the country's IT strengths being recognized all over the world. Moreover, India had the largest English-speaking population after the US and had a vast workforce of educated, reasonably tech-savvy personnel. In a call center, manpower typically accounted for 55-60% of the total costs in the US and European markets - in India, the manpower cost was approximately one-tenth of this. While per agent cost in US worked out to approximately $ 40,000, in India it was only $ 5,000. This was cited to be the biggest advantage India could offer to the MNCs...

Future Prospects

The Indian call center majors were trying to handle the labor exodus through various measures. Foremost amongst these was the move to employ people from social and academic backgrounds different from the norms set earlier. Young people passing out of English medium high schools and universities and housewives and back-to-work mothers looking for suitable opportunities were identified as two of the biggest possible recruitment pools for the industry.

Such students with a good basic level of English could be trained easily to improve their accents, pronunciation, grammar, spelling and diction. They could be trained to become familiar with western culture and traditions. The housewives and back-to-work mothers' pool could also be developed into excellent resources. This had been successfully tried out in the US and European markets, where call centers employed a large number of housewives and back-to-work mothers...

Exhibits

Exhibit I: Call Center Terminology

  

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