BPO
|Update|
Issue 43
New
gateway to tech jobs
CyberMedia Dice, an exclusive tech jobs portal, also
offers technology focused content and services, assessment tools and practice
tests
CyberMedia, an Indian specialty media house and US based Dice have announced the
launch of their JV CyberMedia Dice, a job board that purely focuses on the
technology and engineering industry. The JV involves a 51:49 percent partnership
between Dice and CyberMedia, respectively. However both companies did not reveal
the investment details.
Some of the features of the portal www.cybermediadice.com include emphasis on
technology-focused content and services, availability of practice tests and
assessment products through the CyberMedia Dice-MeasureUp index. These would
help to test a candidate's domain knowledge in specific areas.
CyberMedia Dice would tie up IT companies, recruitment companies and
consultants. "It would aid recruiters in both pre-recruitment and post
recruitment since we also offer assessment solutions," said president CIOL
and CyberMedia Dice CEO, Abraham Mathew. On the issue of competition from other
job portals, he said, "With our focus on the IT and tech area and with our
practice tests and assessment products, we offer better quality than our
competitors."
He further said that though Dice focused on the gamut of jobs across the tech
and engineering space like IT, aerospace, bio-pharma and biotechnology, the
initial focus of CyberMedia Dice would be on IT jobs.
Source: www.ciol.com, April 5th
Thieves
undercut Indian BPO
As an aftermath of the alleged stealing of $350,000 from one of the largest US
financial services institutions by Mphasis BFL's BPO employees, the Indian BPO
industry will suffer a major setback, predicts Forrester Research. Msource's
three employees along with nine others were arrested after it was reported that
they had allegedly stolen the money from the accounts of four customers of their
BPO client.
This, coupled with skyrocketing call center attrition rates, will severely
dampen BPO growth rates, especially in the call center customer service space in
the next 18 months, says Forrester analyst, John C. McCarthy.
The Msource staff members acquired the passwords to end customer accounts and
transferred the money to their own accounts. The fraud occurred from the end of
February until this past week.
The misdeeds came to light when the customers noticed the missing funds.
Citibank then tracked the activity to Mphasis' Pune customer service
center.
Forrester believes that the incident will undermine call center expansion by as
much as 30% as security concerns, regulatory pressure, and end customer backlash
lengthen sales cycles, impede the ramping up of larger projects, or drive firms
to take the captive route.
The event says the report in all probabilities will call for more regulation of
BPO activities in the US and Europe, as well as in India.
Citibank is one of Msource's largest customers, and if the bank cuts back its
work, it will be a major setback for the company.
Forrester also urges NASSCOM India's IT industry association to begin lobbying
the government on issues like tightening Cyber Law.
Source: www.ciol.com, www.smh.com.au/news,
April 8th
New
Mphasis BPO centre to hire 3000
With an initial investment of $ 16.1 million, the Mphasis said, its Mangalore
facility will provide contact centre services for several Fortune 500 companies.
The total employee strength at this facility is expected to reach 3,000 in the
initial stage of operations.
This is the company's fourth facility in India. It already has two facilities in
Bangalore and one in Pune. The company also has a BPO facility in Tijuana
Mexico.
MphasiS' BPO business recorded revenues of $ 17.12 million for the quarter ended
December 31, 2004 as against $ 11.1 million in the corresponding quarter of the
previous year.
Source: Press
Trust of India, April 9th
Nine
worst business processes revealed
Pegasystems Inc. provider of smart, rules-based business process management (BPM)
software, revealed the nine worst processes carried out by organizations when
they are limited by practices that do not take into account customer or
organizational needs.
1. Compliance: issues such as fraud, terrorism,
Sarbanes-Oxley, data protection etc.
2. Opening accounts: duplicity of efforts, potential inaccuracy
3. Event-driven marketing
4. Sorting out the front office: ease of use, 24X7 access
5. Getting real benefits out of business process outsourcing
7. Product configuration: customizing products & services to fit each
individual client
8. Complaints tracking: valuable feedback, retain via successful
resolution
9. Competitive response: identify and respond to competition via business
intelligence
Source: www.bobsguide.com,
www.businesswire.com, April 12th
Helios
& Matheson to buy vMoksha
Chennai based Helios & Matheson Information Technology is set to acquire
vMoksha — including its three entities based in the US, Singapore and India
— for $19 million in an all-cash deal. The acquisition would be funded mostly
through internal accruals.
The three entities to bought by Helios & Matheson are vMoksha Technologies
(US), vMoksha Technologies (Singapore) and vMoksha Technologies, based in
Bangalore.
The acquisition would help Helios & Matheson strengthen its presence in
Europe.
Helios & Matheson managing director G K Muralikrishna said, “Post
acquisition, our headcount would expand to 1,300 people. We plan to have 2,000
employees by the end of 2006.”
vMoksha is expected to earn $22 million this year ($15 million in 2004-05), with
15% of revenue as profit after tax.
Source: Times News Network, April 13th
12
Indian firms on best BPOs' list
Here's another feather in India's BPO cap. There are as many as 12 Indian
companies in the list of Best Managed outsourcing vendors for 2005 announced by
The Black Book of Outsourcing. The rankings are based on customer satisfaction
and employee satisfaction surveys, comparisons with other independent vendors,
ratings of client performance and reports from global consulting firms.
This year IBM Global/Daksh has been ranked as the number one outsourcer. (IBM
acquired Daksh last April for between Rs 700 crore and Rs 750 crore)
Accenture follows Daksh at number two and Hewlett Packard at number three.
Two Indian BPO companies -- Wipro Spectramind and ICICI OneSource, share ranks
six and seven respectively.
IT bellwethers like Satyam Computer and Infosys Technologies featured much below
at ranks 19 and 25, respectively.
Other Indian companies to be ranked in the list included i-flex at 32, Tata
Consultancy Services at 33, iGate at 41 and Patni Computers at 45.
Source: www.economictimes.com, April 14th
BPOs
come forth to embrace disabled
Armed with the knowledge of computer and other modern technologies, the disabled
are knocking at the doors of IT-enabled services and BPO industry but jobs are
coming in a trickle. Most of the firms hesitate in framing any guidelines or
policy to recruit disabled people as they think this will affect the company's
performance, says Ashwin Kumar Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, National Association
for the Blind.
Joint initiatives should be taken up by the government and entrepreneurs to
provide education, computer skills and modern techniques, so that they can get
more exposure, says Aggarwal, a blind who has done PHD in Special
Education.
The large-sized ITES companies with over 1,000 employees usually employ 10-15
physically challenged and the number is likely to grow.
"We have 10 disabled employees right now and in future we are going to
recruit 10 more for mainstream jobs in our company," says Anubhuti Mittal,
Assistant Vice President, GE Capital International services. "The section
should be given opportunities for earning their livelihood. If persons with
various disabilities can work perfectly, after being trained, then there is no
harm in giving them employment," she adds.
Source: Press Trust of India, April 14th
HP
Expands BPO Capabilities with New Center in Poland
Wroclaw was selected as the site to meet the increasing demand for outsourced
services due to its central location in Europe and well-developed information
technology infrastructure. Once the center is developed, it is expected to
employ approximately 1,000 employees who will provide financial and accounting
services.
Source: www.businesswire.com, April 15th
Call
centre theft won't hurt Indian outsourcing
It won't be a big deal in the longer term, predicts
analyst Gartner
Fears about the security of Indian outsourcing are unlikely to damage the
industry in the long term, if the industry acts now to counter these
perceptions, according to analyst Gartner.
The Indian offshore outsourcing industry was rocked by revelations that call
centre workers in Pune have been arrested for allegedly looting $350,000 from
the accounts of Citibank's US customers.
Gartner said that it had long predicted that a major fraud case or
intellectual-property issue would focus unwelcome attention on the security of
offshore outsourcing.
But it said in a research note: "We do not believe that this highly
publicized incident will seriously damage the Indian business process
outsourcing (BPO) industry. Frauds of this type can happen anywhere, and are
just as likely to occur in an insourced or captive centre."
But the analyst house said the "entire Indian offshore industry
ecosystem", including vendors, the National Association of Software and
Service Companies, local law enforcement and the Indian government must act
quickly to counter any perception that Indian BPO poses a security risk.
Gartner said companies should perform comprehensive security due diligence
before outsourcing onshore or offshore. It said companies should assign a team
to manage security and privacy issues through the entire life cycle of a
sourcing agreement, and should demand detailed service-level agreements that
focus on specific security issues such as identity and access management
controls.
Source: www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/offshoring,
April 15th
Prepared by
Abhimanyu Puri, BBA (MAHE) 2nd year
Skyline Business School
Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110 016
Tel: 2686 4848, 2652 4399
www.SkylineCollege.com