More players getting into lucrative call centre bandwagon

More players getting into lucrative call centre bandwagon
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, NOV 19: More companies are entering into the lucrative call centre business. eFunds, a US-based company, is the latest to open a 1,000 seat call centre in the city, set up with an investment of $ 4 million. Sun Microsystems Inc, HDFC, Tata Steel, 24/7customer.com and a host of overseas companies are also waiting in the wings.

What is attracting companies into the call centre business? ``It's no doubt cheap manpower is bringing new players here. We have a large number of English speaking people here. On the other hand, expenses to run call centres are very high in Western countries. India offers a good potential in this business,'' said an industry source. Call centres are information and customer handling centres of a particular product or a company. Using high-tech satellite based telecom services, a call centre in Mumbai or Delhi can handle the requirements of a US-based company.

According to a recent Nasscom study, potential call centre market size is likely to rise to Rs 6,000 crore by 2007-08 as against Rs 40 crore in 1998-99. Others feel there is potential for further growth.

The 32,000 sq ft centre of eFunds would provide state-of-the-art technologies on a 24x7 basis to customers worldwide and also has over 1,200 qualified and experienced professionals to monitor the set up. ``eFunds has always endeavoured to leverage world-class technologies, the Mumbai call centre is our latest step in that direction,'' chairman and chief executive officer Gus Blanchard told reporters.

Sun Microsystems is setting up a dedicated customer support call centre for users of its proprietary Java software in Bangalore. "Though our engineering centre in Bangalore has only a couple of Java software projects staffing at the moment, we are in the process of setting up a customer technical escalation support centre for Java," Sun's director product engineering for Java Dale E Ferrario said. In May, Sun had said it would be investing $9.5 million to increase its presence in India, including an expansion of its existing facilities in Bangalore.

``India is unique in the business plans of eFunds as it is the identified location to provide our business process management range of services to clients worldwide,'' eFunds International president Pradeep Saxena said.

HDFC has proposed to venture into call centres with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in a bid to provide the company with strong revenue streams. The potential value of the firm can be valued at between $330-560 million in three years from now.

The HDFC call centre, which is being set up in Navi Mumbai, is expected to be opened by the end of the year and is likely to cost around Rs 15 crore. Investment may increase to around Rs 30-40 crore as the business model is ramped up and on the need for setting up additional call centres.

Global Tele-Systems Ltd has proposed a state-of-the-art call centre at Mahape in Navi Mumbai in October this year for servicing large off-shore firms. Global Tele has already received an off-shore call centre contract from an American insurance company and a British pharmaceutical firm. The company is likely to tie up with 30-40 firms from the US and United Kingdom for providing customer relationship management (CRM) service through the call centre. Potential clients for Global Tele's call centre are into financial services, healthcare and info-tech.

The company has been in the CRM business since September 1997 through its existing call centre, which at present has a strength of 120 employees. The new call centre of 1,20,000 sq ft will house up to 1,000 employees. Global Tele has tied up with Cincom Systems, the US, to procure hardware and software for the upcoming call centre. The company hopes to market these solutions in the country and is expected to enter into a strategic partnership to jointly develop software products.

24/7customer.com will be investing more than $ ten million before the end of 2001 to enhance its infrastructure facilities here to cater to the needs of world's top 500 companies. The company had already invested $ three million and bagged already a major client in addition to Alta Vista and rediff.com. The facility which would provide employment to 1200 in three shifts was inaugurated by Chief Minister S M Krishna.

BSNL plans mobile services

MUMBAI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) would provide mobile service to its customers across the country by the last quarter of 2001. BSNL chairman and managing director DP Seth said that this service would not be limited to one or two cities but would connect highways, large cities and also the rural areas. He said that the BSNL has taken many customer-friendly decisions including offering rebates for customers.

He said that the BSNL would introduce `call centres' to ensure that complaints of customers are received and reply is given back to them. ``This would help the customer from running around to get his complaint attended,'' he added.