Call Center Times

Indian inefficiency causes Apple to shut customer support call center in India

2006-06-09T17:39:00.000+08:00

Apple Computer Inc. has decided not to open a customer support call center in India, a company official said Tuesday.

Earlier this year, Apple had announced plans to open a technology support center in Bangalore, India's technology hub, and had hired dozens of staff. The Cupertino, California-based, company had said the Indian center would eventually staff 600 employees.

Goodfind.net

2006-02-09T13:51:00.000+08:00

Goodfind.net

Dell owner inviting Filipinos to join contact center

2005-10-24T11:19:00.000+08:00

First posted 00:01am (Mla time) Oct 15, 2005
By Abigail L. Ho
Inquirer News Service

MICHAEL Dell, chair of computer maker Dell Inc., is reaching out to Filipino talents to consider a career in the 700-seat contact center the company will be opening in the Philippines in February 2006.

Through a Webcast that will run on the company’s website from Oct. 14-21, Dell will be enticing Filipino customer service representatives to join the Dell contact center here.

“We’ve come to the Philippines for the very best technical and customer service professionals that we can find. We believe that we’ve got the best career opportunities that you can find. We hope you’ll join our team,” Dell said in his webcast.

Dell International Services Philippines, a wholly owned Dell subsidiary that will be in charge of the local contact center, will be embarking on an aggressive recruitment process starting this month.

Apart from the webcast, the company will also send out test-based broadcasts, print ads and banner ads through a partnership with short messaging service community www.chikka.com

The company’s Philippine contact center would be an integral part of its strategy to expand beyond personal computers and enter the world of consumer electronics, said Doy Roque, designated spokesperson for Dell.

“Dell is transforming from just a PC company into a total technology company. The company sells almost everything direct, through the web or through call centers. It only has resellers in areas where it doesn’t have actual offices that can sell directly to
customers,” he said in a briefing.

Roque said that under the company’s expansion strategy, Dell would be veering away from just PCs and would also be selling products such as high-definition television sets (HDTV) and MP3 players.

Although these products would not be sold in the Philippines, he said sales and technical inquiries for these would be handled by Dell’s contact center here.

Despite having its own contact center in the Philippines, Roque said existing deals with other call centers would be maintained.

“We can even grow our partner base here. We won’t compete with other call centers,” he said.

Since its inception in 1984, Dell has capitalized on direct relationships with customers -- in person, on the phone or over the Internet -- to grow its business. It is the first company to generate $1 million in daily online sales, operating one of the world’s
highest volume Internet sites.

Makati drafts investment code for contact center locators

2005-10-24T10:54:00.000+08:00

First posted 09:33pm (Mla time) Oct 19, 2005
By Alexander Villafania
INQ7.net

WITH more IT companies relocating elsewhere due to real estate shortages, the city of Makati is drafting a new investment code that will include a revision of its original land use program to allow more construction developers to create higher buildings.

Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay told reporters in a luncheon last Wednesday that he’s pushing for a new investment code to allow the construction of taller buildings.

The height restriction codes in Makati allows only for buildings in certain zones to be four-to-six floors high, supposedly to lessen human and vehicular traffic. The restrictions were also originally implemented due to the presence of an airstrip along Ayala Avenue.

“We’re already having problems with space because many of Makati’s spaces are being used to build contact centers. However, what I would want to propose is to make buildings taller so that locators can have more space to choose from,” Binay said.

He cited contact center operators Convergys and People Support that both constructed their own buildings in Makati City for their expansion.

With the expected influx in contact center locators into the country, Binay hopes that the draft, when implemented, will encourage developers to choose Makati City.

“This is the hub of many multinational companies and I want to ensure that they would have enough space to grow,” Binay said.

Another provision of the proposed investment code is to use a corporatized model of governance wherein the cost of constructing certain facilities will be paid for by Makati residences.

Under this provision, Makati residences will partially pay for the construction of a building in exchange for shares of stock. When these stocks mature, the dividends will either be given back to the residents or reused to build new buildings.

Binay said a corporatized model lessens the need for a belt-tightening local government unit to spend on constructing more buildings. He said the model is being implemented in Singapore where a large number of companies are partially owned by the government.

India faces staff quality crisis

2005-10-21T12:07:00.000+08:00

Industry officials have slammed the standard of Indian graduates, saying the country's poor education system is threatening its call centre boom.

Indian and Australian media this week quoted industry experts as saying that only one in 10 graduates are employing. "It's only the cream of the cream who go to the excellent institutes of management and technology who have great potential. The rest are unemployable," Indian call centre and IT association, NASSCOM, president Kiran Karnik was quoted as saying.

Nasscom has said that it needs 9000 more workers right now, but has failed to find them. Statistics say that given its rapid growth, the industry will be short of 82,000 workers by 2007, which will spiral to 206,000 by 2009.

How to deliver levels of efficiency, customer and staff satisfaction that others admire

2005-10-21T12:03:00.000+08:00

Managing Contact Centre performance is about using the right measures, throughout the organisation and then acting on them in a consistent way. Amazon.com and GE operate at levels of efficiency, customer and staff satisfaction that others admire. Their Achievement Management processes are at the heart of this success…. What are their secrets?

Everybody running a customer service operation knows that it’s essential to have a clear idea of how their team is performing in order to drive improvements in performance. Unfortunately, in many cases, the methods they choose to measure this are actually doing them more harm than good. Ask yourself:

* has my measurement process taken on a life of its own and are the reports I get creating work rather than identifying and prompting improvements?
* does my organisation record and store heaps of data without witnessing any changes in performance?
* are my team leaders and coaches spending more time collating data and preparing reports than coaching their people?
* do my staff welcome the performance measures or just see them as an irritation?

Amazon.com and GE Electric Insurance handled these issues by applying a process called Achievement Management which focuses on four things to manage the performance of their customer operations effectively:

* They have identified the things they really need to measure: those aspects of performance that are vital to their business and that include both the operational and customer perspectives. They didn’t ignore metrics just because they were hard to measure
* They created personal balanced ‘scorecards’ of simple measures so everyone could see their progress at a glance
* They focused on driving action from the performance measures not just on reporting them, because the real value of measurement is in the actions that result from it
* They engaged their staff in the whole process, and linked tangible rewards to improvements in performance that, for the first time, could be measured.

Download the complete "Learning from the Leaders" Article……

Nortel launches Expert Anywhere

2005-10-17T16:29:00.000+08:00

Nortel has introduced its 'Expert Anywhere' contact solution, making it possible for companies to tap experts across an organisation, expanding the pool of customer service agents without the cost of maintaining centralised and regional contact centers or setting up expert knowledge workers as formal contact center agents. The Expert Anywhere solution allows businesses to direct customer calls to the most appropriate agent or knowledge worker, regardless of location or function - working in the main contact center, teleworking at home, in a branch office, or even in a retail store. Wherever specialised resources reside in a company, Expert Anywhere can link that expertise into the contact center enabling single call resolution and delivering a new level of customer service.

"Customers today have a broad spectrum of communication channels to choose from when they interact with a company," said Malcolm Collins (President, Enterprise Networks, Nortel). "To remain competitive, organisations are challenged to raise service levels by being more responsive, accessible, intuitive and adaptive to customer needs with the staff and resources they have available to them. Nortel is helping customers achieve this new level of customer service with innovative solutions that break down the barriers of distance and distributed work environments."

Information on Nortel is at: www.nortel.com

Genesys and IBM expand speech rec. offering

2005-10-13T18:06:00.001+08:00

Global IT companies Genesys Telecommunications and IBM have joined to offer an expanded speech recognition solution to call centres.

The new technology and reseller agreement expands the Genesys Voice Platform (GVP) technology offering to include the addition of IBM WebSphere Voice Server (WVS) speech solutions. The IBM WebSphere Voice Server functionality provides automated speech recognition and text-to-speech resources that enable speech-based interaction.

"The Genesys Voice Platform is a complete voice processing solution that supports advanced network routing, self-service and intelligent queuing," said Genesys chief technology officer, Elliot Danziger. "This global agreement between Genesys and IBM brings self and assisted-speech service to companies, offering a lower total cost of ownership, improved customer service, improved operational efficiency and easy deployment options."

DHL Call Centre delivers the highest service standards

2005-10-13T18:06:00.000+08:00

DHL, the world's leading express and logistics company, has shown that it delivers the highest standard of service to their customers in comparison to five other leading Australian express call centres.

With an average call pick up time of two seconds, which is up to 22 seconds faster than some of its key competitors, the DHL Express Customer Service Centre has been awarded by independent research group ACA Research an overall performance ranking of 91 per cent. This ranking cements DHL's position as the highest-achieving call centre in the express industry in terms of best possible service across a variety of performance indicators.

The research also revealed the DHL Express Customer Service Centre is the only call centre in the express industry that offers a 24 hour, 7 day a week, personalised service with a customer service officer answering every call. Each of the five competitors uses a telephone option menu to answer customer calls, and in some cases up to nine different telephone menu options are offered to the caller.

Indian outsourcers face multinational rivals

2005-10-13T17:26:00.000+08:00

Indian outsourcers face a bigger threat from global call centre operators than from regional rivals, according to a new Forrester Research study.

The research tipped Indian outsourcers to eventually combine forces through mergers and acquisitions to meet mounting competition from global players like Accenture and IBM. "After Indian BPO suppliers with complementary capabilities struggle head-to-head, they will likely seek to combine their strengths against the steadily mounting threats from Accenture, IBM, and other global players," Forrester said. "High valuations for Indian BPO companies are slowing consolidation, but mergers between existing offshore BPO players, and transactions involving Indian offshore BPO players and global majors, are increasingly likely scenarios."

The report downplayed the threat of competition from other regions, saying, "truly competitive companies could take years to emerge from locations like China." "More imminent is the threat from global majors like Accenture and IBM, who are not only expanding their Indian footprint substantially but also boast substantial presence globally."

India's Call Center Industry Facing Some Problems

2005-10-05T10:46:00.000+08:00

Sept. 19, 2005 -- A shortage of skilled labor in India's call center is causing a number of problems including cost, quality and security concerns. According to Gartner,a Stamford, Ct.-based research company, a lack of skilled workers over time will drive up labor costs as employees sell their skills to the highest bidder thus eliminating the cost advantages. Resorting to recruiting less-than-qualified personnel to run the many call centers can cause the quality of services delivered to suffer. Additionally the risk of fraud and theft of confidential data increases as under qualified employees perform jobs vital to security.

The Indian government estimates that the need for trained and qualified employees in call centers will reach 1 million by 2009, with an expected shortfall of more than 260,000 workers. Offshore business process outsourcing by multinational companies that chose India due to its educated and English-speaking workforce is fueling the call center demand. Although India has an annual graduating class of more than 2.5 million college students, it still won't be enough to populate the call center.

Earlier this week, Gartner advised organizations to carefully investigate a call center before signing on the dotted line. Companies should ensure that adequate mechanisms - such as service level agreements and resulting penalties, call monitoring and customer satisfaction surveys - are built into contracts. Gartner also urged companies to keep a watch on the centers over the next two years.

Philippines Catching up with India in the Outsourcing Industry

2005-10-05T10:42:00.000+08:00

By Winston Pepito

India, the dominant player in outsourcing touted as the “back office of the world,” would soon have to contend with a third-world rival—the Philippines.

A highly skilled English-speaking labor force. A reliable telecommunications infrastructure. Low cost of qualified personnel. These are some significant reasons for choosing India or the Philippines for outsourcing support.

IT OUTSOURCING IN INDIA

India, a former colony of the British Empire for almost two centuries, has the second-largest IT talent pool in the world, a result of its Britain-influenced education system that places great emphasis on science and mathematics. With 120,000 trained IT professionals added to the Indian workforce yearly, India is gearing to be an IT giant in the third world and is ranked as the first choice of U.S. companies for software outsourcing. According to Nasscomm, a conglomerate of India-based software and services companies, Indian companies are software solution provider to more than half the Fortune 500 companies.

The launch of India’s first private undersea cable has tremendously improved the international bandwidth situation. In addition, considerable bandwidth is available with the state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, partially owned by India’s largest business conglomerate. The privatization of telecom industry has also resulted in a significant drop in telecom rates. Observers predict that the entry of newer industry players will see a further drop in telecom prices. In the last ten years, telecom costs in India have dropped by 85 percent.

Over the years, India has built a strong brand equity as an attractive destination for software development and support. India is host to established IT companies such as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Sun, HP, and Alcatel.

OFFSHORE DESTINATION: PHILIPPINES

But the Philippines—one of the world’s second-largest English-speaking populations—is fast catching up to India.

With a literacy rate of 94%, the Philippines has a large pool of information technology professionals and a cost-competitive telecoms infrastructure. The country ranks third in Knowledge and Information-based jobs in the 2002 Global Technology Index research done by the META Group. Three million college graduates join the workforce each year, providing a tremendous source of talent.

An American colony for close to 50 years, the Philippines has a Western-influenced culture, a unique trait that clearly distinguishes the country from other offshore destinations. Although Asian in orientation, Filipinos watch American TV and are thus able to communicate effectively in American English.

PHILIPPINES: CALL CENTER HUB

In recent years, the Philippines has become the offshore destination of choice for call center outsourcing, specializing in customer support services. Because of the Filipinos’ high level of English proficiency and strong customer orientation, many leading multinationals have used the Philippines as a global center for customer service. American OnLine, the largest U.S. Internet service provider, maintains a staff of 600 at its call center in Clark, Pampanga. Caltex, Procter & Gamble, Barnes and Noble, among others, have built large-scale service centers in the Philippines.

One very promising industry that has sought outsourcing support in the Philippines is the medical transcription business. The Philippines boasts a large talent pool of medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and medical technologists. The demand for medical transcription has risen as U.S. hospitals are now required by federal regulations to convert medical records into data format. Seventeen medical transcription companies are now in operation, employing 1,200 Filipinos.

GIVING INDIA A RUN FOR ITS MONEY

While the Philippines may not be as a huge an offshore provider of web and software services as India, it holds great promise in the customer service industry. Although India does charge lower than the Philippines—for data encoding work, India charges around $4 (U.S.) versus $10 in the Philippines—more multinationals are choosing the Philippines because of the high quality of work. Moreover, Filipinos make good customer service agents not only because they are fluent in American English but also because of their helpful and friendly nature.

More companies are choosing the Philippines for offshore support. Among the services offered in Philippine-based outsourcing companies are copyediting and indexing; web design and maintenance; data conversion, data warehousing, data capture and data entry; OCR and scanning services; proofreading; encoding and keyboarding; imaging services and graphics design; call center and customer service; abstracting and document conversion; typesetting; and tagging, among others.

Labor shortage in India’s call centers could hurt service, Gartner says

2005-10-04T14:27:00.000+08:00

Online retailers that outsource customer service or marketing to call centers in India could soon face higher costs, lower quality service and security problems, according to a new report from Gartner Inc.

Call centers in India are experiencing problems in recruiting and retaining qualified staff due to the growing demand for their services from companies in the U.S. and Europe, Gartner says. The government of India estimates that the need for trained and qualified call center staff will reach 1 million by 2009, with an expected shortfall of more than 260,000 workers.

“Despite denials from some Indian organizations, the paucity of trained and skilled personnel is a reality,” Gartner says.

Although more than 2.5 million students in India graduate from college every year, many don’t have good English-language skills, Gartner says. As a result, call centers competing for the limited pool of qualified graduates will have to increase salaries and benefits, leading to higher costs.

In addition, after the top available candidates are absorbed by the industry, Indian call centers will be forced to hire less-qualified individuals. Unless the centers invest in high-quality, in-house training—further raising costs—service quality could deteriorate, Gartner says.

Call centers rushing to meet recruitment deadlines also might not vet out candidates thoroughly and end up hiring individuals that pose a security threat, increasing the risk of fraud, Gartner says.

Gartner recommends that organizations investigating outsourcing to call centers in India ask about attrition rates and security measures. It also suggests that companies build into their call center contracts mechanisms such as service level agreements and penalties, call monitoring and customer-satisfaction surveys.

Philippine property group creates call centre space

2005-10-04T14:14:00.000+08:00

Philippine property group Gokongwei is converting space in its Manila Robinson's malls into call centre space for its outsourcing clients, according to The Manila Times.

Besides confirming plans to convert its cinema complex in Cainta, Rizal, for outsourcing firms engaged in technology-based retail, services and computer education sectors, it is also renovating a part of its Robinson's Supermarket in Novaliches, Quezon City, for the needs of its call centre clients. Global outsourcer Teletech has already started its operations in the Novaliches mall.

"Robinson's Land, especially the High Rise Division and the mall division increasingly so, is a major lessor of call centre space. Behind Robinson's Pioneer is also a call-centre building that recently went up and it has been practically fully committed," Robinson's Nilo Mapa said. Mapa said Robinson's is seeking accreditation from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for its call centre in Cainta, which will also have a Robinson's Supermarket on the ground floor.

Financial companies eye more offshoring

2005-09-22T14:33:00.001+08:00

Global banks and financial services companies expect to increasingly send some of their operations offshore in the next few years, according to new research.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers survey shows more than 80% of financial companies currently conduct some form of offshore operation of their business activities, mainly in IT-related functions. But 94% of financial companies expect to have some operations offshore in three years' time, according to the survey of 156 financial institutions around the world.

India was the most popular offshoring destination, ahead of China in second, while other potential countries included Ireland, Romania and the Philippines. The survey found that moving offshore did not always produce the cost savings expected, with more than 15% of respondents dissatisfied with the level of cost savings achieved.

SA urged to step up outsource promotion

2005-09-22T14:33:00.000+08:00

As US companies look to increase their levels of call centre outsourcing, South Africa is shaping up as a prime offshoring destination.

Datamonitor contact centre analyst Peter Ryan says South Africa stood a better chance than Canada, which was becoming too expensive relative to the falling US dollar. Datamonitor said the South African government could take advantage of this opportunity by luring and encouraging US firms and outsourcers from other countries to take advantage of the English-speaking populace and good technological infrastructure that the country boasts.

On the downside, Ryan said SA call centre salaries are higher than those in Brazil, Egypt and India, while South Africa's telephony/technology costs are higher than those of Canada and Argentina. "The positive side is that South Africa fares better than its rival India and the emerging Egyptian market on telephony/technology costs," Ryan added.

US to be harder hit by offshoring

2005-09-20T13:58:00.000+08:00

A quarter of outsourced US call centre jobs will be lost over the next three years as companies are increasingly forced to move the work to cheaper overseas locations or use automation, according to a new report by analyst Datamonitor.

The US had 37% of the world's outsourced call centre positions in 2004 but the Datamonitor report, Contact Centre Outsourcing in the US predicts that global market share will shrink by a quarter by 2008, from 315,000 jobs to 291,000. Outbound telemarketing positions will be worst hit, accounting for 90% of the US call centre jobs lost, mainly due to the introduction of the 'Do Not Call' registry and the higher revenues available from inbound call centre work.

Datamonitor's Ri Pierce-Grove said call centre outsourcers are reinventing themselves and extending into the more lucrative business process outsourcing market. "The boundaries between US-based contact centre providers and other business process outsourcers are dissolving, and firms are invading each others' territories," he said.

Indian workers turn down union

2005-09-20T13:57:00.000+08:00

An international alliance of unions that wants to organize the Indiaian offshore call centre operators and telemarketers is finding a very different reality in India: many think of themselves as members of a relatively well-paid, respected professional elite in no need of a union's protection. "I know these young people have a negative image about unions," says Narayan Ram Hegde of Union Network International, a global alliance of 900 unions. Hegde is leading the UNI drive to unionize workers in India's back-office outsourcing industry - a sector that employs about 350,000 people and is expected to add 80,000 jobs this year.

UNI has been quietly setting up the union for the past year - its formal launch date is Sept. 18. But it has so far only managed to attract about 500 recruits, underscoring workers' hostility to unions and the enormity of the task faced by organizers. "A union would make sense if there was no job security," said K. V. Sudhakar, who does technical support work in IBM's offshore outsourcing centre in the western city of Pune. "Here jobs are more, people are less - companies are trying all means possible to keep employees happy so that they won't leave."

Among those who decided to join the union is Raghavan Iyengar, a call centre supervisor in Bangalore. He said companies give incentives for those who work extra time, and young workers often ignored health problems, such as insomnia and back pain, to earn those extra bucks. "The industry's motto is 'shut your mouth and take your money."' he said. "We want to change that." But the money can be a powerful lure in India, where per capita income hovers around US$500 a year and most people make much less toiling in dusty fields or on steaming city streets. Call centre rookies, in contrast, make about $2,400 a year - roughly twice the pay of first-year teachers, accountants or lawyers - and work in air-conditioned offices, many of which have health clubs and well-stocked cafeterias. With experience, the salaries multiply.

As for complaints about working conditions, Ruchinder Singh, who works in the southern city of Hyderabad for GE Capital International said he can take them straight to his company's chief executive. "When my CEO will listen to what I have to say, then why do I need union?" asked Singh, who helps customers around the world use specialized software programs.

Indian call centre worker arrested

2005-09-13T11:00:00.000+08:00

An Indian call centre worker has been arrested for the alleged theft of confidential data, according to a report in the Indian Express newspaper.

Amit Juneja was arrested in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi after a complaint from his employer, Saffron Global, and is reportedly being held in judicial custody for two weeks. The Indian Express quoted Saffron chief controller S.K. Trehan as saying that Juneja had been caught red-handed copying information from his PC to a CD.

It said Juneja had been booked under a number of sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act. A police official said personal details of individuals had been copied by the accused. Saffron handles BPO services for a number of unnamed call centres.

Benchmarking for Call Center Success

2005-09-12T14:20:00.000+08:00

Key questions for your performance measurement program

Designing and implementing a call center measurement program requires you to answer three important questions. If you have a measurement program in place, these questions will help you make your center more efficient and improve the effectiveness of the program.

1. What will you measure?

2. How will you make these measurements?

3. Who will you benchmark your performance against?

Establishing appropriate measures and determining how to conduct the measurements were covered in the first two modules of the tutorial series. This tutorial will dive into guidelines and benefits of benchmarking your call center performance.

Benchmarking call center performance

Benchmarking is an excellent tool to learn new approaches to your business and build external focus into your improvement programs. When done properly, benchmarking creates energy and excitement about what is possible and is a great motivator for improving your call center. Applying sound benchmarking practices will ensure that your benchmarking efforts have a significant and positive impact on your call center.

Benefits of benchmarking

Benchmarking, when done correctly, can positively impact many areas of performance measurement and management. The benefits from good benchmarking practices include:

* Establish benchmarks for comparing your own performance

* Develop an external reference when setting performance goals

* Understand your competitors' position

* Communicate your performance against external benchmarks to your management team

* Learn about new call center practices and technology applications

* Improve your call center's overall operation

Key benchmarking guidelines

Benchmarking is the search for best practices among other call centers, and is often used in the assessment and development of call center policy, performance measures and objectives. Yet, when done improperly, benchmarking can impact both you and your call center. It is essential that you are aware of several important benchmarking guidelines to follow in this component of the performance measurement process:

1. Adequately define the measures
In some cases, the benchmarking measures are defined, but participants do not use that exact definition in their call center or do not understand the differences in how the measures are defined. The best way to ensure that you are using accurate and aligned data is to understand the precise definition of the measures used in the benchmarking study, and compare "apples to apples" when benchmarking your data with other companies.

2. Ensure adequate sample size
If there are too few participants in the study, then you have to carefully weigh the conclusions and the applicability to your call center. This is especially true for statistical research on call center performance.

3. Don't play copycat
It is often tempting to see a successful call center, and then try to copy it. However, what is most beneficial is to pick and choose the components of the strategy and processes that are applicable to your call center's unique needs and customer demands. Consider benchmarking as one source of learning - but not the only source.

4. Understand the processes behind the data
Knowing the numbers is only one component of benchmarking. Understanding the processes used by others reveals how the measure is being used and how the performance is being achieved. Benchmarking can provide insights for new methods in your call center and it is this understanding of new processes and technology that will yield breakthroughs for your call center.

5. No industry standards
There are no "industry standards." If you find one labeled as such, use it as just another reference point. There are no official or sanctioned standards for performance measures for call centers. The competitive marketplace defines the standard, and that is constantly shifting. What is important to know is how the results were obtained and use common sense when applying them to your organization

6. Make your benchmarking initiative part of a larger improvement program
Benchmarking should be tied to an overall improvement program. Avoid benchmarking for the sake of benchmarking. Benchmarking should be focused on your key business issues and targeted to processes and technology that need improvement.

Applying benchmarking and best practices in your call center

Several benchmarking studies are available that will help you understand what other call centers are measuring and how they are performing. The goals of Prosci's best practices research are to:

1. Enable call center managers to uncover the most effective management practices, based on benchmarking research.

2. Identify operational and technological changes that are having the greatest impact on customer satisfaction and call center efficiency.

3. Share the most current performance objectives and results for call centers by industry.

Offshore Outsourcing: Market Statistics

2005-09-12T11:12:00.000+08:00

What does it take to become an offshore outsourcing success story? To answer this question, research consultancy Ventoro surveyed executives from the US, UK and other countries to answer this question.

In the first part of this series, Ventoro present their findings on trends in offshore outsourcing, identifying how well is it working for buyers, and also examining common causes of success and failure.
Background

Over the past year, we interviewed more than 5,000 Executives from 12 countries and spoke with more than 300 outsourcing vendors around the globe to better understand:

1. How well are "offshore outsourcing strategies" working for companies in the US and across Europe?
2. What are the tricks, tips and keys to success other Executives have used to implement (and manage) successful offshore outsourcing / offshoring initiatives?

How Big is the Market?

Offshore Outsourcing and Offshoring are occurring at a much lower rate than perceived by the public. In our poll, we found that slightly over 19% of all companies have a current offshore strategy.

If we consider only firms considered to be Fortune 1000 firms, the number of firms using an offshore strategy jumps significantly to 95%.

When polled about future offshore plans, only 32% of participating Executives are either planning or are considering an offshore strategy within the next year.

For those with an offshore strategy, it does appear spending will increase with 68% of all Executives managing existing offshore strategies planning on increasing their offshore presence.

Why Move Offshore?

When asked "Why move offshore?" cost savings still outpaced all other drivers. Of special note:

1. "Forced"

Almost one in five Executives polled stated they pursued an offshore strategy due to significant pressure from Shareholders, the Board of Directors, "C" level executives or other authority. We do not believe this to be a sound driver and strongly encourage all to choose an offshore strategy only after proving it is the best business solution.

2. "Gain Industry Expertise"

Almost 8% of all Executives polled claimed they chose an offshore strategy to gain specific industry expertise. This is a strong indicator that offshore outsourcing vendors are maturing and we are now seeing the best firms from India, Russia and other offshore outsourcing hotspots, competing with the traditional onshore business strategy firms.

Why Stay Onshore?

When polling those Executives that have opted not to pursue an offshore strategy, the primary reasons cited related to security (including IP theft and fraud) and quality issues. When pushed further, only one in three of these Executives admitted they would be willing to reconsider an offshore strategy if both security and quality issues could be satisfactorily mitigated.

How Well is it Working?

When reviewing all offshore outsourcing and Offshoring engagements, we found the average cost savings to be slightly below 10%. This number may seem low but we considered all engagements we reviewed including the following:

1. Those that increased cost (nearly 28%)
2. Those that did not generate any material savings (25%)

If we remove all those engagements deemed to be a failure by the polled executives, and those engagements that had no prior baseline to compare cost savings, we calculate an average savings of 19%.

Unrealistic Targets

In our research, we found nearly 5% of those polled achieved a cost savings exceeding 50%. Upon further investigation, most of these firms had unusual circumstances related to their offshore outsourcing strategy (such as replacing $400 per hour onshore resources with $50 per hour offshore resources of the same calibre). When we remove these from the equation, we found only two firms out of all we researched that achieved such a significant savings. If you are anticipating an offshore outsourcing or Offshoring savings of 50% or more, you are not being realistic.

Realistic Target

When reviewing those firms that followed the basic advice we outline in this report, we found a cost savings of 30% is realistic and recommend this number as a target for our clients
Success

Regardless of how much an Executive may actually save with their offshore strategy, over 45% of those polled indicated their offshore strategy was a "success" with only 36% claiming their offshore strategy had failed.
Onshoring

Over 1 in 3 Executives reported they have had to "onshore" (moving work from their offshore team back to their onshore team) work due to performance problems with their offshore strategy. Of those that have “onshored” work, 73% will continue to establish a long-term offshore strategy, 10% are not sure if they will continue with their offshore plans, and 17% have no current plans to pursue an offshore strategy in the future.

Why Do Offshore Strategies Fail?

The ultimate success or failure of any offshore strategy hinges on the performance of the implementing Executive. Even in cases where an Executive retains an offshore vendor, engagements that do not succeed are tripped up 52% of the time by problems exclusive to the client.

A break down of the top seven root failure causes is as follows:

1. Client Preparation and Execution

The leading cause of offshore strategy failure is the lack of preparation or execution by the client team (28%). Prior to moving offshore, you need to do your homework and prepare your organization. Once you begin the process, you (the managing Executive) need to set the high standard in performance and detail. You need to ensure that if you engage an offshore outsourcing vendor, you verify every detail is recorded, reviewed and planned. As a rule of thumb, you should be the one pushing for greater clarity throughout the entire engagement and not wait for the vendor to ask for you to step up.

2. Joint Client-Vendor Planning

The second leading cause of failure in offshore outsourcing engagements are problems relating to the extent and quality of the client-vendor planning sessions prior to commencing the engagement (21%). Often, offshore outsourcing vendors steamroll the initial engagement process, trying to get signed contracts as fast as possible, and the client does not demand clarity in roles, responsibilities, expectations, joint operations, deliverables, short-term team plans, performance metrics, etc. In the end, the two parties have not formed an effective team and fight on misperceptions and missed expectations. Prior to signing contracts, mandate a complete and comprehensive plan outlining the first six months of your engagement. In this comprehensive plan, specifically cover roles, responsibilities, deliverables, how you and the vendor will work together, expectations and standards.

3. "Offshore" is the Wrong Answer

14% of the time offshore outsourcing engagements fail, “offshore outsourcing” simply was not the best answer to the business problem. We routinely found instances where the Executive stated a sound business objective but failed when prescribing "offshore outsourcing" as the solution, specifically when:
* There are better options
* Moving the item offshore simply will not solve the root problem

In each case reviewed, the company spent a significant amount of money offshore and never achieved their end objective ROI. Prior to moving offshore, take time to identify the root of your problem and establish if an offshore solution is the best solution.

4. Client Employee Morale and Support

There is a significant issue with maintaining the support of your internal team during your offshore outsourcing engagement. It is a fact offshore strategies are difficult and will require your employees to be active participants willing to help address issues as you implement the offshore strategy. If your employees do not support the move and you can't maintain their morale, you will not be able to get your organization to successfully adopt the offshore fulfillment model.

5. Miscommunication and Cultural Issues

Contrary to the marketing efforts of a few offshore outsourcing vendors, communication and cultural issues still have an impact on the overall success of offshore strategies. We found 9% of the time an offshore strategy fails, it is directly due to cultural or communication issues between the onshore and offshore teams.
6.
Vendor Team Performance

Slightly over 15% of the time offshore outsourcing engagements fail, the fault falls squarely on the shoulders of the offshore vendor. We routinely found issues such as:
* Failure to execute as planned
* Non-compliance with SLA, SOW or MSA

Offshoring Root Failure

Those companies building their own offshore team had similar root causes for offshore strategy failure. Of critical note specific to those building their own offshore team:

1. Lack of Defined Leadership

U.S. and European business culture allows for (and, in some instances, even encourages) employees to perform duties or take on leadership responsibilities beyond what may be officially outlined in an organizational chart. In most countries considered to be an offshore outsourcing hotspot, this simply does not happen. Prior to moving offshore, prepare the following:
* Organisational chart reflecting reality. If a person has higher leadership position in the team, make sure it is correctly reflected on paper.
* Detailed job description for each onshore and offshore position inside your team

If you want your offshore team to follow the lead of your onshore team, make sure your onshore team members hold a higher position on the organizational chart than your offshore team. Although it may seem comical, do not assume your offshore team will grasp the concept they are fulfilling products or services for a customer unless you have put the customer on the organizational chart.

2. Preparation and Execution

It appears when U.S. and European Executives build their own offshore team, they are not as diligent in their preparation or execution when compared to those Executives that retain offshore outsourcing vendors. As a result, we found offshoring engagements have a higher occurrence of problems associated with this issue (preparation and execution) when compared to offshore outsourcing engagements.

3. Onshore-Offshore Competition

In all offshoring initiatives, we have found varying degrees of competition between the onshore and offshore teams. The onshore team is trying to prove you still need them and the offshore team will posture for greater responsibilities. Unless you take an active approach to mitigating this problem, you will have a dysfunctional global team incapable of delivering any product.

4. Take Responsibility

Ultimately, the success or failure of your offshore initiative is up to you. In our research, we came across an alarming number of Executives that would not consider their role in any failed offshore strategy (even when they built their own offshore team!). Our philosophical belief is that each Executive moving offshore must step up and take the responsibility for the outcome of the offshore strategy. With this in mind, we interpret comments such as: "In the end, there were too many gray areas and our vendor wouldn’t work with us to get this done", to mean: "I failed to adequately explain what we expected and what we needed prior to signing contracts."

Throughout this report, we will use the above philosophy and will not get into dissecting the excuses of those Executives that failed to deliver.

Where are the Savings?

In our research, we found the leading driver for cost savings in an offshore outsourcing engagement to be process improvement not the vendor resource costs. As such, we heavily recommend finding a vendor:

1. Capable of working with you to improve processes; and
2. Demonstrates sincere interest in helping you improve and is not seeking just a quick dollar.

We do not recommend adopting a strategy of selecting those vendors offering rockbottom resource costs without any material intrinsic processes unless you have the capability and are willing to incur the cost of implementing such processes for the vendor. In the end, you will pay significantly more by selecting these vendors.
Conclusion

There is a clear trend among those firms that have higher success rates and the majority of this report is dedicated to calling out those items. There are a few rules we want to highlight here that will serve as a general theme of this "Preliminary Findings and Conclusions" report:

1. Take time to identify a quantifiable business problem and establish that an offshore solution is the best solution.
2. The success or failure of your offshore strategy is largely up to you (not a vendor) and you must carefully plan and execute in order to achieve an offshore ROI.
3. Realise an offshore ROI is a long and difficult process. Executives that are successful prepare and work hard.
4. The success of your offshore strategy has everything to do with the quality of both your onshore and offshore team. If you do not have the best employees and do not give them the tools (and skills) needed, you will not be a success.

Filipino call center employees file labour complaint

2005-09-06T10:58:00.000+08:00

Employees of Epixtar, a US-based offshore call center, have filed a complaint with the Department of Labour and Employment in The Philippines, as the company is being restructured and staff are being asked to resign or being demoted. Kristoffer Barba, Epixtar Philippines sales leader, said he has already filed a complaint with the DOLE, along with 30 other colleagues who are facing the axe. “We're given until Friday to resign or face demotion. Their main reason is cost-cutting. A lot of people are being forced to resign. It is across the board. In our department alone, almost one fourth or more than 20 people are being forced to resign. There were no official papers or explanation to back up their reason so we've filed complaints at the labor department, and we're each consulting our own lawyers,” Barba told reporters in a telephone interview.

Elizabeth Walse, Epixtar marketing service manager, declined to comment. She said no officials privy with the situation were available for comment. Epixtar Philippines operates call center facilities in Eastwood City, Cyberpark in Libis, Quezon City and another one in Alabang. Barba said the Eastwood facility has about 600 call center agents, plus 700 people in operations. Sales managers and leaders like Barba fall under the operations department. Barba noted that 25 of the 700 sales managers were demoted, while only eight were retained. Another Epixtar sales manager who requested anonymity confirmed that many employees, especially the new ones who have just moved from being an agent to a managerial position, are now being asked to resign. "They said it is due to a restructuring of management, and cost-cutting. I'm a sales manager trainee and I just passed my three-month probation period but I haven't been told what will happen. I'm still doing the same thing, and I don't know if they're going to promote me or proceed with my evaluation. I've been here for two years," she said. She said that a lot of employees are being offered severance packages. "It's really chaotic here," she said.

Another sales leader who declined to be identified confirmed the management's plan to demote them to a "sales executive position," which is equal to a call center agent. "This is a demotion which means we're being asked to operate a telephone service. A sales leader is getting 25,000 pesos and now they're offering 16,000 pesos," the sales leader.

Metro Manila losing grade A office space

2005-09-06T10:50:00.000+08:00

Only about 5% of top-grade office spaces in Metro Manila will still be vacant by 2006, down from 8% currently, property consultant David T. Leechiu told BusinessWorld in a recent interview.

http://www.bworld.com.ph/BW090605/content.php?id=001&username=temp

India acts against call centre data fraud

2005-09-06T10:47:00.000+08:00

The Indian outsourcing industry has started a project to compile the work histories of all its employees to help fight data fraud, according to country's main software trade body, NASSCOM.

The records will be controlled by a government-mandated electronic depository and used by companies to screen prospective employees, said Kiran Karnik, NASSCOM president. A pilot project to cover workers at a handful of call centre workers was launched this week, Karnik said. The project will eventually expand to cover other back-office workers and software programmers, he said.

The work histories will be kept by National Securities Depository Ltd., which was set up under government regulations. In a separate effort to prevent data fraud, Karnik said an expert group set up by the Indian government to tighten India's data protection laws has finalised its recommendations. One proposed change makes it easier to prosecute anyone who sells or buys outsourced data illegally.

SA outsourcer sets up blind call centre

2005-09-06T10:45:00.000+08:00

South African outsourcer Direct Channel Marketing has recently launched a Western Cape call centre at the Pioneer School for the Blind.

The 40-seat, purpose-built call centre is designed to cater for visually impaired staff's special needs. Direct Channel Marketing CEO Suleman Shaik said the organisation employs only jobless people and offers them nationally accredited Services Seta call centre training at no cost. "Our partnership with the Pioneer School for the Blind and the Institute for the Blind is an extension of our social commitment to create work opportunities for people from disadvantaged and marginalised communities," Shaik said.

The Institute for the Blind offers visually impaired students training programs that include call centre training and computer skills training. Direct Channel Marketing says it is now planning a similar call centre consisting of 25 seats at the Athlone School for the Blind in nearby Bellville.

The Brain Gain Philosophy

2005-09-05T12:05:00.000+08:00

> IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE By Rod Nepomuceno
> The Philippine STAR 08/29/2005
>
> Around 10 years ago, I remember reading an article entitled "The
Brain Drain" that lamented the unabated exodus of bright, college-
educated young individuals to seek greener pastures abroad. The
writer was bemoaning the fact that these young, talented men and
women chose to "transfer" their brains and expertise to other
countries which, in turn, benefited from what these individuals had
to offer.
>
> I couldn't blame them. In fact, at that time, I also wanted to
leave badly. Even now, I still have that occasional nagging feeling
of wanting to get out of here – like when I hit the same stupid
pothole on EDSA that annually reappears during rainy season or when I
see Expeditions with wang-wang presumably with a government VIP
inside telling me to move aside and clear the way, as if their
business is more important than mine. On the other hand, I also felt
like saying to those who were leaving, "Hey, don't abandon us! We
need you here."
>
> Fast forward to 2005. Watching those oh-so-exciting impeachment
debates left me thinking. I suddenly remember that article I read
more than a decade ago. And then it dawned on me... We don't have a
brain drain. We've got too much brains in this country. There's an
oversupply even. What we should do is export some of these brilliant
minds. After all, there are a lot of miserable countries out there
who could really make use of a couple of good comedians. If we export
some of these congressmen, we could probably get some much-needed
dollars to finally balance the budget!
>
> OK, I know I'm being sarcastic again. But maybe this whole brain
drain concept is already passe. With economies beginning to open up,
the worst thing we can do now is to limit the potential of homegrown
talents within the boundaries of this country. After all, where would
Lea Salonga be if she continued playing little orphan Annie in
Repertory Philippines and not venture to the great beyond out there?
>
> This idea was further pounded on my mind a few weeks ago when our
regional office told us that there will be an MTV regional VJ hunt.
Our regional office asked us, the Philippine office, to contribute to
the costs of the event and to send two of our local MTV VJs to the
competition in Bali. As there would be costs on our part, we were
compelled to sell the event to sponsors. But most sponsors we
approached were reluctant to support the event because it was going
to be held in Indonesia. Obviously, since they wouldn't get much of
the needed media mileage (as the event would be abroad), a lot of
companies declined. Except for one: Smart Communications. Smart
decided to support the event because they truly believed our
Philippine VJs could best other VJs from other countries. It was a
big risk. But they've taken the risk on Philippine talent before. And
guess what? Their investment paid off. VJ Colby from the Philippines
bested a host of other VJs from around the region. And now VJ
> Colby faces a wide-open future, full of endless possibilities. He
is now treading the road that Donita Rose once treaded. And it's a
road to greatness – of regional and global proportions. This is not
the first time Smart has supported a Filipino talent in the
international arena. It's also supporting an individual who is
currently making waves in the US golfing scene – Jennifer Rosales.
Now, that is not only vision. It is true patriotism. And it's good
business too!
>
> If we want to take off as a country – and this is the ironic part –
we should really start looking beyond our local boundaries. China,
Vietnam, and a host of other countries are now opening up their doors
and are benefiting so much as a result.
>
> We'd be doing our country a favor by exporting the best product we
have: our people. As a lot of foreigners would confirm, Pinoys are
the most productive, resourceful, and creative workers. That's why we
have a lot of OFWs – the heroes that are keeping our country afloat.
>
> The same thing can be said about Pinoys who invest abroad and
consequently bring back jobs to the country. Recently, I met with an
old friend, Jovi Yam. Jovi was a classmate in Ateneo Law. A student
leader, she was always one of the bright ones in class. She worked in
a top local firm after the bar and she was doing pretty well. But
then in 2001, during the Erap impeachment trial, she and her husband
decided to bring her family to Canada. At that time, she just felt
that the country was going nowhere. I think a lot of us can relate to
that sentiment.
>
> But Jovi always had a love for the country. After all she is from
the Tañada clan and her patriotism will always be there. She took the
bar in Canada and began to concentrate on immigration law. She
eventually focused her practice on helping Pinoys immigrate to Canada
via a company she set up called Start Canada. It's not the usual kind
of immigration process that helps Pinoys "escape" from the country.
Basically, Jovi advises Pinoys who want to move to Canada legally
through an investment incentive program. In a nutshell, the program
basically goes like this: If you put in a certain amount of money in
a Canadian company, you get to legally reside in Canada as an
investor.
>
> Now on the surface, it may sound like Jovi is encouraging Pinoys to
divest their money from the Philippines and transfer it to Canada.
But that's a simplistic way of looking at it. There's a domino effect
whenever money is moved. When a Pinoy businessman invests in a
Canadian company, he becomes a stockholder in that company. And being
a stockholder, he has a say on how that Canadian company conducts its
business. If that Canadian company, for example, is a call center
company, the Pinoy stockholder, using his skills and expertise, would
be able to sell the Philippines to his fellow stockholders and
encourage that Canadian company to put up an office in the
Philippines. Once that Canadian company sets up an office in the
Philippines, it would mean a transfer of technology here. In the end,
we get a "brain gain." More jobs will then be available locally. And
we all know that more jobs and a more educated workforce could only
have a positive effect on the economy.
>
> If your long-term goal when moving to another country is hinged on
helping the Philippines – either by sending back money or by aiming
to bring a foreign technology to the country – then you are not doing
the country a disservice by leaving. In fact, if you play the game
that way, you could be an ambassador of sorts for the country.
>
> Each of us has something to contribute to this world – whether it's
time, talent, treasure, skill, or know-how. Don't put yourself in a
box. Think big. The world is your stage now. There are no more
barriers. What can you offer to the world?
>
> By "draining" your ideas and skills to the world, you can
ultimately gain it all back. To quote a popular line, "Open your mind
to endless possibilities." In the end, it's the only way to go.

Why Are Filipinos Not Enterpreneurial?

2005-09-05T12:00:00.000+08:00

I don’t like to play favorites, but from time to time I think Michael Tan is my favorite Inquirer columnist. His Pinoy Kasi articles are insightful and amusing, and really a pleasant break when you’re tired of hearing about politics.

Sometimes Mr. Tan writes about Filipino professional life. And one time, he made a reference to one of my posts in Offshoring Digest. I still have a bone to pick with Mr. Tan over something in that two-part article, but that might be something for another post.

Anyway Mr. Tan once talked about the Filipino tendency to mismanage budget, to blow our earnings in non-essential items. This trend is especially apparent among young BPO professionals, or our modern-day “yuppies.” Off the top of my head, I don’t think Starbucks ever enjoyed such a growth in loyal patronage before the call center boom.

A taxi driver recently shared a gripe with me over the lifestyle led by a lot of young BPO workers. He’d been in Makati for two years, and he’d had his share of passengers from BPOs, mainly call centers. “You know these kids with their English and their fine office clothes… you think they’re rich? Every time they get their salary, where do they go? To bars and fancy restaurants, spending every last centavo. And they always take a taxi going to and from places! So pretty soon, they have nothing. No savings, no spending money. They just sit around waiting for the next payday.”

What he said made me think of how so many young Filipino professionals take the high salary range offered by BPOs for granted, living like this sunshine industry will last forever. Much as I’d like to believe this really isn’t the case, since I know quite a few young people who help their families out by alloting part of their salaries to household expenses, I’ve also witnessed young people working in BPOs complaining about being penniless, so far off from the next payday.

Where does this spending attitude come from? Mr. Tan says it’s the cultural need to spend in order to build alliances, and to prove yourself the “big man.” But in the case of our BPO workers, I suspect there’s an additional factor. It’s the compulsion to strive for a quality life, the lure of a consumerist lifestyle. In school, the prevalent mindset is that if one wants to be able to buy expensive things (and one should want to buy expensive things, if only for the sake of tasting/experiencing them), one must strive to be a good worker: “When I have a job, I’ll work hard so I can buy what I want.” The end goal of working, then, is to be able to afford more non-essential things.

Saving to invest – or, even saving for the sake of saving – takes a backseat to saving for the sake of a short-term gratification. Putting up one’s own business is hardly a life goal; ask young BPO workers what they’d like to do later in life, and they might say they want to travel to a distant place, or they want to gain enough expertise to be able to work and reside in a developed nation.

First, I think we have to focus on creating a “culture of savings,” as Mr. Tan has said. Then, we can think about creating an entrepreneurial culture.

Philippine Board of Investment Call Center launched

2005-09-01T16:34:00.000+08:00

Investment information now available 24-hours a day, 7-days a week via call center
Investments information is now available 24 hours a day and seven days a week as the Board of Investments takes advantage of the latest in contact center technology, making doing business in the Philippines easier with the launch of the BOI toll-free customer care system (1-866-312-9830).

Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila said that investors from around the globe need not come to Manila to inquire on their investment concerns. “This facility speeds up information dissemination from the usual walk-in to the more efficient phone-in queries. Manned by knowledgeable and trained professionals, the new service facility is intended to attend to investors' concerns through its 24x7 customer service assistance.”

The new system, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, is currently available for investors in the US, Canada and the UK.

“This landmark facility was established to make investing in the Philippines easier. Investors, both foreign and local, can find the answer to their concerns and questions with just one phone call. The primary reason for this facility is to attract more investment from among foreign businessmen that are not aware of the many opportunities that the country provides for their business,” Secretary Favila said.

“We hope to use this new service to impress upon prospective investors that the country is doing its best to ensure hassle-free transactions for businesses.”
He urged investors, both local and foreign, to use the call center facility since the facility is still in its dry-run stage so that the DTI and the BOI can effectively assess the impact of this new service to investments and improve the services of the call center.

Trade and Industry Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Elmer C. Hernandez said the project is in line with the Department's thrust to streamline the process of doing business in the Philippines by utilizing e-Commerce solutions to provide assistance to investors. “Before the project conception, the BOI One Stop Action Center (OSAC) provides investment counseling on doing business in the country and renders assistance to investors' issues and concerns via walk-in, email and phone-in inquiries.”

Earlier, the BOI has launched the Online Checklist for project registration which provides investors the business requirements they would need in starting their business in the Philippines via the internet (www.boi.gov.ph).

The call center project was made possible through a partnership agreement between BOI and Synergia Cybercare, Inc., which utilizes Five9’s VCC Solution, Inc., for a two-month Proof-of-Concept (POC) implementation of a Customer Care Solution.

Fact of the Week: Outbound Call Handling Rates

2005-09-01T15:24:00.000+08:00

The number of outbound calls made by an average outbound agent varies significantly across the group, from a high 107 calls in The Philippines to a low 41 per day in China.

Source: Call Centre Industry Benchmark Study - Dynamic Asian Markets 2004
http://www.callcentres.net/DynamicAsianMarkets

Siemens to open Philippine call centre

2005-09-01T15:21:00.000+08:00

German electronics giant Siemens is set to open a US$4 million call centre in the Philippines, which will employ an expected 519 agents.

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has reportedly approved Siemens' application to put up a call centre that will open after the company's current fiscal year ends in September. Through PEZA, Siemens will receive fiscal incentives such as income tax holiday and exemption from import duties and taxes on imported machinery and equipment.

The development follows news that the Mandaue City Government in the Philippines will offer free short courses to help applicants qualify for call centre jobs. It is hoped an increase in qualified staff will help attract new call centres to the region. The exact location of the new Siemens call centre has not been released.

Call Center Realities by Genesyslab

2005-08-30T15:05:00.000+08:00

Genesys have released the seventh study in its Contact Centre Realities series. The latest report explores how organisations are making progress in efforts to optimise effectiveness and efficiency in customer service. The respondents are drawn form 18 different industries, including government, finance, health and utilities.

Key findings from the research include:
* The priorities of contact centres seem to be shifting, to be less about efficiency and more about quality, with 39 per cent saying quality is more of a priority. Thirty three per cent consider them to be equal
* Most contact centres said they could improve the effectiveness of customer interactions by doing more to optimise the match between customers and agents. They believe interactions should be prioritised and varying service levels for valuable customers
* Most contact centres are failing to exploit technologies and business intelligence for accurately identifying and assessing the value of customers and interactions, and understanding agents’ knowledge and abilities
* Only two contact centres are using real-time business analytics to evaluate the individual value of interactions and accordingly prioritise and connect the customer with the most appropriate resource.

Technology
* Thirteen per cent of respondents have already introduced some form of IP telephony to their network, and 41 per cent are considering it for their contact centres. According to those surveyed, two years from now we can expect almost half of all contact centres to be using IP telephony. * Even though 73 per cent of contact centres use touchtone or speech IVRs to greet callers, 59 per cent do not identify customers before connecting them to agents, bypassing this first and most powerful method of optimising interactions with existing customers
* Only 24 per cent prioritise calls by any form of customer category or segment. In addition, only 36 per cent that use IVRs don’t prioritise calls in any way, with 57 per cent of those respondents saying the reason is a lack of investment and integration of information systems
* The most common way to prioritise interactions is by type of inquiry and product or service. But only 27 per cent of contact centres prioritise interactions to two or more criteria. Surprisingly, only 9 per cent prioritise new sales versus existing customers. Also, 14 per cent (mostly banks and airlines) use advanced analytics to prioritise incoming calls according to the value of the customer. However, 13 per cent expect to be using advanced analytics within the next 12 months, and 70 per cent within three to four years.

Segmenting Agents and Matching Customers
* Twenty one per cent don’t segment at agents at all, and 60 per cent simply group agents by product or business unit
* For those contact centres that do segment agents, 31 per cent do so according to customer categories or segments, 21 per cent by processes, and 17 per cent to a quality or performance ranking. Only 2 per cent are routing or segmenting according to soft skills like empathy
* An increasing number of contact centres are starting to consider demographic matching, whereby customers and agents are matched by age and gender, but only 2 per cent use such matching in any form. But 57 per cent expect to do so in the future, and excluding those that do not think it is applicable to their business, 50 per cent expect to implement demographic matching within three years.

Cross-selling and Telemarketing
* For those who have some form of cross-selling, 74 per cent encourage agents to do so during inbound service and inquiry calls; 25 per cent of those expect agents to cross-sell in every call. Also, 63 per cent expect agents to cross-sell only if it is relevant
* On average, respondents reported a 26 per cent increase in cross-sell and up-sell revenue in the past year. Some 38 per cent currently use outbound telemarketing and half are seeing an increase in success rates, with just 6 per cent seeing a decrease. Interestingly, 36 per cent of those using telemarketing are highly concerned that it may be damaging to customer satisfaction and loyalty; whilst 19 per cent consider it essential to their business

The Dynamic Contact Centre
* Managers are dynamically contracting and expanding key activities and processes as call volume varies throughout the day or week. As call volume peaks some activities are reduced; as call volumes drop some activities increase. Managing on and off peak time remains a very significant challenge for 68 per cent of the contact centres surveyed.
* Over a quarter of respondents dynamically manage Average Handle Time to expand it during troughs or reduce during peaks, with 35 per cent considering it an attractive strategy. Some 28 per cent dynamically manage cross-selling efforts by directing agents to explore for cross-sell opportunities more actively and thoroughly during troughs
* Only 15 per cent of contact centres are using voice call back during peaks to offer to return customers calls at a later time and 16 per cent add staff to contact queues during peaks, with 10 per cent overflowing calls to other staff elsewhere in the organisation. Only 5 per cent overflow calls to an outsourcer, while 25 per cent consider this a viable option.

Pro-active Notification & Interaction
Pro-active notification is becoming an increasingly popular method for improving customer service and satisfaction, and improving contact centre efficiency. Many can predict when and why they will receive a significant volume of calls, and some have found they can pre-empt those calls with an SMS or email message or a call from an agent. Others use pro-active notification strategies to keep customers informed about progress in the delivery of a service, or to keep them up to date with key information. Some 64 per cent consider these strategies highly valuable for optimising customer satisfaction and contact centre efficiency. But only 14 per cent are already using pro-active notification and interaction strategies and 53 per cent expect to be within 12 months.

Information on Genesys is at: www.genesyslab.com

Virgin Blue Airline (Australia) outsource to Manila

2005-08-30T11:29:00.000+08:00

Airline Virgin Blue has pledged the security of its Brisbane call centre jobs, despite a decision to shift its outsourced, overflow operations to the Philippines.

From next year, Virgin will shift its overflow operations from Stellar Call Centres in Melbourne to a Manila-based company, a move union officials say effectively exports about 80 jobs. Australian Services Union officials condemned the move and called on the Queensland Government, which offered Virgin incentives to base itself in Brisbane, to clarify rumours that 150 Queensland jobs would also be sent offshore.

Virgin chief commercial officer Stefan Pichler said this week that the rumours were not correct and the Brisbane call centre, which employed about 170 people, was a vital part of the company: "We have no intentions to close down this call centre or outsource it or whatever," Pichler told reporters.

NICE to acquire Australian distributor Hannamax Hi-Tech

2005-08-30T11:25:00.000+08:00

Global call centre analytics company NICE Systems has reinforced its commitment to Australia and the Asia Pacific region with its decision to acquire the assets of local distributer Hannamax Hi-Tech.

India collecting worker histories to ensure security

2005-08-29T13:46:00.000+08:00

By The Associated Press

BANGALORE, India - The Indian outsourcing industry is trying to combat data fraud by starting a project to compile the work histories of all its employees, the country's main software trade body said Thursday.

The records will be controlled by a government-mandated electronic depository and used by companies to screen prospective employees, said Kiran Karnik, president of National Association of Software and Service Companies.

A pilot project to cover workers at a handful of call center workers was launched this week, Karnik said. The project will eventually expand to cover other back-office workers and software programmers, he said.

Scores of firms in the United States and elsewhere farm out office functions such as telemarketing, handling customer calls, payroll accounting and credit card processing to countries such as India, where wages are low and skilled professionals are abundant.

India accounts for 44 percent of the revenues generated from businesses outsourced by such companies, but stray instances of data theft and fraud by call center employees have been worrying.

In one case, authorities accused three workers of a firm hired by Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank of helping to cheat four Citibank customers out of nearly $350,000.

Participation in the database by workers will be voluntary, although companies may eventually require it as a prerequisite for employment, he said.

The work histories will be kept by National Securities Depository Ltd., which was set up under government regulations and currently keeps securities worth $380 billion for 6.6 million investors in electronic form.

In a separate effort to prevent data fraud, Karnik said an expert group set up by the Indian government to tighten India's data protection laws has finalized its recommendations.

One proposed change makes it easier to prosecute anyone who sells or buys outsourced data illegally, he said. He refused to discuss other amendments. He hopes they will become law within six or eight months.

India earned $17.2 billion from outsourcing in the fiscal year that ended in March and expects that amount to grow by at least 30 percent this year.

Call Center Conference and Expo 2005 in Manila

2005-08-29T13:42:00.000+08:00

THE call center enterprise is one of the fastest growing sectors within the information technology (IT) software and services industry. Since the year 2000, the Philippines has benefited from an unprecedented boom in the call industry which has generated jobs for the country despite the IT global crunch. It has become a major force in the call center segment, and nets a big slice of the tens of billions of dollars earned by the industry yearly.

The Philippines is set to surpass its foreign competitors as one of the most attractive locations for outsource call center services in the Asia-Pacific region. Some companies with offices abroad are now coming to the Philippines because they have encountered some problems elsewhere. Compared to other countries, the Philippines also good telecommunications and power facilities and a high ratio of possible call center staff proficient in the English language and with a strong Western orientation. An international research group predicts the growth of information and communications technology and call centers in the country that could turn into a billion dollar industry in the next five years.

With the industry gaining a further boost following the signing of a memorandum of agreement between American and Filipino firms, the industry will become more attractive to other foreign investors.

US expert bats for strategic use of contact centers

2005-08-29T13:39:00.000+08:00

First posted 08:47pm (Mla time) Aug 25, 2005
By Joey Alarilla (INQ7.net)

WHILE contact centers are a sunshine industry for business process outsourcing hubs like the Philippines and India, companies that deploy these solutions need to see the long-term strategic value of call centers as knowledge bases and possible new revenue streams.

"Companies have to change their mindset on what a call center should be," William Durr, principal solutions consultant of Texas-based performance optimization solutions provider Witness Systems, said in response to a question from INQ7.net at a press briefing.

Durr, author of "Building a World-Class Inbound Call Center," was one of the speakers on the first day of the Call Center Conference and
Expo 2005 held August 23-24 at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila.

Asked which industries not currently seen as obvious markets for call centers would likely benefit greatly from these solutions in the near
future, Durr replied: "It's just my opinion, but I think that the manufacturing industry for one would benefit from the strategic use of call centers. Manufacturing companies have traditionally been distanced from their end-consumers."

He pointed out that manufacturing firms are traditionally once or twice removed from their actual customers, yet contact center agents are in constant touch with them and can provide these companies valuable feedback. The challenge, Durr pointed out, is in changing the perception of call centers as cost centers or simply a means of outsourcing tasks that can be performed more cheaply in other countries.

Instead, companies need to realize the value of workforce optimization. He noted that on a given day, contact center agents talk to more people and gain more feedback on the service of a company than a sales agent might encounter in a week.

"People tell these call center agents all sorts of useful knowledge, from what their preferences are to what your competitor does, but many companies don't yet realize the value of this resource," Durr said.

Durr's call for a broader perspective on the role of call centers is actually part of a trend in the information and communications technology industry to optimize the use of ICT solutions. In other words, it is no longer enough for a solution to cut down on operational costs; it must also generate potential new revenue.

For instance, the growth of the call center industry -- and the outsourcing industry in general -- in the Philippines was initially driven mainly by the fact that it costs less for multinational companies to outsource these processes and move these operations offshore rather than hire regular employees in their more industrialized countries.

As competition grows, however, labor cost will no longer be the sole consideration, particularly for countries like China, with its low-cost and highly motivated workforce, emerging as another hub for call center and other offshore operations.

In the face of what Durr termed hyper-competition, the Philippines, for instance, can no longer rely on the assumption that it has the advantage of a lower cost call center labor force. It can maintain a competitive advantage by providing contact center agents with better skills however. Similarly, companies will need to examine how their investments in call centers could translate into new revenues.

It will admittedly be a challenge to transform call center agents from customer service assistants to, in effect, complements to the company's marketing and sales force, actively seeking to seize business opportunities instead of just passively listening to callers.

Still, the fiercely competitive landscape will mean that every knowledge worker will have to offer value-added services, and every company will need to seize an advantage through creative deployment of IT solutions.

"With hyper-competition, there is no such thing as protected markets anymore, no privileged industries, no protectionist countries," Durr said.

* * *
E-mail the author at joeyalarilla@gmail.com and visit his blog at www.alarilla.com.

Call Center Association of Singapore

2005-08-29T13:03:00.000+08:00

The Contact Centre Association of Singapore (CCAS) was launched today to represent the interests of the industry in Singapore and the region. The goal of CCAS is to deliver expert strategies for the customer contact profession and to further develop the awareness and professionalism of the contact centre service industry locally and regionally.

Philippine call centre boom to continue

2005-08-25T11:26:00.000+08:00

The Philippine call centre industry is expected to maintain its robust growth into the new year, according to Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) data.

Bong Borja, CCAP director and president of call centre company PeopleSupport, told a business forum this week that the industry is expected to grow seat capacity by 50% to 70% this year after ending 2004 with a total of 45,000 agent seats, equivalent to 72,000 jobs. "The Philippines was a difficult sell five years ago," said Borja. "In 2000, we (the Philippines) were virtually unknown. Now, we're the contact centre location of choice."

CCAP data showed that the industry needs to recruit 3,000 agents and 300 supervisors every month to cope with growing demand. "We are triggering a real estate boom that would have not occurred if this industry isn't where it is today," Borja said.

Instant Messaging (IM) for Enterprise Support

2005-08-23T18:00:00.000+08:00

According to a study by the Radicati Group, 20 percent of enterprise workers use instant messaging (IM), and this number is expected to grow to 80 percent by 2008. The analyst group predicts that 670 million people will be using IM by 2008, with 88 percent on public networks and 12 percent on private-enterprise networks. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that by 2006, IM will supersede email as the preferred method of communication within an enterprise

Indian call centres avoid professional graduates

2005-08-23T17:57:00.000+08:00

Indian call centres are reportedly avoiding hiring university graduates with professional degrees in a bid to curb their escalating attrition rates.

Many call centres feel that graduates leave the job as soon as they get a placement in the fields of their study, according to Indian media. “A company spends a huge amount on training its employees. No company will want to bear losses by recruiting those who may leave without generating any revenue,” Shruthi a Human Resource manager told reporters.

“We feel that they may have better prospects in their fields of study and may opt for it. So why take the risk?” said Kristal, who has been an HR manager with an outsourcing call centre for the past two years.

Recruitment and Retention

2005-08-23T17:47:00.000+08:00

The effective selection, recruitment and retention of staff are paramount in managing costs in the call centre. The next graph shows that India faces the greatest level of turnover at 31%. In India, 67% of agents are moving to competing call centres, which is a direct consequence of the growth of the industry resulting in a high demand for skilled agents.

China experiences the lowest staff turnover rate at a more moderate 16%, followed closely by Korea at 17%.

Philippines Ranks Fourth in World IT Skills

2005-08-23T14:03:00.000+08:00

MANILA - The Philippines ranks fourth worldwide in competence and skills for the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, a survey by a US-based research firm, the Meta Group, shows. India tops the survey, followed by Israel and Iceland.

The survey said the Philippines beat developed countries such as the United States, Canada, France and Australia in producing ICT professionals and workers.

According to the survey, Filipino ICT professionals are competent and skillful, adept with mainframes, minicomputers and microcomputers and equipped with the technical and business skills for ICT projects. Filipino ICT workers are also skilled in such e-enabling services as business outsourcing and human resource, customer interaction, finance and accounting ad website services.

Systems Technology Institute (STI), the Philippines' leading information-technology school, concluded that the country can succeed in its bid to become the ICT hub in the Asian region despite stumbling blocks such as limited infrastructure for convergence and a legal and administrative framework unable to ensure Internet security and privacy.

"There are problems but these are not big enough to stop the country from achieving the status of becoming the region's e-services hub," an STI statement said, noting that the Philippines enjoys a highly literate and ICT-capable workforce and is the host of several multinational companies' regional operations.

(Asia Pulse/PNA)

Doctors mad about psych call centre

2005-08-23T13:42:00.001+08:00

Australian general practitioners have responded enthusiastically to a psychiatry advice hotline, with a survey finding 99% of respondents would consider using the service again.

The GP-Psych Support hotline, opened in March 2004, is a national advice service that allows GPs to contact a psychiatrist for advice by phone, fax or e-mail and receive a response within 24 hours. According to the Medical Journal of Australia, more than 95% of respondents reported satisfaction with the service in terms of ease of use, helpfulness of advice and ease of interaction with the psychiatrist.

In the first six months of operation, the hotline, operated by private company McKesson, received 726 calls, one-third from rural GPs. Three-quarters of callers said they had no other suitable access to urgent psychiatric advice. The most common topic discussed was medication, followed by general management principles and diagnosis, said the researchers, who are all employed in the program.

Indian call centres may soon tap western agents

2005-08-23T13:42:00.000+08:00

India may soon be turning to western candidates to fill call seats and battle a looming staff shortage, according to new research.

A report by research firm Evaluserve, based in Gurgaon just outside New Delhi, says the Indian call centre industry will need 160,000 professionals with European languages by 2010. It said only 40,000 Indians are expected to have this specialisation, suggesting the 120,000 remaining jobs will have to be filled by Europeans, Americans or Australians.

Of every 100 applicants, only eight or nine are any good, Kiran Karnik, president of Nasscom, India's top IT body told reporters. Only a fraction of the 3 million graduates India produces each year are ready to be hired. Their English isn't good enough.

Calamity brings out best in outsource staff

2005-08-23T13:31:00.000+08:00

The deadly floods that struck the Indian city of Mumbai this month have only served to reinforce Hutchinson Telecommunications' decision to offsource the bulk of its call centre operations.

Michael Young, Hutchison's director of technology and customer service, told reporters he was impressed by the enthusiasm of the call centre workers during the crisis. "We had employees who walked six to seven hours to work so they could get to the centre and provide service," Young said. "The dedication of our employees confirmed why we were there."

Hutchison subsidiary3 Global Services provides call centre services to Hutchison in Australia, Britain and India. The Mumbai floods, which devastated homes and infrastructure, were responsible for the deaths of 76 people.

Siebel banks on Asia for CRM growth

2005-08-23T13:30:00.000+08:00

Global CRM company, Siebel Systems, is tipping the Asia-Pacific region to double its contribution to global revenues over the next few years.

Siebel CEO George Shaheen says Asia will be the economic engine of the 21st century. "The 20th century belonged to America, and the 19th century to Europe. The action has now moved to Asia," Shaheen said. "My objective is to have an abundance of satisfied customers. If we do that, the business will grow naturally."

Shaheen said Asia is more vibrant in the CRM space in mature economies like Singapore, Australia, South Korea. "Telcos and banks are driving that demand," he said. "The cost of getting and retaining mobile phone customers is very high - you never recover the cost unless you up-sell to them." Asia presently accounts for a reported 6% of Siebel's global revenue.

News-at-a-Glance

2005-08-19T16:44:00.000+08:00

Who is your perfect match? Hard to answer but for a Call Center using the latest Demographic matching and even 'psychographic' matching, your perfect match is just a call away.

Servers will analyze your demographics/phychological profile and match them with one of the agents so that you can have a good conversation.

Apple Computer Company has been in the top spot for the best Customer Satisfaction Rating since University of Michigan started it on 1998.

Australians now fear that there is a thriving black market for highly sensitive, personal and financial details about Australians leaked from offshore call centers operating in India. Transcript of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is available here.

Apple Up, Dell Down for Customer Service

2005-08-19T16:35:00.000+08:00

Results from a survey conducted by the University of Michigan were released today. They showed that in the second quarter, customer satisfaction for Dell PCs dropped.
Apple received the best rating according to the survey, which was based on data compiled from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

The University of Michigan polls about 80,000 consumers annually to ask how U.S. companies are faring in terms of customer service, Fornell (head of university's National Quality Research Center) said.

Apple, maker of the Macintosh PC, kept customer satisfaction at the highest level since 1994, the first year of the survey. Its Mac shipments are at a five-year high. Dell's customer satisfaction is at the lowest since 1998, based on the index.

The biggest problems that customers have with Dell's customer service are that they have to wait along time to get the help that they need, and they have trouble with getting the answers to their questions.

I can only assume that Dell is taking a good hard look at its employees in the customer service department, and will try very hard to turn the situation around.

Vietnam goes Live

2005-08-18T12:07:00.000+08:00

Communist Vietnam is embracing the call centre concept with increasing migration from face-to-face customer services to phone-based services.

All Vietnamese branches of the Asian Commercial Bank this week launched the company's new free Call Center 247 hotline. Customers can now access consultancy services on products and services such as deposits, foreign currency services, loan granting, money transfer over the phone.

Call Center 247 will also provide free information on foreign exchange rates, interest and phone cards, address complaints raised by clients, and receive orders for payment of electricity, water, telephone and Internet service fees.

Demographics is good for your Call Center

2005-08-18T12:05:00.000+08:00

Demographic matching when considering call centre human resources could be the next big strategy for improving customer service.

The concept of demographic matching sees call centres either recruit staff from the same age group as their customers, or route calls based on demographic criteria. The system assumes that a mature person calling an organisation fund would prefer to talk to someone of similar age.

"Asia-Pacific is leading the world" in terms of call centre agent development and quality, James Brooks, Genesys' senior vice president for Asia Pacific told the company's G-Force user conference in Melbourne, but "I think we can do better" in terms of one-to-one matching of customers and agents. Recent Genesys research found that 57 percent Australian and New Zealand call centre managers surveyed believed demographic matching would be effective for their operations, and half of those expect to implement it within three years.

Philippine Call Center Industry

2005-08-16T11:21:00.000+08:00

At the end of 2004, the Philippines had about 100 call center companies with 40,000 seats installed compared with 3 million seats in the U.S. and more than 200,000 seats in India, according to figures from the Department of Trade and Industry. The Contact Center Association of the Philippines projects the local call center business to become a US$3 billion industry by 2009, with 250,000 seats installed. Sales in 2004 were around US$690 million.

The Mind of a Taipan

2005-08-16T11:14:00.000+08:00

The Mind of a Taipan
PHILEQUITY CORNER By Ignacio B. Gimenez
The Philippine Star 08/15/2005

Henry Sy, the founder and chairman of the SM Group of companies, not only withstands political and economic crises but also prospers afterwards. Time and again, his ability to see the long-term view and his readiness to seize opportunities during trying times have often boggled the ordinary mind.

Just a week after its purchase of a 25-percent stake in Equitable-PCI Bank, the SM Group continued its spending spree by buying an additional 4.6-percent stake in San Miguel Corp. ? putting its total holdings in the food and beverage giant to 11 percent. That?s a cool P20 billion worth of acquisitions in a span of one week.

SM Investment Corp. (SMIC) acquired 143 million San Miguel Corp. class "A" shares at P63 per share for a total amount of P9 billion.

San Miguel Corp. is South East Asia?s largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company with over 26,000 employees in more than 100 facilities throughout the region. It has manufacturing operations in the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. Optimism Amidst Crisis
Henry Sy traces his roots from Jinjiang, China. At the age of 12, he left for the Philippines to join his father, a proprietor of a small sari-sari store in Manila. After World War II, he started the shoe business ? selling and importing American shoes. His frequent travels abroad where he learned new trends and concepts in merchandising prompted him to open the first Shoemart in 1958, patterned after shoe stores in the US. He expanded to apparel and accessories leading to the opening of the first SM department store in Quiapo just after the declaration of Martial law.

More than luck, pure guts, and hard work, it was Henry Sy's vision and timing which set him apart from the rest. When everybody's store was still in Carriedo, he was the first to move out and put bigger stores, first in Makati, then in Cubao and afterwards in Harrisson Plaza. In the 1980's, when the country was beset with political and economic problems, and when businessmen were holding back on investments, Henry Sy went against the tide and bought huge tracts of land in Metro Manila at bargain prices. This proved to be his biggest move which would eventually raise him into taipan status.

He then built the first shopping complex, SM City in North Edsa in 1983 following Ninoy Aquino's assassination. Back then, everybody thought the idea was crazy because of the sheer size of the mall and its far location in a largely undeveloped part of Metro Manila. SM City, however, proved to be a big success attracting not only those residing in Metro Manila but also those residing in nearby provinces in the North. For the first time, it provided Filipino families a one-stop shopping and entertainment complex - everything under one roof.

The series of coups from 1987 to 1989 left Henry Sy unfazed as he started building SM Centerpoint in Sta. Mesa and SM Megamall in Ortigas. Even after the 1997Asian financial crisis, the taipan likewise went against conventional wisdom by fast-tracking mall expansion and building two to three new malls every year since then.

This year, despite the political scandals, fiscal problems and poor credit ratings, SMIC was able to conduct a successful IPO and make two major investment acquisitions. The Mall of Asia, which is considered the biggest mall yet with gross floor area of 450,000 square meters, is slated to open later this year - bringing the total number of malls to 24 and the total gross floor to nearly 3.2 million square meters. If it?s any indication, SM's aggressive expansion despit e the current political crisis only suggests that the country will continue to move forward and that behind all the political noise, the economy is going to get better. This is a testament to Henry Sy's unwavering optimism and his belief in the country?s resiliency despite being faced with one crisis after another.

Beyond The Retail Business
SMIC is currently engaged in four core businesses. Aside from owning shopping malls (SM Prime Holdings) and operating the retail business (SM Department stores), the group is also involved in banking (Banco de Oro, China Bank), and the leisure & property businesses (Highlands Prime, SM Development Corp).

SMIC registered a net income of P5.4 billion (+31.1 percent yoy) for the year ended March 31, 2005. Consolidated revenues amounted to P49.9 billion (+18.4 percent yoy) for the same period. The group?s retail business contributed 75 percent of SMIC?s revenues and 22 p ercent of net income. Shopping malls cornered 19 percent of revenues and 54 percent of net income. Meanwhile, financial services accounted for fiver percent of revenues and 18 percent of net income.

Looking At The Bigger Picture
With all the political noise and peace and order concerns hounding the country, people have scaled back business expansions and have been distracted by the political theatrics happening in Congress. Taipans like Henry Sy, however, have a way of looking at the bigger picture, unlike the "hot money" from hedge funds which gets out at the slightest indication of risk. Looking back at the history of the SM Group, most of their major investments were made during times of crises. They were unfazed by the fa?ade of political noise which did not stop them from continuing their vision.

We should have more businessmen like Henry Sy whose unwavering belief in the resiliency of the Philippines allowe d him to continue his vision, unfazed by the fa?ade of political noise. His optimism, patience and readiness to act on opportunities are traits that have allowed him and his businesses to survive and come out even stronger after every crisis.

JP Morgan to open a CC in Manila

2005-08-12T14:58:00.000+08:00

JP Morgan will open a business process-outsourcing firm in the Philippines within the year.

"The center will consist of a combination of activities that includes call center and support functions for the US business," discloses Frederic DyBuncio of JP Morgan. DyBuncio was recently appointed senior country officer by JP Morgan for the Philippines. At the moment, we envisage around 300 employees being part of the call center as the first phase in Q4 this year with additional growth in 2006.

Now providing opportunities for the Filipinos, JP Morgan believes that the Philippines has a highly skilled workforce and has proven to be a successful location for customer service oriented functions. "We have had tremendous success with our third party relationships. Add our commitment to growing our business in the Philippines, you can see why this is the ideal country for us to establish our customer care center," says DyBuncio without hesitation.

Latin America the new India?

2005-08-12T14:32:00.000+08:00

With its beaches, golf courses, cuba libres, and rock-solid social-security system, it's no wonder that Costa Rica is luring American executives who want an alternative to Indian outsourcing. Like India before them, Brazil, Nicaragua, Panama, and especially Costa Rica are embracing the trend with business-friendly policies and aggressive marketing. "Costa Rica is moving up very fast," says Ram Mohan, IT manager for P&G, which operates a 1,000-employee center in San José, Costa Rica, to handle financial and infrastructure systems support.

Currently, 24,500 Costa Ricans work in call-center and IT jobs, doing everything from fielding complaints about shampoo to answering questions about insurance. The number of call-center positions alone is expected to double in the next two years, says Federico Cartín, executive director of the nonprofit Costa Rican Chamber of Information and Communication Technology. In Latin America as a whole, the number of call-center workstations will hit 730,000 in 2008, up from 336,000 in 2004, according to market-research firm Datamonitor. Brazil is expected to get a big slice of that business, thanks to some of the lowest labor costs in South America. Business promotion agency ProNicaragua expects its homeland to create 3,000 new jobs in the next few years, while Dell already employs 2,000 workers at its Panama call center.

Nearsourcing Hot Spots
Here are the countries and companies helping to turn Central and South America into the new hubs of bilingual outsourcing.

BRAZIL
SELLING POINTS Very low labor costs; a five-year suspension on export taxes for IT hardware and software.

COSTA RICA
SELLING POINTS Stable, neutral government; social-security system that enables preemployment background checks.

NICARAGUA
SELLING POINTS Very low overhead; influx of foreign investment.

PANAMA
SELLING POINTS Excellent telecommunications infrastructure; political and economic stability.

Sources: Costa Rican Chamber of Information and Communication Technology; ProNicaragua; listed companies

Dell To Open Filipino Call Center on Feb 2006

2005-08-12T14:26:00.000+08:00

Dell said last August 11, 2005 that starting next year it will outsource some of its customer service to the Philippines.

The call center, which will be located in the Manila area and open in February, 2006, will initially employ more than 700, the Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker said in a statement.

Dell said it selected the Philippines because of the country's "high-quality workforce with strong language skills."

To serve Asia, Dell already has one call center in Malaysia and two in China.

Reflections of the Philippines

2005-08-12T10:55:00.000+08:00

The following was written by INTEL General Manager Robin Martin about the Philippines:

Filipinos (including the press, business people and myself) tend to dwell too much on the negative side and this affects the perception of foreigners, even the ones who have lived here for a while. The negative perception of the Philippines is way disproportionate to reality when compared to countries like Colombia, Egypt, Middle
East, Africa, etc.

Let us all help our country by balancing the negative with the positive especially when we talk to foreigners, whether based here or abroad. Looking back and comparing the Philippines today and 1995 (the year I came back), I was struck by how much our country has progressed physically.

Consider the following:
1. The great telecom infrastructure that we have now did not exist in 1995.

1995 was the year the telecom industry was deregulated. Since then billions of
dollars have been invested in both fixed line and cellular networks producing a
system with over 5,000 kms of fiber optic backbone at a world competitive cost.

From a fixed line capacity of about 900,000 in 1995 we now have over 7 million.

Cellular phones practically did not exist in 1995; now we have over 11 million
line capacity.

2. The MRT, many of the EDSA flyovers (including the Ayala Avenue flyover), the
SKYWAY, Rockwell and Glorietta 4, the Fort, NAIA terminal 2 and most of the new
skyscrapers were not yet built in 1995.

3. If you drive to the provinces, you will notice that national roads are now of good quality (international quality asphalt roads). I just went to Iba, Zambales last week and I was impressed that even a not so frequently travelled road was of very good quality.

4. Philippine exports have increased by 600% over the past eight years. There
are many, many more examples of progress over the last eight years. Philippine
mangoes are now exported to the US and Europe.

Additional tidbits to make our people prouder:
1. INTEL has been in the Philippines for 28 years. The Philippines plant is
where Intel's most advanced products are launched, including the Pentium IV.

By the end of 2002, Philippine operations are expected to be Intel's biggest
assembly and testing operations worldwide.

2. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has been operating in Baguio for over 20 years. The Baguio plant is the largest producer of DSP chips in the world. DSP chips are the brains behind cellphones. TI's Baguio plant produces the chip that powers 100% of all NOKIA cellphones and 80% of Erickson cellphones in the world.

3. TOSHIBA laptops are produced in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

4. If you drive a BENZ, BMW, or a VOLVO, there is a good chance that the ABS system in your car was made in the Philippines.

5. TREND-MICRO, makers of one of the top anti virus software PC-Cillin I may have mispelled this) develops its "cures" for viruses right here in Eastwood Libis, Quezon City. When a virus breaks in any computer system in the world, they try to find a solution within 45 minutes of finding the virus.

6. By the end of this year, it is expected that a majority of the top ten U.S.
Call Center firms in the U.S. will have set up operations in the Philippines.

This is one area in which I believe we are the best in the world in terms of
value for money.

7. America Online (AOL) has 1,000 people in Clark answering 90% of AOL's global
e-mail inquiries.

8. PROCTOR & GAMBLE has over 400 people right here in Makati (average age 23 years) doing back-up office work to their Asian operations including finance, accounting, Human Resources and payments processing.

9. Among many other things it does for its regional operations network in the
Asia-Pacific region here in Manila, CITIBANK also does its global ATM
programming locally.

10. This is the first year ever that the Philippines will be exporting cars in
quantity courtesy of FORD Philippines.

Next time you travel abroad and meet business associates tell them the good news. A big part of our problem is perception and one of the biggest battles can be won simply by believing and by making others believe.

Sykes to open a Call Center in Hungary

2005-08-11T11:28:00.000+08:00

Sykes Central Europe Kft, a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Sykes Enterprises, Inc., is planning to set up a second call center in Hungary, Regional CEO György László said, adding that the center will be located in Miskolc. The decision came after Émász Rt, the regional power distributor for northeastern Hungary, renewed Sykes' contract. The expansion is expected to create several hundred jobs in the unemployment-stricken region by 2006. Sykes currently operates a call center in Budapest, serving clients such as the city's electricity provider Elmü Rt, Nokia Hungary Kft, Samsung Electronics Rt, Hewlett-Packard Kft, Fögáz Rt and Malév Rt. The company is not planning to relocate operations to Slovakia even though it established call center in Kosice last year, László said.

No Tea Break for Brit Agents

2005-08-11T11:26:00.000+08:00

Agents at a Scottish call centre are facing dismissal after refusing to accept a ban on afternoon tea breaks. More than half of the 400 direct sales workers at travel firm, TUI UK, signed a petition when the firm scrapped the breaks in an attempt to sell more holidays. Some are prepared to risk the sack by defying the ban at the centre. More than 40 of the longest-serving workers have started grievance procedures against the company to force a meeting next month at which the petition is to be presented. Staff will consider industrial action if discussions with management prove fruitless. Workers at the Cardonald Park centre in Glasgow who continue to take breaks have been told a note on the matter will be added to their personnel file.

A spokesman said: "The break is not written into their contracts and that is our stance." Staff say the break has always been part of their working conditions.

Epixtar speeds up expansion plans

2005-08-11T10:55:00.000+08:00

Epixtar (Philippines) is speeding up the development of its contact center in Eastwood City to cater to its clients, mostly American financial services and telecommunications firms. The facility, which will be fully operational later this year, will employ almost 2,500 agents, according to Irving Greenman, President. Epixtar Corp., the parent corporation of Epixtar Philippines, recently announced an agreement with Laurus Master Fund, Ltd. for additional financing for the Eastwood facility.

India looses 100 centres in 3 years

2005-08-10T13:23:00.000+08:00

It appears that not all Indian call centres end-up as success stories. As many as 100 call centre companies are estimated to have shut shop in the last three years on account of unviable business model, and exodus of employees to larger well-established Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms. "There were roughly 300 call centre companies primarily into outbound calls in 2002, and under 200 today. While we do not track these statistics, we estimate that over 100 call centre companies, that had entered the `BPO Gold Rush' without any viable business model, disappeared during the period. It was more a real estate play than anything, where promoters took advantage of the existing real estate to install phone lines and foray into call centre operations," Mr Sunil Mehta, Vice-President of Nasscom, has said.

Mr Mehta said the top 20 players in the market currently account for half of the overall revenues, and added, "there are definitely fewer and more serious players in the market today." Most of the companies that exited call centre business had functions ranging from selling phone plans to new drugs to credit cards. "Most of these companies worked on the success-based fee rather than the per-person-per-hour basis. For instance, they would get paid only if they sold a specific number of cell phones plans or credit cards. Many of the vendors had obtained contract through middlemen and the payments were few and irregular," he pointed out. Moreover, many of the employees of these call centres moved on to well-established call centre firms.

According to Mr Mehta, the number of call centres may come down further in future. "Keeping aside the factors such as mergers and acquisitions which will lead to consolidation in the industry, with cost of capital exceeding the returns, entrepreneurs may find it easier to re-deploy capital," Mehta pointed out. Asked if companies that went out of business, sold-off assets to other players, he said, "The infrastructure that these companies had were not sophisticated. Most of them operated through a mailing list and phone lines. As far as the manpower is concerned, they easily got alternate jobs," he said.

Bitstop opened a CC in Dagupan, Philippines

2005-08-10T13:22:00.000+08:00

Philippines-based IT firm Bitstop Network Services opened a call center linked to several North American contact centers. Established in 1989, Bitstop originally resold computer products by US companies before venturing into the Internet service provision after a decade.

South Africa, Botswana and Kenya Call Center Industry

2005-08-10T10:30:00.000+08:00

South Africa is well placed to become a global call centre hub, but high telecoms costs and growing competition from the rest of the continent could threaten the fledgling industry, experts say.

South Africa is unlikely to take on call-centre giant India and Philippines, but cheap skilled labour, solid infrastructure and a shared time zone with Europe that also works well for U.S. customers make it an obvious choice. But high call costs due to state-controlled Telkom's virtual monopoly of the fixed-line market were deterring investors.

South Africa is trying to attract more foreign direct investment to spur faster growth and ease massive unemployment. Their call-centre industry was growing, and forecast agent positions -- the number of seats in centres -- would total 6,200 by 2008, a more than five-fold increase since 2003

Botswana is a good competitor of South Africa because they have a strong educated labour force, strong English fluency, aggressive promotional strategies and excellent incentives. In tandem with this, there is a strong focus on IT and telecoms investment. Botswana has been applauded for good governance and investor-friendly policies, and the southern African country has said it will privatise the state-owned telephone monopoly.

Kenya is also a possible rival of South Africa, after the recent launch of outsourcing company KenCall, and said Senegal was a good choice for French companies.

South Africa, Kenya and Botswana have fairly stable governments, relatively liberalised economies, and they are making a big effort to develop outsourcing in their respective countries.

Call Center as Social Cure?

2005-08-09T11:52:00.000+08:00

A US city non-profit organisation believes its strategy of offering call centre training to the unemployed is killing two birds with one stone.

The new initiative to be rolled out in September by the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati will train willing workers who can't find employment to fill a continuing local need - the high employee turnover in local call centres. The centres, run by various local companies, handle a variety of telephone services, from taking orders to setting appointments to handling sales.

Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky have more than 60 such centres employing 5,000 workers. Many report turnover rates from 20 percent to 50 percent annually, with more than 1,000 vacant positions at any given time. The new courses will provide focused, industry-specific training that will allow workers to accept a call centre position with appropriate skills, real-life training and a realistic view of duties.

South Africa-India Orgs agreed to work together

2005-08-09T11:51:00.000+08:00

India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the South African Contact Centre Community (SACCCOM) have signed a memorandum of understanding on closer cooperation between the two organisations.

The agreement reportedly covers cooperation across areas such as the sharing of information, publications and research reports, joint surveys, sharing of contacts, the pursuit of mutual business opportunities and the facilitation of alliances with companies in each country. "There are many reasons why this agreement is good for India as well as SA," said NASSCOM VP Md Shahab.

"For example, the global outsourcing trend now demands that companies spread their risk, which means they do not want all of their outsourced support services in a single country. Many European companies also require multi-language call centre support and India can only provide English. We see aligning with SA, with its excellent infrastructure, language skills and favourable time zone positioning as a definite strategic advantage." SACCCOM CEO Mfanu Mfayela said he expected significant benefits to flow to SA from the commitment. "The speed of India's growth to become the world leader in this sector demonstrates what is possible when the right conditions are created," he said.

Auto Response Messages for high traffic support

2005-08-09T11:48:00.000+08:00

According to a research study conducted by The Customer Respect Group, one-third of the 61 top computer products and services companies don’t respond to customer inquiries. When testing these Web sites for responsiveness, the study found that almost 93 percent of companies had some sort of system for providing a response to customers, but 32 percent did not respond to any online inquiries. Forty-five percent responded to all inquiries, and of that group, most did so within 48 hours. Just more than half of the companies use an automatic response system, and of those, 58 percent followed up with a full response.

Business: China Telecom boosts its call centers

2005-07-18T17:51:00.000+08:00

China Telecom is boosting its customer service operation throughout China starting at Jiangsu, Hubei, and Guangdong with the help of PacificNet for CRM consulting and call center training.

The project is intended to help China Telecom achieve higher customer retention and new customer acquisition, integration of telemarketing service and cross selling opportunities to create more sales opportunities for China Telecom telemarketing services.

(Source: ChinaTechNews)

Australians prefer speech recognition over IVR and Internet

2005-07-14T10:28:00.000+08:00

The 2005 Speech Recognition Customer Satisfaction Survey, done by ACA Research, found Australian callers prefer speech recognition applications as a method to conduct self-service when compared with Internet and IVR.

Other findings include:
* 60% of respondents contact companies with a speech recognition system at least once per month, including 7% who contact these companies on a daily basis.
* Almost 50% of all respondents are highly satisfied with speech recognition applications.
* 80% of respondents claim their experience with a speech recognition system provided the service level they would expect from the company they were contacting.
* Almost 70% of end-users surveyed agree that speech systems are convenient, easy to use and that interactions with speech recognition systems are conducted quickly.
* 56% and 54% of end-users are much more satisfied using speech recognition over the Internet and touch-tone respectively (this result excludes Control Group respondents).
* Speaking with a 'real person' is the preferred method of contact for only half of the end-users surveyed (this result excludes Control Group respondents).
* Over 90% of end-users claim they will be equally or more comfortable using speech recognition systems in the future.

Acquisition: CMP acquires ICMI

2005-07-14T10:22:00.000+08:00

CMP Media has announced that it has acquired Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI), which will create the most comprehensive media platform in the call center market.

The Birth of BPO (Part II)

2005-07-11T11:34:00.000+08:00

The pioneering efforts of the call center sector have proved that the concept of offshore outsourcing can succeed exceedingly well. (Actually, manufacturing proved this years ago, but let's not go into that.) In most large companies, however, answering telephone inquiries is a microscopic part of their overall business. The big opportunities in business process outsourcing are still to be realized.

This fact is shown in the diversity of the services offered by the current batch of outsourcing entrepreneurs. Here are a few examples of companies operating just in the Manila area:

- XMG Global IT Research and Advisory Inc. prepares high-end IT research
- YellowAsp Corp. creates layout designs for printed circuit boards
- Forssman Asia Pacific prepares construction design drawings
- Key-In Data Solutions does claims processing
- Primesoft develops advanced Web applications
- VinciWorks designs online training programs
- Pulse DesignTech offers electronics design services

The large IT services firms and the call center companies are jumping on the business process outsourcing bandwagon too. CapGemini has large facilities in three locations in China providing accounting and human resources outsourcing services. IBM's non-IT outsourcing operations are quickly becoming larger than those of IT in the Philippines.

A quick look at the Web site of IT consulting giant Accenture Ltd. reveals an astounding diversity of services. Under "Outsourcing" in the "Services Offered" section, there are Accenture Finance Solutions, Accenture HR Services, Accenture Learning, Accenture Procurement Solutions, Accenture Business Services for Utilities, Accenture eDemocracy Services, Navitaire Inc. and Accenture Insurance Services. By comparison, only two IT-related services are listed in the entire section.

Two of the world's five largest call center companies don''t even call themselves call center companies anymore. ClientLogic Corp. is now an "international business process outsourcing provider." StarTek Inc. says it's a "global provider of business process outsourcing services."

It's clear that the difference between outsourcing today and outsourcing yesterday is significant. Whereas before, just a few business segments were growing rapidly (say, call centers and IT), now there are multitudes in the same situation, with countless more sure to follow. Some business leaders I have spoken to have used the phrase "tipping point" to describe the current life-cycle stage of services outsourcing. One fellow I spoke to thought the phrase "business process outsourcing" wasn''t descriptive enough to express the vast diversity of the current environment. He felt a better phrase was something along the lines of "everything-anyone-can-possibly-imagine-as-being-outsourced outsourcing."

So, we shouldn''t be overly concerned about missing the gold rush in offshore call center outsourcing. The business process outsourcing mother lode is just around the corner, and the opportunities are wide open. Greedy entrepreneurs everywhere should rejoice.

An excerpt from Richard Mills.

The End of Call Center Entrepreneurs (Part I)

2005-07-11T11:31:00.000+08:00

Ambergris Solutions Inc. in Manila (Philippines) was started a few years ago by three young entrepreneurs with little money of their own and even less call center experience. They had a lot to learn about running a call center, and it took 18 money-losing months before they stumbled upon their first paying customer. But over the two and a half years that followed, their business grew explosively to almost 3,000 employees serving a roster of blue-chip clients. A couple of months ago, controlling interest of the thriving enterprise was sold to a large Canadian IT organization called Telus International in a deal valued at $43.5 million. Many would agree this was an adequate paycheck for just a few years of work.

This story gives the impression that starting a call center in Asia is an easy path to fast riches. However, just a week or so after the announcement of the Ambergris deal, Gartner Inc. released an astonishing report that said, "As many as 70% of the top 15 Indian business process outsourcing start-ups will cease to exist in the coming months." Gartner added scathingly that, "despite the hype, only a small fraction of customer service outsourcing will be done at offshore locations."

Dropping Like Flies

The two situations might seem contradictory, but they aren''t. Margins in the call center sector have declined steadily over the past couple of years, as customers demand lower bill rates and agents insist on higher salaries. The result has been a squeezing out of the smaller (and often newer) operators, which are unable to spread their fixed costs over a larger base of revenue producing agents. Throughout India and the Philippines, there has already been significant rationalization (i.e. closings, buyouts, mergers, etc.) in the call center industry, and Gartner is probably right to say that more are to come.

The Telus purchase of Ambergris, like IBM's purchase of Daksh eServices Pvt. Ltd. in India and numerous others, shows that the call center sector is now exclusively a game for big-boys -- it has become a "mature industry," as they say in MBA School. The days when someone could start a little call center of his own and learn the business along the way are finished.

Excerpt from Richard Mills.

Labor Code Change: Women Work at Night

2005-07-11T11:16:00.000+08:00

Philippines:
To boost the country’s thriving business process outsourcing industry, a senior member of Congress has sought the immediate repeal of an old-fashioned Labor Code provision that bans the employment of women at night.

"The absolute legal prohibition against night work for women has become totally obsolete, irrelevant and inapplicable," Rep. Eduardo Gullas of Cebu said.

Gullas was referring to Article 130 of the Labor Code, which provides that: "No woman, regardless of age, shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation in any industrial undertaking between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. the following day, or in any commercial or nonindustrial undertaking, other than agricultural, between midnight and 6 a.m. the following day."

London Bombings

2005-07-09T07:21:00.000+08:00

The State Department in Washington, USA has set up an emergency telephone line for people to call if any Americans were injured or missing in the series of explosions in London. People with information should call 1-888-407-4747.

Call centers in India (Intelenet and ClientLogic) brought in extra staff and asked some to work overtime to answer a flood of inquiries to Britain's National Rail after a series of deadly bomb blasts hit London's transport network last July 7, 2005.

Added Info:
* Ashok Dhawan - COO; Intelenet Global Services
* Neeraj Khan - COO; ClientLogic
* India controls 44 percent of the global offshore outsourcing market for software and back-office services, with annual revenues of US$17.2 billion (â‚¬14.07 billion), according to the nation's main infotech trade body.

Call Center 101

2005-07-08T17:58:00.000+08:00

A call center is a centralised office of a company that answers incoming telephone calls from customers or that makes outgoing telephone calls to customers (telemarketing). Such an office may also respond to letters, faxes, e-mails and similar written correspondence. However the term contact center is often applied when such multiple functions are blended in one office.

Call centres are generally set up as large rooms, with work stations that include a computer, a telephone set (or headset) hooked into a large telecom switch and one or more supervisor stations. It may stand by itself or be linked with other centres. It may also be linked to a corporate computer network, including main frames, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI).

Most major businesses use call centres to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, mail order catalogue firms, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service internal functions though call centres. Examples include help desks and sales support.

Mathematical theory

Queuing theory mathematics can be used to demonstrate that a single large call centre is more effective at answering calls than several smaller centres. The most dramatic improvements come when a large number of offices are centralised.

The mathematical problems encountered in a call centre are generally statistical in nature and revolve around the probability that an arriving call will be answered by an available and appropriately trained person. Forecasting the call arrival rates and then scheduling the number of staff required on duty at particular times of the day are challenging problems faced by most call centre managers.

Accommodation

The centralised approach aims to rationalise the company's operations and reduce costs, whilst producing a standard, branded, front to the world. The approach naturally lends itself to large companies with a large, distributed customer base. Owing to the size of companies and their customer bases, these offices are often very large, such as converted warehouses.

Personnel management

Centralised offices means that large numbers of workers can be managed and controlled by a relatively small number of managers and support staff. They are often supported by computer technology that manages, measures and monitors the performance and activities of the workers. Call centre staff are some of the most heavily monitored and tracked groups of workers in the world.

Reporting and monitoring in a call centre can be broken down into four major categories. These are real time reporting, historical reporting, quality monitoring and work force management. The types of information collected for a group of call centre agents are inclusive of: agents logged in, agents ready to take calls, agents available to take calls, agents in wrap up mode, average call duration, average call durtion including wrap-up time, longest duration agent available, longest duration call in queue, number of calls in queue, number of calls offered, number of calls abanadoned, average speed to answer, average speed to abandoned and service level (the percentage of calls answered in under a certain time period).

Many call centres use work force management software, which is software that uses historical information coupled with projected need to generate automated schedules that will provide the correct mixture of staff with the correct skills necessary to service customers.

Normally, personnel costs are the most significant expense of a call centre operation and even seemingly small inefficiencies can have significant cost issues. This is one of the major driving factors of outsourcing in the call centre industry.

Inadequate computer systems can mean staff take one or two seconds longer than necessary to process a transaction. This can often be quantified in staff cost terms. This is often used as a driving factor in any business case to justify a complete system upgrade or replacement. For several factors, including the effeciency of the call centre, level of computer and telecom support that may be adequate for staff in a typical branch office may prove totally inadequate in a call centre.

Technology

Call Centres use a wide variety of different technologies to allow them to manage the large volumes of work that need to be managed by the call centre. These technogies ensure that agents are kept as productive as possible, and that calls are queued and processed as quickly as possible according to the desired levels of service.

These include ;

* ACD (automatic call distribution)
* Agent Performance Analytics
* BTTC (best time to call)/ Outbound Call Optimization
* IVR (interactive voice response)
* CTI (computer telephony integration)
* Enterprise Campaign Management
* Outbound predictive dialer
* CRM (customer relationship management)
* CIM (customer interaction management)
* Email Management
* Chat and Web Collaboration
* Desktop Scripting Solutions
* TTS (text to speech)
* WFM (workforce management)
* Voice Analysis
* Voice Recognition
* Voicemail
* VoIP

Call centre dynamics

Types of calls are often divided into outbound and inbound. Inbound calls are calls that are initiated by the customer to obtain information, report a malfunction or ask for help. This is substantially different from outbound calls where the agent initiates the call to a customer mostly with the aim to sell a product or a service to that customer.

The staff of a call centre that is focused on support of a product is often organized into a mult-tier support model, with the first tier being largely unskilled workers who are trained to resolve issues using a simple script. If the first tier is unable to resolve an issue the issue is escalated to a more highly skilled second tier. In some cases, there may be three or more tiers of support. Typically the third tier of support is the engineers or developers of the product.

Call centres have their critics as well. Some critics argue that the work atmosphere in such an environment is de-humanising. Others point to the low rates of pay and restrictive working practices of some employers. There has been much controversy over such things as restricting the amount of time that an employee can spend in the toilet. Furthermore, call centres have been the subject of complaints by callers who find the staff often do not have enough skill or authority to resolve problems.

Owing to the highly technological nature of the operations in such offices, the close monitoring of staff activities is easy and widespread. This can be argued to be beneficial, to enable the company to better plan the workload and time of its employees. Some people have argued that such close monitoring breaches human rights to privacy. Yet another argument is that close monitoring and measurement by quantitative metrics can be counterproductive in that it can lead to poor customer service and a poor image of the company.

Many call centres in the UK have been built in areas that are depressed economically. This means that the companies get cheap land and labour, and can often benefit from grants to encourage them to improve employment in a given area. There has also been a trend to move call centres to India, where there is a large pool of cheap English-speaking labour. This phenomenon has led to media reports of poor telephone connections and operators with insufficient local knowledge to do their job. But, call centres in India may be more professionally managed than their counterparts elsewhere in the world. Whereas a typical call centre employee in the developed world may be a high school drop out, the typical employee in an Indian call centre is a graduate.

Another popular call centre site is the Philippines. Owing to its abundant English speakers that are college graduates and Americanized when it comes to accent in culture. The Philippines was an American colony for almost 50 years. Filipinos are said to be the best outsourcing site outside North America since the accent is nearer to that of American Consumers.

Canada is also a popular call centre site, with the relatively low Canadian dollar and low telecommunication rates. SITEL Corporation, which operates call centres in Ottawa and St. Catharines, Ontario is one such company. Minacs is a good example of a Canadian owned and operated call centre that exploits the Canadian U.S. dollar exchange rate to its advantage.

Around the world, there are a number of professional organisations forming to develop and promote call centre best practice management and operation, to overcome the negative aspects of a call centre.

Management of call centres

Management of call centres involves balancing the requirements of cost effectiveness and service. Callers do not wish to wait in exorbitantly long queues until they can be helped and so management must provide sufficient staff and inbound capacity to ensure that the quality of service is maintained. However, staff costs generally form more than half the cost of running a call centre and so management must minimise the number of staff present.

To perform this balancing act, call centre managers make use of demand estimation, Telecommunication forecasting and dimensioning techniques to determine the level of staff required at any time. Managers must take into account staff tea and lunch breaks and must determine the number of agents required on duty at any one time.

Forecasting demand

Forecasting results are vital in making management decisions in call centres. Forecasting methods rely on data acquired from various sources including historical data, trend data and so on. Forecasting methods must predict the traffic intensity within the call centre in quarter hour increments and these results must be converted to staffing rosters. Special attention must be paid to the busy hour, i.e. those two half hour periods during a day when traffic intensity is at its highest. Forecasting methods can also be used to pre-empt a situation where equipment needs to be upgraded as traffic intensity has exceeded the maximum capacity of the call centre.

Call centre performance

There are many standard traffic measurements that can be performed on a call centre to determine its performance levels. However, the most important performance measures are:

* The average delay a caller may experience whilst waiting in a queue
* The mean conversation time
* The percentage calls answered within a quarter hour period

Refinements of call centres

There are many refinements to the generic call centre model. Each refinement helps increase the efficiency of the call centre thereby allowing management to make better decisions involving economy and service.

The following list contains some examples of call centre refinements:

* Predictive Dialling – Computer software attempts to predict the time taken for an agent to help a caller. The software begins dialling another caller before the agent has finished the previous call. If the agent isn’t finished with the current call before dialling is completed, the software doesn’t dial the final digit.
* Multi-Skilled Staff – In any call centre, there will be members of staff that will be more skilled in areas than others. A Voice Response Unit can be used to allow the caller to select the reason for his call. Management software, called an Automatic Call Distributor, must then be used to route calls to the appropriate agent. Alternatively, it has been found that a mix of general and specialist agent creates a good balance.
* Queuing Systems – The selection of a queuing system type is a very important decision in a call centre as it determines the level of quality of service. Queueing systems in call centres are usually described as M/M/N type queues where N is the number of agents. The preferred method of queuing is a FIFO (First In First Out) model, as it causes minimum delay to callers.
* Prioritisation of Callers – Classification of callers according to priority is a very important refinement. Detecting emergency calls or callers that are reattempting to contact a call centre are examples of callers that could be given a higher priority.
* Automatic Number Identification – This allows agents to determine who is calling before they answer the call. Greeting a caller by name and obtaining his/her information in advance adds to the quality of service and helps decrease the conversation time.

Additional issues in call centres

There are many other issues that have to be planned for when managing a call centre. A few of these issues are listed below:

* Planning for failure of equipment
* Need for flexibility in meal-times
* Need for job variety and training
* Job exhaustion and stress
* Staff turnover

Variations on the generic call centre model

The various components in a call centre discussed in the previous sections are the generic form of a call centre. There are many variations on the model developed above. A few of the variations are listed below:

* Remote Agents – An alternative to housing all agents in a central facility is to use remote agents. These agents work from home and use a Basic Rate ISDN access line to communicate with a central computing platform. Remote agents are more cost effective as they don’t have to travel to work, however the call centre must still cover the cost of the ISDN line.
* Temporary Agents – Temporary agents are useful as they can be called upon if demand increases more rapidly than planned. They are offered a certain number of quarter hours a month. They are paid for the amount they actually work and the difference between the amount offered and the amount guaranteed is also paid. Managers must use forecasting methods to determine the number of hours offered so that the difference is minimised.
* Virtual Call Centres – Virtual Calls Centres are created using many smaller centres in different locations and connecting them to one another. The advantage of virtual call centres is that improve service levels, provide emergency backup and enable extended operating hours over isolated call centres. There are two methods used to route traffic around call centres namely, pre-delivery and post-delivery. Pre-delivery involves using an external switch to route the calls to the appropriate centre and post-delivery enables call centres to route a call they’ve received to another call centre.
* Interaction Centres – As call centres evolve and deal with more media than telephony alone, some have taken to the term, "interaction centre". Email, Web Callback and more are gradually being added to the role.

Preferences

[1] Kennedy I., Call Centres, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, 2003.

[2] Masi D.M.B., Fischer M.J., Harris C.M., Numerical Analysis of Routing Rules for Call Centers, Telecommunications Review, 1998.

Useful call centre resources

General

* Call Center Software Guide
* Call Center KnowledgeBase
* CallCentreGurus Blog
* Call Center Guide
* Teleperformance USA
* SITEL

Call centre discussion

* CallCentreVoice Discussion Community

Outsourcers

* Sitel Corporation
* Transcom Worldwide
* Convergys
* StarTek
* eTelecare
* Center Partners
* Customized Outsourcer Referrals from Telesales.com
* West Corporation

Equipment

* Call Center Headsets

Software

* Concerto Software
* Virtual Call Center Software - Siebel CRM OnDemand
* Call Center Software - Siebel Call Center
* Call Center Software - salesforce.com
* IngTech Corporation
* Aegeanet System
* Contactual
* Five9
* Entellium
* Rostrvm Solutions
* Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories
* Altitude Software
* Call Center Software
* Voicemail Software
* Cisco Intelligent Contact Manager (ICM)
* Ericsson Solidus eCare

Consulting

* Lieber & Associates
* Darryl Beckford
* eLoyalty Corporation
* SNT
* Call center recruitment company

See also

* Erlang unit
* Engset Calculation
* Predictive dialer
* Teletraffic Call Centres

External links

* Call Centre Consolidation - Does it still make sense? by Ike Mitchell, Computer Sciences Corporation (PDF Document)
* Traffic Modeling and Resource Allocation in Call Centers by Diagnostic Strategies (PDF Document)
* Call center reports, white papers and case studies
* Call Center Software
* Call Center Solutions Website for Call Center Solutions

Call centre news

* SearchCRM.com Original daily news, webcasts, expert advice, white papers and more resources on call center management.
* Call Center News News related to the call center.
* Call Center Magazine Website for printed magazine
* Call center & Automatic Call Distributor description
* Support Insight News site for the Support Industry, with subsite dedicated to international call center news