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Boom times come calling ...and growing pains too: The Hindustan Times
New Delhi, Aug 03: Wipro Spectramind head Raman Roy was on his way to a Friday night business dinner when his car broke down. Roy had to borrow a car from the company pool. `I got talking to the cab driver, apologising for calling him at such a short notice`, he says. But, the driver`s response stirred him. `Apke liye to jaan bhi hazir hai sir (For you I could give my life, sir).`
New Delhi, Aug 03: Wipro Spectramind head Raman Roy was on his way to a Friday night business dinner when his car broke down. Roy had to borrow a car from the company pool. “I got talking to the cab driver, apologising for calling him at such a short notice”, he says. But, the driver’s response stirred him. “Apke liye to jaan bhi hazir hai sir (For you I could give my life, sir).”
Thanks to his contract with the contact centre, the driver had risen from the ranks of a driver to a proud owner of three Toyota Taxis. “Your company has changed my life. I have been able to send my children to the best of schools, he told me, and I for the first time came to realise how many lives we were touching indirectly,” says Roy.
But this ripple effect is only one part of the Indian BPO saga. Poll the management and they are equally satisfied. Says EXL Servcies CEO Vikram Talwar: “For 30 years of my life, I kept a nine-to-five job having the bare minimum time for my family. I have never spent as much time with family as I get to spend in my present assignment thanks to the flexi-time approach that this industry follows.”
Sabha Bajaj, an 18-year old graduate, who works for a call centre in Noida, is happy too, “I work on a 5 p.m. to 2 a.m shift, five days a week. While getting enough sleep after I am home, I get the rest of the day to pursue further studies. It’s just working fine with me. I have my share of money, have great fun with colleagues and don’t get the feeling of being bound to an unreasonably demanding job or a boss.”
Looks like everyone here is happy with business process outsourcing (BPO). It’s a good thing going.
“The outsourcing juggernaut will keep rolling but not without impediments. It’s up to us to make the journey dignified and elegant by living up to our individual and corporate responsibility,” says iGate Global Solutions CEO Phaneesh Murthy. Last week, Murthy took a fresh plunge into this space by brokering a deal in which iGate Global Services agreed to buy GMR Group’s 51 per cent for Rs 869 million.
Murthy believes that with a good business model, value adds, choice of the right verticals to operate in and a healthy fund flow, companies can look forward to a gold rush in this space. This sector already employs 1,71,000 professionals with a billion dollar investment. With revenues of $ 2.3 billion in 2002-03, it is here for keeps.
Thanks to his contract with the contact centre, the driver had risen from the ranks of a driver to a proud owner of three Toyota Taxis. “Your company has changed my life. I have been able to send my children to the best of schools, he told me, and I for the first time came to realise how many lives we were touching indirectly,” says Roy.
But this ripple effect is only one part of the Indian BPO saga. Poll the management and they are equally satisfied. Says EXL Servcies CEO Vikram Talwar: “For 30 years of my life, I kept a nine-to-five job having the bare minimum time for my family. I have never spent as much time with family as I get to spend in my present assignment thanks to the flexi-time approach that this industry follows.”
Sabha Bajaj, an 18-year old graduate, who works for a call centre in Noida, is happy too, “I work on a 5 p.m. to 2 a.m shift, five days a week. While getting enough sleep after I am home, I get the rest of the day to pursue further studies. It’s just working fine with me. I have my share of money, have great fun with colleagues and don’t get the feeling of being bound to an unreasonably demanding job or a boss.”
Looks like everyone here is happy with business process outsourcing (BPO). It’s a good thing going.
“The outsourcing juggernaut will keep rolling but not without impediments. It’s up to us to make the journey dignified and elegant by living up to our individual and corporate responsibility,” says iGate Global Solutions CEO Phaneesh Murthy. Last week, Murthy took a fresh plunge into this space by brokering a deal in which iGate Global Services agreed to buy GMR Group’s 51 per cent for Rs 869 million.
Murthy believes that with a good business model, value adds, choice of the right verticals to operate in and a healthy fund flow, companies can look forward to a gold rush in this space. This sector already employs 1,71,000 professionals with a billion dollar investment. With revenues of $ 2.3 billion in 2002-03, it is here for keeps.