By on April 9th, 2010
Believe it or not, India, which has remained the most favored destination for foreign firms to establish BPO centers, is fast losing ground. According to industry experts, dearth of superior personnel in the voice-based BPO sector has actually forced many Indian IT/ BPO service providers like TCS, Infosys and Wipro to set up facilities abroad.
Today, most Indian IT/ BPO service providers are opting for the Latin American nations, such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Peru, which offer a ready workforce of quality voice ability. In fact, firms like TCS, IBM, Accenture and Unisys have established call centers in these countries by now making the Latin American region a favored destination for IT and BPO services.
A financial news website reports that while Infosys and TCS have already established new facilities in the Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, Wipro was the latest Indian IT and BPO service provider to set up its new international delivery hub at Curitiba in Brazil to offer services to its domestic as well as international clients. In fact, the new center at Curitiba will not only enhance Wipro’s IT portfolio, but also enable it to serve as many as 20 clients across the globe.
According to the chairman and managing director of Quatrro BPO Solutions, by and large considered to be the father of the BPO industry in India, Raman Roy, people in India have failed to perfect their skills. He says that though the enthusiasm to join the BPO sector in India is enormous, the second and third tier colleges in the country are merely turning out an increasing number of educated youths who cannot be employed. Hence, the standard of the BPO industry in India is far below compared to what it used to be a decade ago.
Echoing Roy’s views, the CEO and president of Omega Healthcare Management Services, Gopi Natarajan, points out that as far as the English Language skills are concerned, today’s Indian youth are far behind their counterparts in Latin American countries. Substantiating his view, Natarajan says that while the BPO firms in India provide 12 to 15 weeks’ training to the candidates, people in Colombo are all set to start work only after three to four week’s training. And the youths in Latin America are all the more proficient as a result of which the region is making rapid progress in the voice-based BPO sector. Besides, compared to the Indians, people in the Latin American nations are able to relate better with the US financial, healthcare and other systems.
In addition to the skill set of the employees, other factors, such as improved technological support, faster response time and the benefits of near-shoring, are encouraging more and more Indian IT and BPO firms to opt for the Latin American nations for setting up their new facilities. Many of the Latin American countries also have provisions for technology transfers that make these locations more advantageous for the business of the Indian IT and BPO firms. Another issue that had driven the Indian firms to overseas locations like the Latin American nations, Australia and Europe is the high rate of attrition in the BPO sector in India, which is as high as 11 per cent!
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