BPO firms say no long-term impact

Tabloid's sting doesn't rattle firms

A "sting operation" by a British tabloid, that is said to have showed up security weaknesses in Indian call centres, is unlikely to have a lasting impact, say industry heads. One analyst, however said, the industry's growth rate will slow down.

On Wednesday, Sun, a British tabloid said in a story, one of its reporters bought confidential information on customers of British banks from call centres in India. While Nasscom, the industry association says it awaits more details, senior executives defended their security processes, but said more needs to be done across the industry.

T K Kurien, chief executive officer of Wipro BPO, one of the largest call centre businesses in the country said: "Sun's sting operation should be seen for just that: The result would have been the same from Manchester to Mumbai." So, in the short run there will be "noise", but business that comes from large customers will continue, Kurien said.

Large customers, in the UK or the US, have their own risk assessment processes, he said, as did the larger Indian call centres. These are rigorously followed, before accepting business, he said.

Adequate control, to prevent fraud, comprised infrastructure, training and monitoring. Of these, while better and more stringent norms can be established for infrastructure and monitoring, "training and sensitising recruits on compliance" was vital, he said.

Firms like Wipro BPO were even running the equivalent of the "mystery shopper", and using behavioural monitoring of staff to ensure security. There were also strict "clean desk" norms that required every piece of stray paper to be shredded. Certainly no piece of paper will be allowed to be taken outside, he said.

Through Nasscom, the establishment of a "national shared database" of call centre as well as IT services staff will ensure that a person caught for fraud in one firm "won't just be able to walk-in at another firm", Kurien said.

A senior executive at a large European telecom company with a call centre in India, said, "Personally, I think there won't be an impact on business."

How quickly can the industry react to incidents of fraud and resolve them, will become more important in getting future contracts, the executive said. "Security, obviously, needs more tightening and I am sure it will be done".

One chief executive officer, of a consultancy in Bangalore that deals with mid-size IT firms, said, "This isn't like IT, where a bug gets fixed. These are serious problems because many BPO processes are 'customer-facing'. Perhaps, such incidents are part of an industry that isn't mature yet and growing rapidly. Some introspection is required."