Convergys plans Mohali, Chennai centres

BPO major Convergys is evaluating plans to set up new centres in Mohali and Chennai.

The company with a head count of 10,000 in India is expected to hire another 3,000-4,000 people this year and has stepped up plans to outsource data analytics and knowledge management processes from India.

'We are actively evaluating Mohali and Chennai. We have plans to expand our presence in some tier I and tier II cities as we see India as a very important location,' John C Freker, president, customer management group, Convergys said.

'Globally outsourcing is a $300 billion opportunity annually if you outsource all the work that can be outsourced. Out of that only 15 per cent ($45 billion) market has been tapped by third party BPOs. So the challenge is from the captive players (who set up BPOs to cater to their internal needs),' said Freker, who is visiting India.

The marketshare of third party vendors in the India has declined from 57 per cent in 2001 to 36 per cent in 2004 while captive players have increased their share to 64 per cent according to an Icra study. One reason for this has been the mergers and acquisitions happening in the industry.
 

The competition in the BPO Space

MNC CAPTIVES

Amex, HSBC Canon, GE Capital, JP Morgan Chase, Standard Chartered, World Bank, AOL, Dell, Fidelity, Axa, Ford Business Service

MNC OUTSOURCERS

Convergys, Stel, Teleperformance

MNC SPECIALISTS

TeleAtlas, eBrookers, Kampsax

NRI FUNDED ENTITIES

eFunds, Genisys, Heartland, Max Healthscribe, Techbooks

INDIAN SPECIALISTS

24x7 Customer, Daksh, Epicentre, Exl, First Ring, iSeva, Infowavz,Msource, Kale, Tracmail, Transworks, Vcustomer, WNS

INDIAN IT SUBSIDIARIES

Progeon, Wipro Spectramind, HCL, TCS

INDIAN NON-IT SUBSIDIARIES

ICICI Onesource, Ienergizer, Jindal Transworld, Zenta

INDIAN FINANCIAL SPECIALISTS

Data craft, India Switch

(Source: ICRA)

With 65,000 employees globally and 10,000 in India and the industry growing at over 30 per cent in India, the biggest challenge is to maintain quality and keep the attrition levels low.

'Our attrition rates are in the mid range of the industry. Since last year we have increased our training efforts to improve quality standards. We have not had any data security issue here, ' Freker said.

Freker said that the recent move by one of its telecom clients to shift a process from its Pune centre was not on account of quality issues. 'The client shifted due to a change in its plans on account of some amalgamations it did in the US,' Freker said.

The company has recently moved its internal help desk to India and is also shifting a major part of the work done by its global scheduling team of 500 people to India in the next 12-18 months. About 100 positions have already been moved to India.

'We are growing in Philippines too but here (in India) the opportunity is much bigger,' Freker said.

More than half its employees are based in its three centres in Gurgaon.

The company is shortly opening its second centre in Mumbai and has centres in Bangalore and Pune. The company also has a product development centre in Hyderabad which employs about 600 people.