HCL BPO to offer remote technical support globally

HCL BPO, the business process outsourcing arm (BPO) of HCL Technologies, the New-Delhi based information technology services provider, shortly plans to offer remote technical support services to the global small office-home office (Soho) market, whose current size is estimated anywhere between Rs 960 crore and Rs 1,440 crore.

“The one-time solutions include virus and spyware removal, printer/scanner support, software installation and support, wireless support, internet connectivity issues, automated data backup, among others,” Gautam Saha, Head-Technical Support Services, HCL BPO, told Business Standard. The company will provide, according to Saha, both one-time incident based and subscription-based services. The monthly subscription would be around Rs 1,000 a month and around Rs 10,000 annually.

Technical support services (TSS) contributes around 31 per cent to HCL BPO’s revenues and is expected to grow by 50 per cent in two years, with these additional, platform-based, remote service offerings. There are more than 3,500 employees working in this division.

To provide remote technical support to homes in the US and Europe, HCL BPO is in talks with four broadband service providers in the US, and two in Europe, for white labelling (offering clients a branded service) HCL Virtual CIO services, to provide a single-stop shop for all IT-related products in a home/Soho environment.

For smartphone troubleshooting, for instance, it is in talks with three US-based telecom firms and two UK-based firms for whitelabelling this service. It is also in the final stages of talks with a US-based tool company to enable remote control of smartphones. The company is also tying up with big retail chains in the US to launch HCL service cards. through which these services can be taken to the consumer segment.

However, these services will be launched for the US and European markets first, said Saha, and would be gradually taken to the Indian market.