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Gurgaon News - 2004

Call centres to be India's biggest job-maker

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
According to a survey conducted by the Employment Cell of India, call centres have become the largest job providers in India. The Rs 81,000-crore call centre industry including other IT-enabled services is expected to generate 20,00,000 jobs by 2008.

In the current scenario, where material goods are becoming more and more expensive, processes complex and products and services standardised, to achieve the optimal results, international call centres , mainly from America and the UK , are now moving towards India.

India boasts of having a large number of graduates and under-graduates with command over English. Apart from state-of-the-art-technology and cheap infrastructure in India, the call centres also look for adequately and effectively trained manpower which is the backbone of any successful call centre.

There are a few training institutes that are working in the respective field. One of them is Akiko Callnet. To show the remarkable study of the industry, Akiko Callnet has already launched a chain of training institutes (53 at present) across India to serve the industry with the right quality of people.

The institute offers international curriculum and international certification through its business partner Train Now (Montana, USA). The move will give the prospective candidates a fair chance to fight with the increasing problem of unemployment in the area.

After seeing tremendous growth in India, Akiko Callnet is going to open call centres and training institutes all over India. Right now, Akiko is targetting Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry, Kolhapur and some other parts of India as there is lot of demand for trained call centre personnel.

The basic idea behind local call centre training is the shortage of manpower. Akiko Callnet already has over 100 call centres in India, mainly in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa and Jaipur.

“We expect other players in the field to contribute to the initiative taken in order to achieve a balanced growth throughout the country,” Vagish Issar (director) said.

He says Akiko Callnet is enjoying monopoly in the market because of various reasons including tie-ups with international call centres such as Convergys, Saffron, vCustomer, Daksh, Standard Chartered, Ricco, Icon Data Management and domestic call centres like Spanco, Finedge and Monarch.

The training modules of Akiko Callnet provide comprehensive knowledge about American culture and call centre industry.

The industry is growing at a rapid speed and in this scenario Akiko Callnet has achieved remarkable turnover compared to other call centre and BPO training providers. Akiko has successfully achieved more than 100 per cent growth in its turnover and has been able to place more than 5,300 candidates in domestic and international call centres.

Issar said that a call centre executive’s job is multi-faceted. The executive needs to have knowledge of all departments and the respective people working in call centres. This is done to maintain a proper coordination within the departments and to ensure a methodical work process towards the achievement of organisational goals.

One has to keep track of the industry, international developments and government policies. All this information helps in formulating marketing strategies, optimal process and generating resources, Issar said.

Akiko COO Vikas Sharma added: “Other then doing business, the company is performing its social obligations by generating placement opportunities for the youth. In America, call centre executives are paid $6,000 to $8,000 per month whereas in India they get Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per month.”

Surveys have shown that Indian call centre executives commit fewer mistakes in handling transactions in comparison to their counterparts in the UK and US.

Indian call centre executives take eight to 10 minutes in processing their work, whereas call centre executives in the UK and the US take 12 to 15 minutes to perform the same task, thus saving in time and increasing efficiency levels. GE saved abound $395 million last year by shifting their back office operations of 30 countries to India.

Indians have neutral accent and easily understandable English accent compared to countries like China and the Philippines.

Sharma said, during the last six months, Akiko arranged jobs for 5,300 aspirants. Akiko Callnet’s high placement record is mainly due to its exclusive placement tie-up with call centres all over the country. Akiko Callnet has started training centres in Allahabad, Varanasi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Mohali, Jalander, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Mumbai and it now plans to move on to the rest of the country.