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11th October 2006 | Contact the Editor | Register here to receive your own FREE copy of contact news asia |
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LATEST NEWS |
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Rebuttal to Daily Telegraph article on ANZ's Offshoring |
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It is very rare, as the Chief Editor of contact news, that I feel compelled to write a rebuttal to another publication's story, but that time is now. This is in response to the ludicrous article published yesterday October 10, 2006, by the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, which ridiculed the ANZ Bank offshoring to Bangalore in India. Below is the response I sent to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.
Dear editor,
My call center industry colleagues and I are incensed at the sensationalism and inaccuracy of this article. It is indeed tabloid journalism at its worst. The story quotes inaccurate statistics with no evidence of where information was sourced.
I have spent the last 10 years researching and analysing the call center industry in the Asia Pacific region and I will tell you the true picture: the jobs that are offshored are the high transaction, low customer value jobs that largely Australian workers don't like to do, evidenced in the 16-30% annual staff turnover in Australian centers that handle this type of work; the pay rates for agents in Australia range from $34,000-$39,000 and not $40-45,000 as reported; the industry in Australia is experiencing severe skill shortages with 47% of call center managers experiencing 'extreme difficulty' in recruiting; 62% of managers report there is a serious lack of appropriate skilled resources in Australia and 57% report that there is a severe shortage of candidates in the market place.
With current levels of unemployment being so low, the most logical strategy is to move the lower value jobs offshore to countries such as India where the labour cost is less (67% of an Australian contact center budget is devoted to labour costs). What does this mean for the Australian contact center market (250,000 workers), which is growing steadily at 8% p.a.? By offshoring lower level jobs, the industry becomes more sophisticated, with Australian agents handling relationship based, problem solving or high value customers. This will result in an upward movement in wages and better career-pathing and more interesting work for the Australian workers (50% of whom currently find their jobs boring).
Offshoring will also mean lower fees (banking in this case) for consumers and better returns to shareholders. It is a solid economic argument that the US and Europe embraced some time ago. The Indian business community are very grateful for the work and treat working in a call center as a good career. The call center and outsourcing industries have brought many advantages to India and has not, as your insightful journalist Luke McIllveen revealed, increased the use of drugs and the spread of AIDS. Indeed most Indians talk with great pride about the call center and outsourcing industries. So, I say, congratulations to the ANZ bank on a sensible strategic move.
Dr Catriona Wallace
Director, callcentres.net |
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 NASSCOM maintains India is secure after British TV fraud allegations
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India's contact center industry association, NASSCOM, has hit back at a British television expose which purports to show Indian agents selling private customer data.
Britain's Channel 4 screened a documentary last week purporting to show how the data of thousands of British customers could be stolen and sold by contact center workers for as little as $US15. But NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik has hit back saying "security is top priority".
Karnik cited a recent investigation of Indian contact centers by Britain's Banking Codes Standards Board, which found that customer data in India was subject to the same level of security as in Britain. NASSCOM says Indian police are investigating the breaches depicted in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. "We take any alleged breach of security extremely seriously," Karnik said. "The fact that there was no suggestion of customers suffering financial loss in the Dispatches report does not diminish the priority we give to all security issues." |
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 China Telecom upgrades standards with PacificNet
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China Telecom has contracted Hong Kong-based outsourcer PacificNet to provide CRM consulting and contact center training for its Ningbo branch.
Under the agreement, PacificNet will enhance the CRM service level and telemarketing management capability of China Telecom's contact service center called the "10000 Information Hotline." Head of China Telecom's Ningbo contact center, Ren Xiu Li, said the 10000 Information Hotline services deal had already increased the overall performance of the facility's management workflow, telemarketing effectiveness and CRM service quality.
PacificNet president Victor Tong said CRM contact center has emerged as the new competitive advantage for the market leaders in China. "To become a market leader in China, whether as a product or service provider, a company needs to devote resources to CRM and customer service," he said. |
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 IBM eye's major Philippine expansion
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IT giant IBM reportedly plans to add up to 15,000 jobs across its four subsidiaries in the Philippines, including contact center units.
Anna Roqueza, IBM Philippines human resources country manager told reporters the company currently employs around 5,000 workers in the Philippines, up from 500 in 2004. IBM has strategically located some of its global BPO and contact center operations in the Philippines. "It's a new industry, really," said Roqueza, referring to IBM's entry into services. "IBM is leveraging on its vast customer base."
Roqueza said the projected total number of additional jobs is "speculative" and based on the exponential growth shown by the company's businesses in the country. She also declined to give a specific timeframe for the workforce expansion. |
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 South Korea opens medial hotline to cope with holiday emergencies
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The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare will run a medical contact center from Thursday till Sunday to cope with an expected surge in emergencies over the Chusok holidays.
The 24-hour medical contact center will connect patients to the nearest 430 hospitals and medical units around the country in case of emergency. The hotline is accessible by a single toll-free phone number. Fixed line phones can contact the hotline by dialing 1339, while mobile callers need to add their local area code.
The Chusok holidays, the Korean version of Thanksgiving, will see Koreans traveling throughout the country to visit family and friends. About 6.5 million people are expected to be traveling by car, train or plane per day during the Oct. 3-8 period, according to estimates by the National Police Agency. |
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