Here's an article on a developing trend: call centers in the United
States are moving to India.  I was at a community college here in Chicago
and met two women who worked in the annuity section of a large and very
well known life insurance company with offices here.  They answered
customer's inquiries and responded to problems presented.  They are
learning how to process medical bills.  The reason:  their unit is moving
to India.  They have already trained their replacements, who the company
flew over and put up in a hotel in Chicago for six weeks to attempt to
learn a job that depends as much as knowing specific procedures and
policies as the culture, banking system, tax structure, and personal
finance habits of America and Americans.   So far, the women are still
employed, handling the calls the Indians cannot and fixing the errors
they create.  Someday the Indians will either fully learn their jobs,
like the workers in the article below, or the company will stop pouring
money into the project and continue with the workers here in Chicago,
like it did with its failed Jamaica experiment in its health insurance
division.  the women on the tenth floor lunchroom though are taking no
chances.  they don't want to be caught on the wrong side of globalism, so
it's back to medical billing class for them and computer class for me.

Kelly


Chicago Tribune

Dee in Denver, or Deepali in Delhi?

India is a leader in `remote outsourcing,' in which customer-service
calls are answered overseas. The industry's U.S. clients save money, but
they don't want their customers to know that they aren't t By Liz Sly
Tribune foreign correspondent

June 23, 2002

NEW DELHI -- It is 5 p.m. and, in an air-conditioned office complex on
the city's outskirts, several dozen of the brightest and best of India's
educated young elite are gearing up for a long night of what in the
industry is known as "remote outsourcing."

On the other side of the globe, America is just waking up. Soon, this
building is buzzing with the sound of nearly 3,000 people, some dressed
in jeans, others in saris, talking to people in Chicago, New York,
Cleveland or Memphis about their computer problems, credit card bills and
Internet accounts.

What most of the Americans dialing their toll-free numbers don't realize
is that the person called Bradley or Sophia who is helping them on the
other end of the line is really an Indian named Sanchoy or Deepali
speaking from halfway across the world.

That's the whole point of Spectramind, one of the first and most
sophisticated of the homegrown call centers that have sprung up across
India in the past two years, setting a trend that is expected to lure
billions of dollars of business in the years ahead.

Raman Roy, Spectramind's founder and chief executive, denies that any
deception is involved. His representatives don't lie, he said.

But they don't exactly tell the truth, either. The agents give themselves
American names. If customers ask representatives where they are located,
they respond that they are not allowed to disclose their location for
security reasons.

Everything about this industry is highly sensitive. Roy declines to
disclose the names of his 15 business clients, except to say that the
vast majority of them are American and most are in the Fortune 500. It is
written into their contracts that he not identify them, and he invites
visitors to the building only on the condition that they not reveal the
corporate identities.

He cites reasons of competitiveness; just as likely, the big names whose
logos adorn the walls of Spectramind don't want their customers to know
that they are talking to Indians in India.

"It's still a new thing," Roy acknowledged. "Most Americans haven't woken
up to it yet."

No expense has been spared to sustain the illusion that this could be
Dallas or Detroit, not Delhi. Outside, a dust storm presages the imminent
arrival of the monsoon season, the mercury hovers at a scorching 112
degrees and the occasional cow wanders by.

Inside Spectramind's climate-controlled offices, decorated in soothing
pastel shades, this could be the corporate headquarters of any trendy new
American start-up. Clocks on the wall show the time in Chicago and New
York. Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons pennants flutter over
cubicles.

New recruits watch reruns of "Friends" over and over until they can talk
exactly like Chandler, Monica or Phoebe. They learn the rules of American
baseball and the names of American football stars.

"We have to be sure that if a customer from Chicago wants to chat about
last night's Bears game, our representative can say something
intelligent," said Roy.

People who have never seen a snowflake in their lives are shown pictures
of American cities in winter and are required to familiarize themselves
with that day's weather in Chicago or Denver before starting work. They
are schooled in the U.S. system of government and in the eating habits of
Americans.

Roy helped pioneer the trend nearly a decade ago when, as a longtime
employee of American Express in India, he helped set up the first
customer call service in India. Other multinationals already in India
quickly followed, including GE and British Airways.

Then Roy hit on the idea of providing call-center services to U.S.
companies with no existing presence in India, and two years ago,
Spectramind was born.

Industry employs thousands

For India, it is a booming industry that employs about 110,000 and
generates around $1.5 billion in annual revenue. By 2008, the industry is
expected to have grown tenfold, with India commanding around 4 percent of
the global outsourcing market, according to the consultancy McKinsey &
Co.

India faces competition from the Philippines and Ireland. But it is
Indians themselves who give India the edge. No other country offers such
a vast pool of English-speaking, well-educated talent at such low cost.

Most college graduates in the U.S. would turn up their noses at a job
answering customer queries over the phone. In India, which produces 2
million to 3 million college graduates a year and nowhere near enough
jobs to employ them all, a career at Spectramind is highly sought-after.

For every job advertised, there are around 400 applicants. A college
degree is required. Many employees have postgraduate qualifications. They
earn around $3,000 to $4,000 a year, or around 20 percent of the salary
paid to an American for the same work. Higher telecommunications costs
eat into some of the savings, but overall an American company using
Spectramind's services will cut costs by 50 percent, Roy said.

"For a lower price we're giving better quality work from better qualified
people," said Roy.

Few customers guess truth

Rarely is the illusion detected. Occasionally, a customer will have read
a newspaper story about the growth of the industry in India and ask. But
otherwise, they never guess, said Deepali Sharma, a.k.a. Sophia, a bright
23-year-old with a master's degree in business management.

"Some people have asked me if I'm from Spain or Australia," she said,
"but never India."

The only problem comes when callers, so impressed with the friendliness
and service of their representative, ask for dates: Sophia has been asked
out to lunch three times since she started work in February.

"I always just tell them, this is a professional conversation, so please
let's just talk about business," she purrs, slipping into the flawless
American accent she perfected over 12 weeks of rigorous training.

"Then they shut up."


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