BANGALORE: The good news is that at least three Indian call centres are aiming to get the latest and much more stricter quality standard certification, the COPC-2000 CSP "Gold" standard certificate. The standards committee of the Customer Operations and Performance Centre (COPC) approved this in December. Better still, Indian call centres have become examples to their counterparts across the world for maintaining quality standards. India has become the top three choices in the world for companies outsourcing voice, data, transaction and processing and technical contact centre work. The bad news is that "India is at the cross roads. Will this build into a large market with stable margins and quality? Or will it go the medical transcription way by slashing prices? That is India's choice, really." This is what Clifford D. Moore, chairman and co-founder of COPC, told IANS on his 19th visit in about 40 weeks to India, again to audit four new call centres for certification. COPC certification, based on the Malcolm Baldrige model, has become the quality assurance standard for the call centre industry, akin to the SEI-CMM level certification for software companies. "Indian centres have performed on par if not better than those in the U.S. or Asia Pacific. People who have not seen this country have India on top of their mind. India has professionalized the global industry with its amazing attitude." The certification process takes 12 to 18 months in the U.S. "In India, it takes seven to eight months. This is unbelievable but we have seen it happening. India holds the record for fastest certification. It is a combination of tenacity, receptivity and aggressiveness." Initially, companies moved outsourcing work to India for the cost factor. A 50 to 60 percent reduction in cost compared to the U.S. Today, they have "good choices in terms of quality. India is, truly, in a competitive position. But there are concerns and they are serious ones," said Moore. First, the India-Pakistan tension still makes companies also look at the Caribbean, South Africa or the Philippines. "And, COPC trained coordinators in China already number 60. India, of course, has around 100 coordinators. China should not be underestimated. And there is Malaysia as well," says Moore. The second concern is that of quality. "India has a good reputation right now. Any slip up either in the call centre or the other functions of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector could taint that image". And the biggest worry of Moore is in the BPO operations. "Indian companies need to maintain some discipline in price cutting tactics." Call centres which normally function at night in India to meet the day demands of the U.S. or European customers make use of the infrastructure by expanding into the BPO sector that functions during the day. The margins are higher in the BPO operations though the costs are lower. The silver lining, however, is that the big call centres "will not allow it to happen. In fact we are piloting the BPO standard in India for the first time. It was tested out in India's hotspots, Bangalore, at the ICICIOnesource," he said. India's IT enabled sector (ITES) has shown phenomenal growth in the last couple of years to record revenues of over $830 million last year. The National association of software services companies (Nascom) expects ITES revenues to touch $17 billion by 2008 when the global market is expected to be $142 billion. Indo-Asian News Service
Source: IANS