NEW DELHI: Utopia, a global outsourcing services provider, is also exploring the possibility of setting up its own call centre in India. "We see great opportunity for our services in the Indian market. We have decided to tap this opportunity by setting up an office in Chennai," said Arvind Singh, president and chief executive officer of Utopia Inc. "Initially, the office would be managed by a small team of technical and management staff from India. The office strength would be scaled up in a phased manner," Singh told IANS. Singh was in India to finalise agreements with business process outsourcing companies to help U.S.-based companies farm out their back office operations in India and cut costs. "We plan to sign agreements with at least three or four high quality call centres in India to service our clients in the U.S.," said Singh, who co-founded Utopia last year after selling off Value Communications Corporation (ValueCom). ValueCom was merged with Rediff.com, an India centric Internet company, in 2001. Other promoters of Utopia are Andrew Martin and Narinder Singh. "We set up Utopia with a view to sell services to clients and help them manage their businesses in an efficient and cost-effective manner by outsourcing jobs," said Martin, executive vice president (sales and marketing) of Utopia. "We want to act as a bridge between the corporate houses and the call centre companies. We are in the business of identifying a customer need and then deliver a product to match that need," he added. Singh said the company had decided to transfer the back office operations of its clients to India to take advantage of cost competitiveness. India's vast pool of English-speaking and cheaper manpower, educational system and training programmes have helped transform the country into a global outsourcing superpower in the last few years. The business process outsourcing industry in India depends to a large extent on the U.S. These jobs are mainly coming to India, as it is much cheaper to process activities such as human resources, finance and accounting and customer care here. "Some of our contacts are at the highest levels in Fortune 100 companies in the U.S., and these chief executives are extremely demanding when it comes to quality and execution," said Singh. "They want to deal with people who understand their issues, who not only have the technical skills for the job, but also the intellectual horsepower and first hand experience in dealing with the same issues they face," he added. Singh said the company was focusing on big corporate houses in the U.S. and Singapore to address their outsourcing needs. "We plan to significantly expand our operations in the Asia Pacific region in the days ahead. "But as part of our expansion plan in the short term, we intend to be in every major city in the U.S. as well as every major call centre hub in India." He said the company was also open to the idea of setting up its own call centres after scaling up its operation in the next few years. "We are waiting for the right time and opportunity. If we think we can add more value to our services by setting up our own centre, we will definitely do that. We are very much open to that possibility." Call centre operations include telemarketing, helpdesk support, back-office accounting, payroll management, maintaining databases, insurance claim and credit card processing, all of which can be delivered using the Internet. Industry officials say Indian companies can offer these services much cheaper than their competitors in other parts of the world. According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), India's revenues from IT-enabled services will rise to 810 billion by 2008 from an estimated 71 billion in the fiscal year that ended March.
Source: IANS