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INDIAN CALL CENTERS AND BPO UNITS BEWARE OF FRAUDS..........
Posting By Aryans Communication Link, India.
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REFERENCE: [TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2003 01:48:54 AM]

Fraud is becoming a menace for the Indian call centre industry. Of late, there have been instances of people posing as agents, cheating call centres by claiming to have large orders in hand.

Once the call centre pays a fee or commission, these 'agents' disappear. Many small centres, faced with poor business, have taken the bait and burnt their
fingers.

There's another kind of trickster plaguing the industry: 'clients' who get a contract executed and then vanish without paying their dues.

With the mushrooming of call centres in the country, many fly-by-night operators have emerged to take advantage of the situation. Says Vineet Mittal,
president, Infowavz, "These sort of fly-by-night operators are giving the Indian BPO industry a bad name. While established call centres are sophisticated
enough to differentiate between genuine clients and fraudulent companies, the new entrants in the BPO/CRM sector need to be careful in selecting their clients
and should always do proper due diligence before entering into any relationship."

For instance, according to industry sources, there is a team of two individuals, one Indian and one American, doing the rounds, claiming to have large orders on hand.

They tap call centre aspirants, even help them to put the basic infrastructure in place. Their modus operandi: to procure equipment from second-rung
manufacturers at huge commissions and sell it to the call centre aspirant.

They even take an advance for this equipment, and getting some peripheral work done. Finally, when the time for payment arrives, they disappear.

As call centres rarely take any security like a letter of credit from the duo, they have no recourse. Moreover, they are left with low quality set-ups.

"Unlike other exporters selling physical goods which can be resold even if they are rejected, in case of the call centre business this is not possible. Most
call centres are running like hotels where the guest or clients check in, enjoy the services and the bill is only presented at the end of the stay. Call centres
have to take some kind of security or letter of credit," says Sam Chopra, CEO, Cybiz Call.

Similarly, there are also umpteen cases of middlemen declaring that they have orders on hand. Some may have genuine orders, largely from overseas friends and
relatives, but their intentions are far from honourable.

For, most of this work involves low-end, outbound telemarketing jobs paid on the basis of performance. While some of these tricksters vanish after getting
the work done, others disappear after making an initial payment.

"There are many opportunistic intermediaries, who are posing as gatekeepers of call centre deals. Many companies who do not have the sophistication,
expertise and capability are falling prey to them and are losing money in the process. Many providers go to the extent of paying advance to these entities in a desperate bid to gain business only realising that they have been cheated without any legal or financial recourse," says Aparup Sengupta, president, Global CMS.

Most of the established call centres are flooded with e-mails from such middlemen. Says Abhay Chauhan, VP, Transworks, "I have received many e-mails from people who say that they have tonnes of business and want an
advance payment, but I have always deleted these mails and never cared to respond. I would be surprised if they actually get someone to pay them an advance. The company that does this deserves to lose money!"

Agrees Hariharan TS, VP, 247customer.com, "We have been regularly contacted by several "middlemen" saying they have contacts in the US and the UK and can
offload work to us with a management fee. We refuse to have any discussions with middlemen in this business."

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SENCERE ADVICE:
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Today everyone in India is singing BPO song, so called new generation entrepreneurs say give us work we will do it because we have a ready facility or we will setup one. Then they want a genuine client to trust them without any domain knowledge or presence??? I am seeing lots of scams and frauds around but no one listens even when you go and explain, all of them are running behind mirages. There is no more first movers advantage for cost reduction, there are many companies playing the same game.

Unemployment in Europe and US is growing......... Canada and Mexico offer better performance and multilingual facilities, Indian centers are not geared to work on performance and just care to count dollars, but there is no gold mine.

Sometimes, even I seek help of other Indian third party call centers to help us execute our commitments as our seats are over booked most of the times. This brings the funniest and most stupid interactions i ever had, every call center demands fix hour payments, and no one is ready to perform, everyone wants his share of dollars because he has a facility in place. I have not found any single call center ready to innovate new marketing strategies for clients. It seems Indian call centers only want a ready deal, a calling list and a fool to pay them because they are calling.

And then they get all brokers and so called business facilitators playing there games. Why blame them?? Don’t you think you are equally responsible? If you want moon in your plate, you can get it only in dreams.

Undoubtedly Indian call center market is now entering into a second phase of development. Dear friends, please try to think out of the box, innovate........ Add more value to the process chain, understand emerging trends globally as well as locally for managing survival and future growth, don't just blame others.

Talk of even the top so called successful BPO and call center ventures, what you all are doing??? As coolies lifting burden of others?? We Indians can do better jobs adding value to process not just acting as a cost effective destination rather working towards a more respectable and serious job. Some of our friends in manufacturing have done it, why not we try??

I will advice call centers to join hands with like minded and work towards something concrete, why ask for work, create work. Don't do everything, do what you are good at; I believe this is the fundamental theory behind outsourcing. If every one will do everything no one will survive better.

Think radically...just don’t come here because you have money to loose, Indian is a developing country, we on top management should understand responsibility of our people behind.

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I am open for any discussion... I want this industry to grow, we have responsibilities of our people and we also have great minds around, need is just to think where are we going?

Comments by Deepak Kumar, Aryans Communication Link, India.
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I am setting up a 50 seats contact centre.
Recently I came across a proposal wherein a company, approached me that they can sell their softwares CTI/CRM suite at a fixed cost per seat and I am assured that I can get a 3 years inbound voice contract.To that committment,they sent a message also and promised me that end customer details also will be given to me.Later I was told the name of the end-customer in US,who were long distance telecom carriers in USA.But when checked up thro bank,it was found that the company offering softwares is in bankruptcy in USA.
This is a typical case.
In another case I came across a Consultant representing a technology company in India offered his services with business.But later told that the business he is bringing is a value added service not part of the consultancies'service offering.
I assume that the other new entrants also might have experienced similar cases.

When there is plenty of opportunities for out-sourcing,I feel that there need to be guidelines and regulations on Business Services Offerings and Consultancies.

Get all the detail about Indian ITES industry before entering...This report would help you to identify opperctunities in India. Report from well known Indian Credit rating companies.

Question which faced by any players regarding India is ?
How to get information related to seting up call center in India.
How to judge where India stand as a player in the ITES business.
Where is India placed in the world ITES market 127$ Billion ?
How fast will the Indian ITES industry grow, when globally it is growing at a CAGR of 14% ?
What are the cost and revenue economics of an ITES centre in India ?
What are the challenges ahead for the Indian ITES industry ?

CRIS INFAC has answer to all these questions. CRIS INFAC industry information service on ITES industry in India would help players in assessing the potential and identifying business opportunities in the sector.

I have enclosed table of content of the recent report on the subject. IF you wish to subscribe to the same kindly contact me on 91 11 23324722-33-44 or send me E-mail to dsharma@crisinfac.com.

I T Enabled Services: Scope and Contents

Module one - Overview
· Global scenario
· Evolution, key trends,
· Long term forecasts by Gartner, IDC etc.

· Indian scenario
· Primer on ITES
· Overall trend and review of Indian ITES industry; size, growth rates, segments, key trends
· Key market strategies of companies - Vertical market specialisation or horizontal spread
· Geographical markets and trends - key success factors in non-western markets, which are the key markets with good opportunities for Indian players
· Size of other geographical markets, competitive advantages, comfort level of clients with outsourcing from Indian companies, language and cultural issues
· Size of opportunity in the domestic market - trends and growth areas; key market segments and growth drivers - telecom service providers, financial service companies, credit card companies, insurance companies, helplines, banks
· Value addition and Value chain in ITES – Customer resistance to outsource high-value work to offshore/Indian players; what additional value can Indian players bring except cost advantage, process expertise (where will it come from)
· Number of players - is it sustainable; given the low entry barriers, is the size of operations a source of competitive advantage
· Outsourcing trends – what benefits are there compared with in-house
· Key competitive advantages in the long term - labour costs (how long will this continue, given the rising salary levels), knowledge/talent pool, infrastructure, geographic location;
· Possible pitfalls like telecom infrastructure, quality considerations, attrition rates
· Competition from other countries such as Ireland, China, etc.
· What strategic considerations would drive ITES outsourcing. Will ITES industry be cyclical (or counter-cyclical) with economic cycles
· ITES training market – size of opportunity, growth rates

Overall long-term forecast by say NASSCOM, CRIS INFAC

Module two - Markets
· Size, growth rates, level of competition, key trends, skill-sets required, key success factors
· Key issues - customer reluctance to outsource critical functions which have an impact on revenues and customer satisfaction, offset by competitive advantage in cost; increasing service level requirements, human resource management




Geographical markets
· North America
· Europe - is there an opportunity in European market, language issues, cultural issues, willingness to outsource
· Asia Pacific
· India – corporates (client case studies - ICICI)

Vertical markets
· Telecom service providers
· Banking and Financial services (Credit/debit card operations, cheque processing, loans/mortgage processing, collections, account management, treasury operations)
· Insurance companies (policy management, claims management, benefits administration, statutory compliance)
· Healthcare - telemedicine
· Aviation
· Retailing

Module three - Policy framework
· Information Technology Act - Information security
· Fiscal policy and incentives
· Software Technology Park policy
· Foreign investment policy
· Overseas investment policy (mergers and acquisitions, ADR/GDR, remittance of profits, etc)
· Venture capital investment policy

Module four - Service lines
Contact Centres
Overview
· Voice based, internet based, OR Inbound call handling, telemarketing, email handling, chat handling
· Out-sourced v/s out location
· Service areas like sales help, technical support,
Economics
· Cost economics
· Manpower rates
· Human resources – availability, cost, training requirements, high attrition rates, retention strategy, skill sets required, process quality, higher level/value-added skills (?), availability and quality of training institutes
· Typical rates for various services, higher value added services
· Pressure on manpower rates due to competition and oversupply
· Minimum viable manpower rates
· Technology
· Type of technology needed, CRM tools etc
· Telecom infrastructure – international bandwidth availability, cost, domestic connectivity (backbone), telecom costs (bandwidth requirement per seat), overall infrastructure costs, IP Telephony
· Revenue economics

World and domestic market size and forecasts
· By verticals
· Key growth drivers

Business Process Outsourcing
· Overview
· Service lines
· Customer relationship management (email, technical helpdesk, product support)
· Credit card operations (sales, verification, documents processing)
· Accounting and finance (Accounts receivables, accounts payables, tax processing)
· Human resource management (benefits processing, payroll)
· Sales processing (order to collection)
· Information systems security management
· Data centre management

· Economics
· World and domestic market size and forecasts
· By verticals
· Key growth drivers

Other ITES
Transcription
· Medical
· Legal
· Technical
Geographical Information Systems
Online education (NIIT, Aptech)
Telemedicine

Module five - Players
Player strategies
· Key challenges
· Domain specialisation
· Geographical diversification and vertical market diversification (to avoid cyclicality in geographical and vertical segment)
· Employee recruitment, attrition, retention, training/retraining
· Global visibility and recognition for access to clients and markets, brand building, marketing issues
· Mergers and acquisitions – to acquire skills, to acquire access to markets, to acquire access to customers, to move up the value chain

Summary info about players – revenues of top 20 players, exports of top 20 players, etc

Player profiles
· Domestic players – Spectramind, Customerasset.com, Daksh, Brigade Corporation, Progeon, Digital Globalsoft (TSCC), Satyam Computer, MSource, E-serve International, Talisma, ICICI One Source, 24/7 customer.com, Global Telesystems, i Seva, E-Funds, Exl Services, Tracmail, Transworks

· Multinational players present in India – GE, HSBC, Stanchart, World Bank, Amex, Citibank (E-serve), British Airways (WNS)

Hi,

The person,Mr Rishi Chopra of Investigation team of Economic time who wrote article in Economic Times about the fraud consultants in BPO/Callcentre industry is in police custody now becuse of some other atricles.

In his article about consultants in callcentre the article blamed all consultants and that effected genuine consultants also.

We request newspapers not to show partiality and also expose callcentres and bog bosses who cheated poor consultants.

Also is a top 10 Indian IT/hardware firm who had cheated about 25 plus investors by giving false promises to setup callcentres which burnt the fingers of this poor investors

i am surprised to see anyone(Deepak Kumar, Aryans Communication Link, India) on internet to share his ideas, otherwise in 3 years of my internet life i have seen only opportunists. Well i really aprreciate ur ideas a lot and i am very strongly agree with u over call centre issues. Infact i think the same for the whole IT industry in india. Here are my views for call centres -

1) If call centres themselves want then they can easily escape from non-payment for thier dues from foreign companies. ITs seems to be tough but once the industry gets united and ask Nasscom to apeal to the govt then a policy can be made easily that every foreign company who is employing indian call centres has to issue LC and give credit reports to them then everything can be sorted out easily. Issuing L/c is not a big problem for GENUINE foreign companies but getting L/C issued by indian companies for the work they do is difficult. The only reason being that the industry is not united. IF the govt make laws pertaining to it as i suggested too, everything will be solved and many fraudulant activites can be stopped immediatly. THINK ABOUT IT

2) Creating more income opportunities - I agree here with the viewpoint that indian companies care more for dollars rather than performance. This is really bad for the industry in the long run. Though it is understandable that indian companies always have scarcity of money but it is also needed to be understood that good performance will always lead to great money with payment security provided. I have seen many people and companies doing wrong things like spamming or any other activites to make more money and they end up with nothing at hand. But if they think carefully and promote creative ideas then they can automatically make more income with ethical way of working. In the present scenerio of call centres people can think of making more sales by some innovative ideas. Infact with efficient representatives even right now they can make enough sales through their telemarketing for earning good returns on their money.

3) Options for foreign companies - Though unemployement is increasing in western part of the world but even then india is a great market for BPOs. People can make tons of cash from it if utilized properly and efficiently. Call centre owners can compete anyone in the world provided they give the quality. Remember onething that GENUINE foreign companies dont have much options with them right now except looking at india. But they want good performance too. You need to utilize ur marketing skills and then u can even force them to take upfront payments for telemakreting jobs.

4) A call centre should not focus on making sales through telemarketing. If internet can be utilized properly then u can even make good number of sales per month through emails , newsletters and other ways..... provided you have the knowledge how to utilize these things efficiently. I give u a very small example - a very small piece of software like a pop-up ad killer(though there are many other freebies like this) or even an "online scratch card" with promos 'scratch and win' can generate atleast 50,000 subsribers to ur newsletters and websites and 500 (1%) sales of different things like insuarance, master cards, mortgage etc round the globe. The widest market in the world on internet is still the freebies and making these freebies software is just a matter of 5-10000 rupees. All you need to do is use these freebies for generating sales.

5) Providing sales to end-clients from more than one way gives u an edge over others and thus gives u more reputation and significance in the eyes of the end-client. You can easily come in position where u can ask ur clients advance payments and higher pay per leads etc.


MY Appeal -- Stop making hue and cry and start working more and think positively. There are lots of business opportunities for india coming, all you need to do is keep ur eyes open. I am writing few areas here where u can make good money if you can go with right strategies and u have enough money to invest -

1) Call centres
2) embeded technologies like writing softwares for chips on board of anything like toys or any electronic items etc. One example was provided by Hindustan times very recently i.e. chips used in place of bar codes of products
3) GPS - Global positioning System
4) Technology based marketing like through sms and these call centres.
5) mobile based applications





You can send me mails at mukmit@hotmail.com anytime to discuss anything

The facts remain unexplored

Infact in-spite of having number of fraud (in my opinion its just few cases) in the call centre business in India. The performance of Indian call centre is quite high in the worldwide call centre industry. The quality of services and throughout performance, achievement in targets and control over world market i give Indian 5 grade in the scale of 1 to 5. The fact is number of Indian companies are packed up with the assignment and in order to learn from the market performance few new entrant tried their luck and burn their finger, the companies who tieup with them burns their hairs too. I can read some well performance from Spectramind, Customerasset.com, Daksh, Brigade Corporation, Progeon, Digital Globalsoft (TSCC), Satyam Computer, MSource, E-serve International, Talisma, ICICI One Source, 24/7 customer.com, Global Telesystems...there are many more. Surprisingly some new small entrant has also done quite well in the industry. Its a matter of taking right step after research and development.