The 2nd India BPO Summit 2004

The 2nd India BPO Summit 2004 The industry's own event grows in reach and stature even as it gets an overwhelming response Shyamanuja Das Friday, June 18, 2004 "Six months in this industry," as is often said, "is history." One year is another age altogether. So when VOICE&DATA bpOrbit organized the 2nd India BPO Summit, exactly one year after it made its debut in 2003, there was some apprehension on how the industry would respond. For the record, response to last year's event was overwhelming. But that was a different time, with hardly any other BPO event happening. Today, almost every month, if not every week, there is some BPO conference or the other. However, as the large number of quality delegates that turned up, it was proved yet again that while networking is what everyone likes to do a little bit in events, content stays right there at the top in terms of what makes people attend an event. "I go to a few more events to hang outside the conference hall; this is the only event I sit inside and listen," said the chief of HR in a top Bangalore BPO firm, "this is really different." BANGALORE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 PARTICIPANTS 9 1. Imran Ali, Director - IT 11. Salil Aggarwal, Services, Axa Business Consultant Services 2. Prakash Gurbaxani, 12. Sandip Sen, CEO, CEO, Transworks CustomerFirst 10 11 3. Col JAS Diaz, Director, 13. Shubhayu Sengupta, Mainstay Teleservices Head HR, Swiss Re Shared Service 4. R Mohan, CEO, Hinduja 14. Shiv Karan Singh, TMT Partner, ICCA 5. Rajiv Kucchal, 15. Raju Bhatnagar, VP - Business President, ICICI Onesource Transformation, Progeon 6. AKN Prasad Head, 16. Nandita Gurjar, VP, Operations, Optimus HR, Progeon Outsourcing 7. Satya Gopal, AVP, 17. Shyamanuja Das, Quality 24/7 Customer Associate Editor, Voice&Data 8. Akshaya Bhargava, 18. C Subramanya, Chief CEO, Progeon Security Officer, Hinduja TMT 9. DR R Salomon 19. Shekhar Mulatti, Sr Suresh, VP, HR, Hinduja VP & Country Head, TMT Greenpoint Mortgage 10. Kaushal Mehta, CEO, 20. Sabyasachi Motif Satyaprasad, Director Research, NeoIT 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 As many as four hundred executives from the BPO industry participated in this four-city event that saw 79 CXOs from the industry discussing challenges, issues, and opportunities in client acquisition, technology and infrastructure, HR, quality, operations, and the overall direction that the industry is taking. The event was organized as a series of panel discussions on-Strategy and The Big Picture, featuring CEOs; People and Process, featuring the chiefs of HR, operations, and quality; Technology and Infrastructure featuring the CTOs; and Client Acquisition and Relationship Management, featuring both CEOs and business development chiefs. The format was the same in all the four cities, only with different speakers. CHENNAI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 13. S Madhavan, President, Servion Global 8 PARTICIPANTS 9 1. N Venkatraman, VP, Mktg & Business Development, Allsec Technologies 2. Jessie Paul, Head, Marketing, iGATE Global 3. Sridhar Krishna, CEO, MM Imagine Technologies 11 13 15 14. Daniel Jebba Singh, VP - HR, Ajuba 15. R Venugopal, Head, Strategic Support, Lason India 4. Ranganath Iyengar, 16. Sanjeev Misra, VP, Partner SIIPL, Consulting Operations, Secova 5. T Jagannathan Director 17. Rajiv Kapoor, - TECHNOLOGY, Country Head, Ajuba SlashSupport 6. Ranjit Pisharoty, Sr 18. R Shantaram, GM VP, TECHNOLOGY, Lason HR, Sutherland Global India 7. V Chandrasekaran, Co- 19. Anu Sriram, COO, Founder & VP, Secova Integra Software 8. Bobby Verghese, GM - 20. Salil Aggarwal TECHNOLOGY, SlashSupport Consultant 9. S Balasubramaniam, 21. R Jagadish, CEO, GM - GSI, Sutherland Allsec Technologies Technologies 10. Shiv Karan Singh 22. Pradeep Nevatia, Partner ICCA MD, Lason India 11. Bharat Chadda 23. Kaushal Mehta, CEO, Country Manager Motif Sutherland Global 12. Srinivas Rao, Head, 24. Uma R Krishnan, Shared Services, Vision COO, Optimus Outsourcing Healthsource 10 12 14 16 17 18 19 20 13 14 15 16 Strategy sessions in the four cities saw the who's who of the CEOs participation and share a platform for the first time, and deliberating more on the issues of service delivery and focus. With increasing competition and pressure on margins, focus on specific verticals and processes was on top of the agenda for most CEOs of leading companies. This seems to be the point where there seemed to be a wide consensus among all the top honchos. Another issue that had a major mindshare among CEOs was the issue of managing costsespecially that of operations. DELHI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 PARTICIPANTS 9 11 13 1. Rajiv Seth, President, 12. Debasish Das, Vice Cyber Media Services President, Human Resource, Worldzen India 2. Sumit Bhattacharya, 13. Brian Smith, COO, Exec VP, HCL BPO Colwell & Salmon 3. Sanjiv Kapur, Head, 14. Vikas Bhalla, Vice BPO Patni Computer President, Quality, EXL Services 4. Ashish Taneja, VP, 15. S Varadarajan, Vice Vertex president, Talent Engagement and Development, Wipro Spectramind 5. David Vick, MD, 16. Salil Aggarwal, Worldzen India Consultant 6. Ranganath Iyengar, 17. Sujit Baksi, President, Partner, SIIPL Consulting Vcustomer 7. Asit Das 18. Dan Sandhu, CEO, Chief TECHNOLOGY Vertex India Architect, iGATE Global 8. Achal Kataria, Director 19. Raman Roy, IT, Hughes BPO Chairman and CEO, Wipro Spectramind 9. Vikas Gupta, Director 20. R Venkatesh Iyer, IT, Vcustomer President, NIIT Smartserve 10. Shyamanuja Das, 21. Prashant Sahni, CEO, Associate Editor, Voice & Tecnovate eSolutions Data 11. Sudhansu Saraf, 22. Shiv Karan Singh, Director, Global Process Partner, ICCA ExcellenCE, eFunds International 10 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 This is a direct result of attrition and the rising rupee. Also, building global service delivery capability is something that almost all major companies are looking at. However, barring a few, the companies have not yet implemented the plans. Onshore-delivery capability in target markets (like US and UK), though top of mind, has no practitioners yet. Interestingly, backlash hardly did find any mention. If anything came close to that, it was on the challenge of learning to handle the media. Everyone also agreed that India cannot compete on costs alone. It has to start selling around quality. With the CEOs emphasizing on service delivery, the chiefs of HR, quality, and operations in the session on People and Process, went into the details. Attrition and related issues, as expected, got the maximum minutes with both the panelist deliberating on it in-depth and the delegates asking a lot of questions. In fact, this was the topic on which maximum number of questions were asked at each of the four locations. The other issues that got a lot of attention from panelists were the challenges of managing night-time operations, issues of training, and finding middlelevel managers. The Technology and Infrastructure session saw a totally different focus this year with most technology chiefs stressing on the needs of making strategic use of technology to optimize client processes and thus create more value for the customers. Many companies have already started treading on this path and the panel discussions were live with examples of such applications of technology. The CTOs also deliberated on the need for using technology to manage other operational aspects of the business like: logistics, HR, and quality processes. MUMBAI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 PARTICIPANTS 9 1. Kaushal Mehta, CEO, 11. KS Kumar, Head Motif Operations, Sutherland Global 2. Sandeep Aggarwal, 12. B Raj Nair, Head Head, Sales, eFunds Operations, Transworks 10 International 3. Atul Kunwar, MD, eFunds International 11 13 4. PV Sreekanth, VP Marketing, Kale Consultants 5. Ranganath Iyengar, 15. Salil Aggarwal, Partner, SIIPL Consulting Consultant 6. Murali R, Chief 16. Jagdish Moorjani, Security Officer, Vice President, Transworks Transworks 7. Amit Bhingare, Sr 17. Aniruddha Joshi, Vice president and Center MD, Zenta Head, GTL 8. Sunil Kankal, CTO, 18. Sanjeev Das Gupta, Silgate Solutions CFO, Epicenter 9. Alok Shende, Head, 19. Shiv Karan Singh, TECHNOLOGY Practice Partner, ICCA Frost & Sullivan 10. Darshak Mehta, GM HR, Motif 13. Zarsis Merchant, Head, Management AssuranceS, EServe International 14. Hanuman Talwar, Deputy MD, Zenta 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 Most of the panelists in the Client Acquisition and Relationship Management session deliberated on how the expectation had grown with India delivering better. Also came out from the discussion was that bigger companies now are in a position to choose and focus. "We never said no to any potential client earlier. Now we are very selective," said a panelist. The mood was echoed by most of the bigger companies. The backlash is a shortterm problem, agreed most, while saying that it has some impact in the immediate future. Presented here, in pictures, is the four-city event.... The 2nd India BPO Summit 2004 Continued from page: 1 Shyamanuja Das Friday, June 18, 2004 EVENT EVENT GB Ravichandran of APC talks about enhancing the value of server rooms Manikandan from LG sharing his ideas about hardware solutions for the ITeS industry Saurabh Goel of Bharti Infotel talking about data connectivity solutions for the ITeS segment HIGHLIGHTS                No. of cities: 4 No. of delegates: 400 (approx) No. of distinct panelists: 79 (87 inclusive of duplication) No. of companies represented in the panels: 42 Companies that participated in the summit: 24/7 Customer Ajuba Allsec Technologies Axa Business Services Colwell & Salmon CustomerFirst CyberMedia Services (CaPS) eFunds International Epicenter eServe International           Mainstay Teleservices MM Imagine Technologies Motif NIIT Smartserve Optimus Outsourcing Patni Computer Hinduja TMT Hughes BPO iCall India ICICI Onesource           Progeon Secova Silgate Solutions SlashSupport Sutherland Technologies Swiss Re Shared Service Tecnovate eSolutions Transworks Vcustomer Vertex     EXL Services Greenpoint Mortgage GTL HCL BPO     iGATE Global Integra Software Kale Consultants Lason India     Vision Healthsource Wipro Spectramind Worldzen India Zenta Delegates listening to the panelists with rapt attention