The Indian Call Center Journey

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"The call center business appears to be going the dot-com way with a lot of big names pumping in dough. Ultimately, only the fittest will survive."

-A Mumbai based call center agent, in 2001.

Call Centers Fare Badly In the beginning of 1999, the teleworking industry had been hailed as 'the opportunity' for Indian corporates in the new millennium. In late 2000, a NASSCOM1 study forecast that by 2008, the Indian IT enabled services business2 was set to reach great heights. Noted Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scholar, Michael Dertouzos remarked that India could boost its GDP by a trillion dollars through the IT-enabled services sector. Call center (an integral part of IT-enabled services) revenues were projected to grow from Rs 24 bn in 2000 to Rs 200 bn by 2010. During 2000-01, over a hundred call centers were established in India ranging from 5000 sq. ft. to 100,000 sq. ft. in area involving investments of over Rs 12 bn. However, by early 2001, things seemed to have taken a totally different turn. The reality of the Indian call center experience was manifested in rows after rows of cubicles devoid of personnel in the call centers. There just was no business coming in.

In centers which did retain the employees, they were seen sitting idle, waiting endlessly for the calls to come. Estimates indicated that the industry was saddled with idle capacity worth almost $ 75-100 mn. Owners of a substantial number of such centers were on the lookout for buyers. It was surprising that call centers were having problems in recruiting suitable entry-level agents even with attractive salaries being offered. The human resource exodus added to the industry's misery. Given the large number of unemployed young people in the country, the attrition rate of over 50% (in some cases) was rather surprising.

The industry, which was supposed to generate substantial employment for the country, was literally down in the dumps - much to the chagrin of industry experts, the Government, the media and above all, the players involved. The future prospects of the call center business seemed to be rather bleak indeed.

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1] National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) is the apex body and umbrella organization for IT Software and Services industry in India.
2] Comprising of content, animation, engineering and design services, back office services, customer interaction services and transcription and translation services. Call centers were covered under the customer interaction services domain.

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