The call of enterprise

THE BEACON beckons - IT Enabled Services are providing major employment opportunities. This must be viewed in the specific scenario of vastly diminished career openings in the government sector in the new century.

For instance, many earnest graduates of yesteryear aspired for a job in a nationalised bank. Forget it, if such openings were involuntary, it is the age of VRS now and recruitment advertisements from this oasis are but a mirage now. India's burgeoning population causes apprehensions about massive unemployment in the not-too distant future and the 'Tech Opportunity' must be grabbed hold of with both hands.

India's colonial past has ensured at least two English speaking generations, perhaps the only edge we enjoy over countries like China. This virtue has been leveraged by the early birds in IT Enabled Services (ITES), who have attracted offshore work to India from the U.S. and are now looking towards Europe and Japan.

The majority of ITES work coming to India comprises Call Centres, Medical Transcription and Insurance Billing. In Chennai alone, ITES provided employment for around 2,500 young people, last year. Enthused by the rapid success, technological entrepreneurs in Chennai are scaling up to net more orders from their U.S. customers. The future seems bright for competent businesses and as the U.S. meltdown shows no signs of abating, at present, offshore work or "outsourcing" is expected to increase exponentially.

A visit to the Tidel Park building at around 8.00 p.m. any day is a revelation. For, it is time for the all-important night shift, handled by droves of bright, young people working intently through the late hours as the U.S. slumbers. Of course, throughout the day, there is enough work going on at the Tidel Park as well as in hundreds of locations all over Chennai.But, the sheer sight of the Tidel Park, all lit up like a Christmas tree is inspiring. The over-riding concern is that the next generation of Chennai should not let this well-lit opportunity pass like ships that sail by in the night.

Says N. Venkatraman, vice-president, Allsec Technologies, one of Chennai's biggest call centres, "We are constantly on the look- out to recruit agents who have a pleasant disposition and a neutral English accent." Considering that call centre agents handle customer enquiries and complaints from all over the world on behalf of the centre's overseas client, a graduate degree would suffice. An entry salary of around Rs. 5,000 a month is on offer and the soft perks include pick-up and drop off and free food at the snazzy cafeterias. Allsec's HR chief, R. Vaidyanathan puts it thus, "Career growth for good customer service agents is quick. We need good people all the time." Allsec is scaling up from a 100 to 500 seats pretty soon and ITES aspirants can contact them on Tel. Nos. - 4329640 and 4329641. Olympus Infotech CEO, V. Ayyappan is upbeat with the market opening up fast in Chennai for the company's KANA e-CRM software which drives customer-remote interactions. He opines, "We anticipate that the number of call centre seats will treble this year."

Padma Bhamidi, Marketing Coordinator at Olympus points to the customer service representatives developing specific human skills as they work with cutting edge technologies. "The undisguised pleasure that an agent feels when he or she is able to identify a regular caller by name with just a single 'good morning' cannot be described in mere words."

S. Srinivasan, MD of the Tidel Park-based Verimed Services (2540380\2540381) says, "The bunkum about the monotony of call centre work deserves to be consigned to a deep grave. After a couple of years, the agents develop a considerable insight into the way international IT business works." He is right and Allsec's Venkatraman adds, "It's largely the initiative and enthusiasm shown by each agent which make their own work more interesting and they thus manage to grab opportunities and move up the ladder." Sudhakar Rao, CEO, Horizon Technologies, is firm about this, "As well managed IT services companies diversify, they will obviously choose their own good people to manage higher responsibilities."

These opinions buttress the conviction held by Chennai entrepreneurs that our metro has vast potential as far as human resource is concerned and for computer professionals, the scene is even more attractive. Technical support over the trans- Atlantic\Pacific telephone lines affords agents higher starting salaries of even Rs. 12,000 a month.

The writing is on the wall - in addition to technical competence, the need of the hour is English-speaking competence and a patient, pleasant disposition towards customer interaction.

As long as the basics are available, Chennai ITES companies provide adequate training for a few months to make successes of the undeniable talent that exists in the city. And, you can bank on this unlike the Banking Services Recruitment Board.

M. SRINATH NARAYAN

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