ITCOT seminar on call centre business

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, SEPT. 14. The business of call centres to serve the outsourcing requirements of multinationals and Indian companies is expected to grow at an annual compounded growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent, according to the Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organisation of Tamil Nadu Ltd (ITCOT), a joint venture of Central and State-level financial institutions and banks.

The bulk of the expected $142 billion global market for IT- enabled services by 2008 is likely to be accounted for by customer interaction services which form a major component of the call centre business. In India, as of March 1999, there were 440 call centres and 9,000 agent positions, mostly in the banking, telecommunications, airlines, hospitality and courier industries.

Most of the call centres initially were in-house centres catering to companies' own customers. The business, however, got a boost when MNCs began to outsource their labour-intensive activities like payroll accounting, inventory management, customer care, credit appraisals etc from India.

General Electric at Gurgaon and a British Airways subsidiary in Mumbai are among the best known call centres in the country.

In view of the projected growth of the business, ITCOT is organising a two-day national seminar on "investment opportunities in the call centre business" here on September 27 and 28. Experts from various institutions will deal with themes like switch-based technology solutions for call centres, integration solutions, WAN solutions, factors determining the success of call centres, human resource aspects, quality standards and project financing, says an ITCOT release. The seminar will be held at the Hotel Radha Park Inn.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Towards efficiency in trading
Next     : MphasiS restructures European operations