Dear Sir,
Your light-hearted post was fun to read, I am sure, for most people. It repeats some platitudes about out-sourcing, which got me thinking. The result was to put me into a bad temper, thinking about the peculiar and hugely mistaken impressions that many around the world, including you, hold in their minds.
I have written certain comments below after calming myself down, repeating certain soothing formulae to myself, and taking my hyper-tension medication. If some edge of bilious bad temper is still apparent, please consider this an explanation.
thats the ONLY thing we are beating India at.....
Victory, my left foot.
Dear young FSLN, it is all about numbers. During a tenure in Hungary, managing a real-time software development centre, the outstanding quality of Hungarian software engineers was such that it became an increasing source of worry and concern: those guys were clearly, sharply ahead of the team of 2,000 that I managed concurrently in India. The solution came to me when, wearing my other (head of one the Indian development teams) hat, I received an enquiry for an east-coast insurance organisation, one of the top organisations in the US. My first inclination was to try and take the maximum work into Hungary; the numbers I could commit were so dismal that a little bulb lit up, and the out-sourcing thing became much clearer.
Hungary is a little country of slightly over 10 million people. I am camped far from home in a rural area these days, but spend much time in a large city. The size of the city is around 12 milllion people. The number of people working on call centres here (not my line; I am from software development and IT services, specifically the real-time, within that, avionics industry) is a tiny fraction of its potential, not even 5%. In other words, there is scope for growth of 20 times in this city alone.
Taking not Hungary but a tract of land of 200 kms width, centred around an imaginary axis from Riga to Athens, I estimated a programmer population of 150,000 (trust me on the arithmetic, which doesn't matter anyway, other than to illustrate a point). That is a fraction of the number that can be deployed in India. After 'getting it' about the insurance company's needs being met from Hungary, I had to fall back on our Indian centre; there, it was possible to produce a team of 300 engineers in three months, and to ramp it up to 500 in six months. The equivalent in call centre terms, given the radically lower levels of technical competence, allowing for language training and proficiency, is about five times larger; my guess is (as an outsider) that a team of 1,500 call centre 'agents' can be deployed in three months, and that this can become 3,000 in six months. If required, in one centre.
Nicaragua, a friendly country whose Ambassadors have always been hugely impressive people of culture and distinction, is about 5.9 million people; you may deflate the Hungarian experience proportionately. You might like to look up the total population of Bangalore, my home town, just for reference; you might then consider that the 'export' turnover of Bangalore to Chennai to Hyderabad is 4 is to 2 is to 1; and Chennai is a much larger city, while Hyderabad is about the same size, but better laid out, far more 'expandable', thanks to enlightened political leadership. But these are not the call centre hubs; for language reasons (I barely managed to avoid writing linguistic reasons!), it is Gurgaon that is the geographical focus for call centres. An entire city has been built around the industry; however much I loathe it, and its sociology, and its consumerist ambience (and so on - left alone, my rant would run to pages), it is a fact, and very significant sectors are handled there, with smaller centres located in the three southern cities, in Mumbai and Pune, and in Delhi and Chandigarh. Not to forget Kolkata.
Only China, once its massive drive to learn English starts yielding results (in another two to three years), will have anywhere near the same potential.
Call Centers:
Nicaragua is located in a perfect time zone with the USA(Central time)..
India is half a world away...
Yeah, right.
You sound pretty Americanised. Do you watch horror movies? If you do, and have got tired of buzzsaws spraying blood over the lens, do this for some fun: look up the number of Indian software and outsourcing operations located in, for example, Guatemala /GUESS what the time zone IS?
/, Ecuador, even, I believe on the basis of a dimly-remembered conversation on the fringes of an industry conference, Nicaragua.
English:
Nicaragua 80% of Call centers guys and girls have lived in the u.s.a part of their lives(I lived there for 12 years and I was 13 when I left nicaragua) so naturally our english sound more familiar to our customers
India: most of Call center guys and girls are well educated IT type guys that never had the need to leave their poor country(unlike me I am only a high school grad.. )
Round objects.
Should I laugh or cry?
Most call centre cannon fodder comes from liberal arts (the maximum), commerce, science backgrounds. Why would an IT trained engineer go into call centres when there is a separate IT industry plotting 24 * 7 on how to grab him or her? Consider that I have had the doubtful privilege of interviewing civil engineers who had dropped their line of work, done a bucket-shop programme in IT and were sitting in front of me, looking hopeful that they would get a fresher's position in the industry.
There are so many graduates that there hasn't yet been the need to tap the much larger numbers of high_school_graduates_only; call centres can afford to use graduates, sometimes even post-graduates. Legal support centres actually contain law graduates; medical transcription centres of the better kind contain a thin layer of medically-knowledgeable graduates (typically pharmacists, or burned-out medical students).
And so on and so forth.
so most of you guys learned english in college or schools so your english is not that familiar to our customers,
even if you have those expencive natvie english teachers , nothing teaches you english better than lots of American girlfriends...
Of course. Of course. You are so right. As usual.
You thundering idiot.
Costs in India are such that call centre operators can employ full-time employees with localisation skills. That is, they can train the person concerned to speak with a local accent for any part of the English-speaking world. Consider (the thought makes me faint and nauseous) the possibility of supporting a respondent with a well-coached Yorkshire accent. Yes, I know, a sickening prospect; but I've heard of worse.
Pay:
Nicaragua: we get paid peanuts(500$ monthly)...
India: I bet you guys get paid a whole lot more ..
Try again, young FSLN. You've gone into dangerous territory; I don't even want to go there. You don't have a clue, do you? $500 a MONTH? You spoilt brat. Imagine getting paid
that much!
OK, I'm joking - a little bit. Starters get $300 or its equivalent, and don't know what to do with that wealth; they generally go berserk, till their new credit cards max out the first time. They do get to fancy-schmancy figures like $500 a month, but I have more Elm Street horrors waiting for you.
Call centres are not a career. Kids do it for money, for independence, and often spend the money getting educated for completely different careers, joining those others in 5 to 7 years' time.
and thats how tiny Nicaragua beats India....
...and one more Indian (industry) bites the dust.
This is the first time I have used one of these ridiculous smileys, which should show you how, um, entertained I am.
Warm regards, and congratulations,
) so most of you guys learned english in college or schools so your english is not that familiar to our customers, even if you have those expencive natvie english teachers , nothing teaches you english better than lots of American girlfriends...
