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Rumors did the rounds that IBM is looking at putting its BPO division, IBM Daksh, on the block. Even as IBM denied the mounting speculations and rubbished off the rumors, the industry was abuzz that it was looking for buyers. The fact that even after the IBM acquisition, Daksh had not evolved much beyond a call center, fueled the speculations.

There was yet another dampener for IBM DakshDelta Airlines pulled out from its five-year long back office relation with Daksh. This contract alone would have fetched IBM Daksh about $50 mn till now (the billing rates were around $11 per hour five years back). But, more importantly, it meant uncertaintly for about 500 employees working on the Delta project. IBM Daksh soon managed to shift them to the United Airlines contract.

The mounting speculations about an impending sell off or the future of running primarily a call center, however, did not prevent IBM Daksh from scaling up. With 20,000 people across seventeen delivery centers, it was one of the biggest employers in the DQ BPO Top 20 list. What helped IBM Daksh, to an extent, on this massive recruitment process was its collaboration with IBM Research Labs to develop an innovative HR tool called Sensi that enabled expeditious recognition of voice patterns and their adaptation for voice-based processes within a BPO.

Another positive was the emergence of IBM Daksh as an HR breeding ground whereby it gave opportunities to its people for acquiring bigger roles at the senior management level throughout IBM. Sample the movements from IBM Daksh into bigger roles within the IBM organization. Vikas Nanda moved from being an EVP and GM of the BFSI unit at IBM Daksh to the leader for financial services sector for IBM BTO Asia Pacific. Chief quality officer at IBM Daksh, CH Murthy has now taken the mantle at the Asia Pacific level including the Philippines center. Amitabh Ojha who was earlier the CTO, IBM Daksh now has an enhanced role in IBM India Research Labs. DQ

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