A US-based notebook user facing problems with his machine calls the Dell helpline. The call lands at the Dell exchange in the US. A switch then brings it through one of Wipro Spectramind’s 200 T1s (each T1 has 24 voice channels) into the Wipro Spectramind center in the US, compressing it from the 64K to 8K. Apart from saving bandwidth cost this way, echo suppression and noise cancellation are also taken care of at this stage. Routers then direct the call through the VSNL’s private lease circuit pipes to the Wipro Spectramind center in India. Identical equipment located at the Indian site then decompresses the call from 8K to 64K and directs it towards the ACD (automatic call distributor) and DNIS (dialled number identification software). The DNIS recognizes the fact that the call is for a Dell helpline and that too, specific to the company’s notebook division. Pre-defined algorithms ensure that this call is to be directed to call center agents logged on to the Dell cue.

The process of matching the call to the cue becomes even more complex when it involves multi-skilling— agents who are equipped to handle more than one type of query. If an agent is better at handling one type of query, the software ensures that calls with that kind of query are directed toward that agent.

Meanwhile, the CTI (computer telephone integration) software has also swung into action. It has picked up the fact that the caller is an American Express Premium customer and by the time the call is answered by the agent, details about the customer’s past transactions flash onto the agent’s screen. An Indian voice, replete with the American twang that the customer is used to, greets him by name and even makes small talk about the new TV set he purchased the week before…

That’s one of the best examples of the application of information technology for you. Sophisticated technology carrying one of India’s fastest growing industries on its shoulders—barely IT literate professionals interacting with the world, blissfully unaware of the technical wizardry that enables them to do so. "It’s like the dashboard in a car," beams Wipro Spectramind president and CEO Raman Roy, citing one of his favorite metaphors. "People who drove Ambassadors and Fiat Padminis now zip around in fancy cars powered by far different technology. The dashboard just has a few more buttons and as long as the ignition key gets the engine running, the driver couldn’t care less what technology has packed into the machine." Roy should know, having done it twice before. After setting up and scaling the operations at American Express and kick starting the GE success story, Roy set up Spectramind, subsequently bought over by Wipro.

Growing at a heady 67%, the IT-enabled services segment is estimated to be worth $611 billion by 2005 globally with India expected to address nearly 40% of this market. By 2008, the total ITeS market in India is expected to surge to around $17 billion.

Even as Roy dwells on how thousands of contact center agents simply click on icons and provide information that technology lays on a platter for them, he goes at great lengths to convey that the information technology department and its chief have the last word in the BPO (business process outsourcing), also called the ITeS (IT enabled services) industry. He cites a recent incident involving the use of a mobile hard disk. "We were taken in by this gadget and were quite keen to use it. But the CTO expressed reservations, citing security concerns. All of us instantly backed off," explains Roy. Not surprisingly, Wipro Spectramind’s CTO Sunil Gujral is a person who has been associated with Roy right since his American Express days.

The software challenge
Enterprises in other verticals can afford to launch operations and install the IT backbone in due course of time. But for a BPO company, the question of an "IT implementation" does not arise at all. Operations can only begin after the IT infrastructure is in place. "When the world first started looking at India to outsource its BPO operations, infrastructure was the first confidence builder. The reliability of networks was the key and understandably so. Imagine the frustration of the end-customer in case there is a latency in time or there is an echo when he dials a help line!" says Sandeep Phanasgaonkar, CIO, GE Capital Services India.

Now, in 2002, these reliability problems are reasonably under control. "But even in the future, IT’s challenge would be to transcend hurdles at the local level and have things up and running, always. If this happens—always—it will really give the world confidence in India’s abilities," says Phanasgaonkar, outlining the larger picture. As for the micro issues, most of the hardware used in the BPO segment is commoditised. Phanasgaonkar explains that the choice of hardware is usually driven by standards set by the company worldwide as well deals offered by vendors. When it comes to software, a significant portion of the apps used, is developed in-house.

"The software tools and products currently available globally are often not suitable for Indian conditions. These products are aimed at minimizing human intervention, given that human resources are so expensive in the West. As a result, these products are extremely expensive, with just the licensing costs running into $500-700 per contact center seat, " explains Satish Gujral, vice president, technology, Wipro Spectramind. "In India, we’d rather have more human effort given that the quality of manpower available is much better and at a lower cost and focus on maximizing bandwidth utilization instead," says Roy.

However, the problem is that clients have got used to having these technologies and demand that contact centers in India have them before they award contracts. As a result, the focus is on replicating technology available overseas. For instance, clients in UK/USA insist that contact centers have a predictive dialer. A predictive dialer simply searches through a directory and dials a number, thus saving the agent’s time. Given the manpower resources in India, this would require minimal extra effort. "Instead, we had to train our staff on the technology required for predictive dialers as no support was available for the dialer in the whole of Asia!" informs Roy.

Another critical issue with the software available currently, is that it does not support different time zones. At the end of a work shift, an agent in India logs in data regarding transactions and puts it into the summary bucket for that day. However, the software is not able to match this time period with the time zone difference at the client site usually located in the US or the UK. This means that the transaction records do not match. Legislation in the US demands that customer interaction related to sales of goods/services has to be recorded and stored for a period of seven years. The catch is that an interaction can only be recorded with the customer’s permission. And in case the customer refuses permission to record, that particular interaction in which he refuses permission has to be recorded!

Candle for the client
But it is precisely this strategy of providing the client exactly what he wants, (even if it means rocking the boat back home) that has ensured the success of Indian BPO. If the client is more comfortable having predictive dialing, make sure you have it!

One of the key requirements of clients is that response across contact centers is consistent. This being the case, contact centers are faced with the strange situation of ensuring that agents do not answer queries better than their counterparts located elsewhere! For instance, tracking systems at Wipro Spectramind found that 20% of Dell queries deal with mundane issues and that automating these replies would result in quicker service for customers. "Dell accepted that the suggestion was good but refused to implement immediately it as it would require similar implementation at its other centers across the world," explains Wipro Spectramind’s Gujral. Even when it comes to operating platforms, clients are more comfortable with BPO companies using the OS’ and versions they themselves have run on.

In contact center parlance, there are four levels of answering queries for customers. Centers in India usually answer queries at Level 1 and 2. The fourth level includes sending out patches and highly specialized queries tackled by the technically qualified helpdesk at the client end. At least during the initial stages, clients are wary of letting contact centers tackle Level 3 queries, though the agents are qualified to answer them. Spectramind decided to use technology to prove that it could handle queries a grade higher.

"Six sigma has taught us to measure things and that answers leap out of numbers. Every time there was a Level 3 query, we would recommend what the reply should be and this data would be calibrated. At the end of a certain time period, we could tell the client that almost all our recommendations had been accepted. The trust levels leapfrogged after this and we graduated to Level 3 work," explains Roy.

Similarly, every transaction of every employee is recorded and assessed for quality of service, accuracy and handling time.

The performance of each employee based on these parameters can be viewed by all. This is then used to identify the reason why some agents perform better. Customer comfort is also the reason why Gujral says BPO companies need to be brand-conscious while buying hardware and software. At GE of course, IT infrastructure comes from GE’s global standardized technology stack. "All these products and tools have been evaluated and all GE companies are expected to comply with these standards," says Phanasgaonkar.

Secrets and service
Clients always have a host of queries before signing a contract and the prime concern is maintaining the security of their network and protecting the privacy of their customers. BPO company agents are connected to the client’s LAN (local area network) and are privy to company specific information. For this reason, customers insist on BPO companies creating dedicated networks for them. With over 22 major customers, Wipro Spectramind runs 18 networks within the company’s own network. Two firewalls, one at the client end and one at the contact center end protect each of these networks.

"It is very expensive to have a physical air gap between networks. Instead, the data sits on shared infrastructure, but is encrypted," explains Gujral. For instance, credit card companies are very strict about contact centers maintaining separate enclosures for agents handling their queries. Their regulations demand that surveillance cameras installed in the building do not focus on the computer screens of these agents. In fact, agents are not allowed to carry writing material inside, nor are they allowed Internet access. All these precautions are taken to ensure that no credit card numbers are jotted down or transmitted via e-mail.

At the same time, companies need to deal with a workforce that wants Internet access. "We have set up Internet kiosks in the building where employees can access mail and surf the Net for while," says Gujral pointing out that there are other clients for whom 24x7 Internet access is crucial as agents need to respond to queries dealing with websites. Architecting such a network with conditional Net access is a challenge too.

The security issue is equally important for captive BPO units like GE’s, but in a different way. With all clients being GE group companies across the world, the need for splitting networks does not arise, but the challenge is to protect data from external forces. "Our GECIS network is different from other GE networks. But we are expected to comply with the global company standards of ensuring information security. This calls for strict software and hardware controls and varying degrees of encryption. Our network monitoring systems tell us when something may go wrong or if someone is trying to intrude," says Phanasgaonkar.

The Big B: Back-up
Gujral pinpoints 24x7 availability of network and confidentiality as the two main challenges that IT faces in BPO. "When we upgrade, changes have to be implemented even as the system is running online. Clients are demanding five nines (99.999%) uptime, which works out to about four minutes of downtime a month," says Gujral. This effectively means that if the network comes down in any of the centers, the calls automatically have to be routed to another center, without the customer ever knowing that this has happened. When it comes to back-up, the BPO industry has effectively dealt with the power issue. Companies usually run their own power in perennial problem areas like New Delhi. Even in cities like Mumbai where power cuts are rare, there are double backups—two generator sets that swing into action in case the two running fail!

From proposal to partnership
Phanasgaonkar firmly believes that the future will see IT focusing on the cost-productivity benefit. He cites a recent case of process reengineering his team had undertaken, which resulted in significantly increasing productivity. "Earlier, images were scanned at the US site, then pushed here, resulting in a time lapse. Now, people can directly access the data warehouse and actually track where the image is and also effectively tell the client how long it will take to respond to his query.

Remote processing has become a reality today, but Indian BPO companies are saddled with software that often does not suit its requirements. Already, Indian BPO companies are being roped in as beta partners for launching software in this segment. But in future, Roy believes that the inputs of Indian companies will be crucial to the design and development of software in this sector. "Wipro Spectramind makes over 3 million customer contacts every month. These are volumes that cannot be ignored. Global companies will be partnering with Indian BPO companies to design and develop software for the BPO industry," he says.

From being cooped up in a windowless backroom to heading a department that influences business strategy, the CIO has come a long way. BPO is one industry segment in which the Indian CIO has managed to establish a key presence in the boardroom. If Roy’s prediction were to come true, it won’t be long before he is elevated as an instrument for shaping the global BPO software industry as well.

MANJIRI KALGHATGI