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[Music]
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sandip thank you so much for joining us
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today thank you uh wanted to get your
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sense of uh how things are coming along
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in the uh Outsourcing World these days
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uh uh as we know the world has been
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through uh a financial crisis and an
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economic crisis uh how did that affect
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the Outsourcing business and where are
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the opportunities these days I think the
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Outsourcing business uh has had a
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paradoxical uh relationship with the
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economic uh
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crisis a lot of the large firms which
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were Outsourcing some of them went into
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trouble talking particularly of the bare
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STS of the world Etc so obviously the
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Outsourcing they did uh could affect it
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but what happened as a result of the
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crisis was people obviously looked at
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their balance sheets and said hey we
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need to you know make us more efficient
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reduce costs and a lot of firms who were
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not Outsourcing or at the very early
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stages looked at both Outsourcing and
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offshoring so a lot of companies who
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were not in the Outsourcing Paradigm
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came into the Outsourcing so that was
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one the other thing is companies like us
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have globalized so we are today in
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multiple countries and multiple
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geographies and uh what we've now
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realized is that so we are very big in
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India and the Indian economy still grew
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in spite of the uh the economic crisis
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we are big in uh for example in South
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Africa which saw a growth that helps you
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kind of you know mitigate your risks uh
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so the US is not just the only player in
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the market so I saw two Trends one was
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of companies which were not very much
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Outsourcing being either forced to
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Outsource or thinking of Outsourcing or
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embracing faing that Paradigm and one is
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that if you are completely diverse then
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you have different markets which are
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growing at different levels so overall I
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think uh uh you know we didn't do that
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badly the industry uh didn't have the
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kind of growth that it had in 2007 but I
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think 2010 you will see much more robst
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growths for the industry also can you
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give me a greater sense of aes's
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operations and the kinds of verticals in
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which you are active and again where do
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you see the opportunities going forward
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so ages is uh today uh one of the you
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know one of the paradigms we said is
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we've got to be Global in the global
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sense of the word so we have you know we
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kind of follow the Sun as we call it we
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have operations in Australia we have
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operations in Philippines we have India
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and Sri Lanka uh in Africa we have South
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Africa and Kenya uh we have in the US
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and then we have in Central America uh
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we have about 40,000 people uh in all
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these locations uh a primary Paradigm is
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what we call the customer life cycle
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management so from the time the customer
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comes into the system to managing him to
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customer service to customer retention
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to collections to customer data analysis
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so we we do there and within this
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Paradigm of customer life cycle analysis
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we are doing a lot of work for Telecom
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Financial Service Healthcare and travel
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and entertainment so those are really
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the big verticals I think there is uh
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growth in each of these sectors Telecom
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is booming in most of the world in India
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and Africa
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uh Financial Services is something which
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is growing uh everywhere and even in the
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US there is a greater propensity to
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Outsource Financial Services again
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because of cost and efficiency play uh
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health care I mean there's a huge you
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know with 32 million people who are
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going to get insurance over the next 10
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years there's a huge scope so for us the
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scope is going
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global uh frankly our our our motro has
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been by saying wherever there is
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economic commerce between people you
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need uh BPO so so our aim is to be at
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195 countries uh we currently at 15 uh
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theoretically at least and we are moving
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so we see scope in new geographies and
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each of these markets we see a huge
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scope as we go forward that's
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interesting can you give me an example
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say in the Telecom space of the kind of
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uh jobs that are coming your way and how
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do you compete with you know some of the
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more uh the the larger Outsourcing
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companies uh that that have been uh you
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know perhaps uh building their brands in
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this space for a long time I think in
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Telecom uh uh we've been doing this for
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a fair bit of time uh both in the US in
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Australia and UK and in India I think we
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again on the customer life cycle we do
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the entire bit we do a lot of customer
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acquisition through a variety of ways
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whether it is Voice or email or direct
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mail we do customer support uh we do
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tech support we do a lot of back office
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so tomorrow if you want to say hey I
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need a cell phone connection let's say a
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prepaid connection then there is a lot
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of activation we to be done before your
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cell phone starts working or you are
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activated in the system so we do all of
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that our work uh we then do uh
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collections uh we do customer retention
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so again uh you know we do we do the
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entire process uh uh you know for for
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chelom uh the other question that you
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asked I think in a lot of countries like
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India we have a huge recognition I think
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in in in the US and we are a we are a
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multinational company but we are based
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in India and we indian-owned but we have
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5,000 people in the US and that's
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something I think we've got to build the
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brand a little more let people know that
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listen this is a 40,000 people company
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and a company which has 5,000 people in
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the US which really even the big it
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Majors like an infosis or VPO will not
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have so yes I think it's a little bit of
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brand recognition and brand building uh
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that we also uh need to do how how are
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you going about building your brand I
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think in a variety of ways uh one is to
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look at industry formats so recently
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there was the International Association
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of Outsourcing in Florida so we were
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very prominent there the IOP as we said
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we take part in a lot of uh Niche
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industry events like the healthcare we
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took part in a couple of conferences
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Telecom uh collections debt that's
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number two third what we are doing is we
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are also trying to uh uh you know look
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at it we we we we spoke at a frost and
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Salan conference I spoke we're very big
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with nascom we try to do a collaboration
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between nascom and here in the US so
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primarily using industry forums industry
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bodies trade uh exhibitions and of
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course uh being present say at a school
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of learning like won are all part of
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helping to build the brand uh well uh uh
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one of the points that was made uh
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during an earlier session at the Borton
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India economic forum is that in the BP
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space uh it's very clear that the the
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the emerging trend is no longer related
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to uh labor Arbitrage uh you know or a
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race to a bottom for the lowest price
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uh that much more the competitive
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Advantage is Shifting towards value
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added Services uh and and building
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Greater value through providing new and
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Innovative services to clients uh to
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what degree do you see that happening in
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your portfolio of services and can you
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give us any examples so I think I would
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uh say you know this value added
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Services is a bit of a cliche uh I think
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the the trick is to do both today what
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has happened and you're absolutely right
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uh you know the the lowest cost is is
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not just the value proposition and in
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fact India is not low cost anymore there
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are countries which are low cost than
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India but I think there's a market for
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doing a kind of work where you get huge
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economies of scale there are good
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margins in the business and what we've
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done in India to keep the cost Advantage
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for example move from a tier one city to
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a tier 2 city which is a huge cost
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advantage to see that we we have a cost
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advantage and I think that's that's a
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business and that's Pro so you know
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there's no good or bad business it's a
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business is it profitable does it make
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sense but having said that it's
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important to have a much more holistic
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relationship with the customer and
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therefore you need to do much more than
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what you're doing so just to give you an
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example in all these processes uh let's
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say let's do something let's say in the
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financial services sector we started
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with customer support and voice but now
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we do processing so we do claims
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processing uh we do uh uh you know
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things like like uh uh medical coding
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medical billing so you you know once
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you've been engaging with the customer
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you've got a foot in the door by maybe
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which is not the highest value but that
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allows you to work with the customer
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understanding his process understanding
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his business you can then do much more
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of that business so if you look at us we
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started as a call center uh 5 years back
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100% of a business call center today it
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is less than it's about 65% 35% of it is
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back office processing data analytics
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which we started to do and I think so I
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think not to completely ignore I mean
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you can make a nano and a Jaguar is our
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philosophy uh so you keep doing that do
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it at do it at the right cost get the
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right margin but with your new existing
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customers new customers give them a
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variety of services so that you have a
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holistic relationship with them so that
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you have relationship at multiple points
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and that makes the business more sticky
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at the end you know you raised a very
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interesting point about about managing
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your costs by moving to the you know
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moving away from tier one cities to tier
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two two cities uh and also the fact that
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uh the Outsourcing business India is no
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longer the the lowcost
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provider uh do you have the skills As
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you move from say one Center to the
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other do you find enough people with the
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kind of skills that are needed to do the
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kind of work you do and also globally
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which are the emerging centers for BP
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and uh that that offer the kind of value
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uh best value for uh money and what does
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this mean for India as a comparative uh
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source of Advantage so I think yes it's
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import uh you know you need to choose
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the right centers uh in some of our
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centers for very specialized work we've
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taken people from outside who come in uh
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you know who stay there so uh for
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example uh we wanted uh you know we do
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some work uh for French speaking uh for
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some European company now you know and
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we then we realiz whether we do it in a
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Bangalore or say a smaller City like
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myour it's still difficult to get the
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same guy so we've got a lot of people
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from the Ivory Coast which is a French
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speaking nation and they speak French so
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we said it doesn't matter whether we
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relocate them to Bangalore myour but
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myour is cheaper for us and so you need
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to do a little bit of management but you
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need to choose the right City so there
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are lowcost cities which have good
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universities so two in the South I'm I'm
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mentioning a couple of cities like myor
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and Mangalore good University Systems
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you get students St uh so that that that
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is that is something that you have to
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choose and clearly do the other thing is
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uh uh you know U countries like uh let
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us say uh Sri Lanka countries like
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Vietnam countries like Kenya countries
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like Ghana so we have an operation in
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Kenya uh which is another lowcost
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country uh good Affinity to the UK uh we
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we've just been exploring Hana Egypt uh
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you know we've been looking at
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operations in Egypt so some of these are
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are markets
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uh where there is uh which are other
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lowcost markets uh which can certainly
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uh work with India and be a challenge to
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uh the cost structure at least in India
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uh how serious is the policy challenge
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these days uh especially when
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governments start
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funding uh businesses which seems to
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have happened quite a bit uh in the
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aftermath of the financial crisis uh
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politicians are always concerned about
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jobs uh uh has that made the policy
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environment any more difficult for boo
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companies these days so I think I think
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uh there is there is there is a little
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bit of a challenge but there is also a
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little bit of difference between
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rhetoric and reality uh politicians of
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any stripe anywhere in the world are
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concerned with public opinion and
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therefore we need to be sensitive to it
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but also uh companies whether government
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funded or otherwise have to be
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profitable so there are two kind of
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Divergent strains of thought so
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Outsourcing has continued but uh we
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believe u also that listen if you are
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out offshoring from the US you should
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have a presence in that country so we
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have grown our us presence we believe
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there are certain kinds of jobs which
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have to be in the US because of security
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reasons because of policy reasons and
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frankly When in Rome be like Romans so
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our policy has been yes it will not
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fundamentally affect the shift to
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Outsourcing but we are sensitive and we
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believe that if there is a country where
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there is a lot of business we are
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getting say in the US just just to give
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an example we need to have a big
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presence in the US and we need to see
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how to grow that presence and that's
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what we are doing uh just one last
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question if you were to look out over
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the next four to 5 years uh where do you
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see ages going and uh you know where
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would you want to
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be I think I see ages being more Global
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I think we want to be truly Global uh
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because for two things one is there are
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opportunities in every market and for us
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one of the differences as opposed to
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other companies
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is we look at the local market in these
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countries one of the reasons we've grown
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is that we are by far the largest call
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center in India and the largest BPO in
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India so we've taken the Indian market
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we are very big in the South African
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domestic market and that's a growing
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market so we see multiple geographies a
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to give a customer a choice uh say a Us
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customer where he wants to be number two
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to grow the local market uh so that's
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one thing we want to do I think we've
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been growing in size uh I think our
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choice has been to even on a revenue
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number to be over a billion dollarss not
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so much for the number per se we are
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currently about 700 million uh because I
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think if you are large if you have the
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scope and the size then you get a seat
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at the table for any major Outsourcing
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that happens so I think that's really
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our scope to be credible and large in
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size and to be truly Global thank you so
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much for speaking with us really been a
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pleasure thank
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you
