As we pan the Chennai BPO skyline further another BPO that merits attention is Allsec Technologies. Allsec is an integrated BPO and voice-based customer contact management company headquartered in Chennai. The company was the first among its peers to come out with an IPO in India, and is listed in the NSE and BSE. Its service delivery facilities are located in Chennai, Bangalore and Trichy. Says R Vaithiyanathan, SVP, Operations and HR, Allsec Technologies: "We have 2,500 seats and over 3,000 employees. Allsec is one of the earliest players here. Chennai has been an excellent location and it continues to meet our growing expectations. We have adequately scaled our business bases here though we have presence in other locations as well, as part of our strategy."

Advantage Chennai
The success stories out of here for back office work are expected to bring in other large-scale tech support kind of work to Chennai. One such company is Cybernet SlashSupport (CSS), a Technology Operations Management (TOM) company offering high-end advanced tech support and infrastructure management services. Says Shiva Ramani, CEO, Cybernet SlashSupport: "Chennai is a tier-1 BPO location and has been growing rapidly to address the needs for outsourced services. Historically, Chennai's cost, skill, and work ethic balance has attracted high-end services, and, so far, it has scaled with the rapid growth in the BPO/ITeS sector in the past three years."

Companies are also scaling up and expanding their operations in Chennai. Sutherland has ambitious expansion plans for Chennai, and its headcount is expected to scale up considerably from the current 6,000. Some domain-specific entities like Secova are also expanding out of Chennai. Secova has announced plans to open its second knowledge center here.

Most BPO companies feel that when compared to other destinations in the south, Chennai offers better infrastructure. The key growth factors for Chennai have been its ability to cater to the needs of the new economy in terms of factors such as critical mass of human resources with required skill-sets, competitive business environment, operating cost advantages, scalability, and low cost, quality real estate, telecom connectivity and provision for redundancy, quality of urban infrastructure, city governance and transparency.

The BPO companies operating out of Chennai have set the tone for more developments. They today serve as proof-points for companies which are scouting for setting up BPO operations in India or planning to scale up. With more high-end analytical work happening from here, KPO is also poised to grow in Chennai.

While Chennai might not be in the list of top 3 BPO locations yet in India, its strength of attracting larger investments in IT will act as the catalyst. Meanwhile, the Government must address the infrastructural issues plaguing the city in the last one year: the ambitious IT corridor expressway has still not been completed, and many IT companies have been complaining about the slow pace of work. While the government has encouraged private IT parks, it is going slow on improving the overall infrastructure of the city.

Despite these issues, Chennai is well poised on parameters like power, connectivity, and cost of living.

Shrikanth G
shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in

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