With growing competition and demand for migration to converged voice and data networks in the BPO industry, the hosted contact center model is far more appealing to the growing number of companies because of its cost saving, advanced, and flexible nature. The technology, according to experts, enables companies to focus on their core business instead of managing the complex technology infrastructure. In order to provide advanced networking and technical expertise, hosted solutions seem to be the most appropriate solution in today's scenario.

To discuss the changing demands, challenges, relevance of hosted contact centers, and business and capacity expansion needs of the BPO industry, VOICE&DATA brought together the best minds from the BPO industry in its 6th BPO Summit, “Hosted Contact Centers-The Winning Formula”, spanning four cities.

The first part of the four-city event took place in New Delhi, where experts discussed recent trends in the industry and the significance of hosted contact centers in a detailed and comprehensive manner. The event begun with a welcome note by Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia, followed by keynote address by Sukant Srivastva, managing director, Convergys.

The first session was on business and capacity expansion challenges. The panelists were Sudhir Agarwal, COO, Aegis BPO; S Vishwanathan, COO, NIIT Smartserve; Navin Joshua, executive director, vCustomer; Ankush Gangwani, product manager, Tata Communications; JB Singh, national sales manager, Voice Business, Sify Technologies; Sukant Srivastva, managing director, Convergys; and Salil Agarwal, practice head, ECS.

In the keynote address Sukant Srivastva, MD, Convergys said, “In today's world of cutthroat competition, customers are eagerly looking forward to an enhanced experience, in a cost effective way. While improving customer experience is significant, it is also important to analyze the cost. Therefore, we need to deploy effective technologies that empower agents to deliver superior customer experience.” He further added, “The important part is to find ways to improve productivity of the agent in terms of providing them intelligent voice assistance capabilities, so that an agent can offer better customer experience without any hurdle.”

The second session included panelists Ashok Wahi, director, Group IT, Omnia BPO; Sunil Gujral, CTO, Quatrro; PV Ramadas, VP, Technology, HCL Technologies; PC Jain, GM, Technology, Wipro BPO; Subbiah Gopalkrishanan, technology leader, IBM Daksh; Yazad Boga, head, IT/BPO Verticals, Tata Communications; and Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, ICT Publications, Cyber Media.

The Show Begins: (L-R) Sudhir Agarwal of Aegis, Vishwanathan of NIIT Smartserve, Navin Joshua of vCustomer, Salil Agarwal of ECS, Sukant Srivastva of Convergys, Ankush Gangwani of Tata Communications, and JB Singh of Sify Technologies

After exciting rounds of discussions and comments, industry experts came to the conclusion that although the hosted contact center would prove to be the best business model for BPOs in the current scenario, it would still be important to safeguard business interests as well. And a careful assessment of issues such as data security, reliability, and control should be made before going for the same. According to panelists, it is important to look for a hosted provider who will offer best processes and mechanisms to ensure that they have the data which is protected and keep on investing in their security technologies.

Changing Scenario
The Bangalore event started with a key note by Aman Mustafa, VP & country head, India, ACS Global Operations Support, followed by presentations by Yazad Boga, head, IT /BPO Verticals, Tata Communications; AK Divatia, CMO, Procall; and Shankar Balu, director, South Asia & Middle East, Aspect Software key.

Delivering the note, Aman Mustafa, VP and country head, ACS Global Operations Support asserted, “The BPO sector has created a vast scope of growth opportunities in the past. Outsourcing in any manner requires a thinking process, but it makes sense because of the cost advantage and flexibility factor.”

In Progress: (L-R) Ashok Wahi Of omnia, Sunil Gujral of Quatrro, PV Ramadas of HCL Technologies, Prashanto K Roy of Cybermedia, Subbiah Gopalkrishnan of IBM, Yazad Boger of Tata Communications, and PC Jain of Wipro

The panelists for the first session of the event included Swaminathan Dandapani, senior VP, Infosys BPO; Ganesh Kumar, VP, Operations, e4e; Rangaraj S, head, Quality and Security Controls, HTMT Global Solutions; Sharad Junghare, COO, Aditya Birla Minacs, Apac; Ankush Gangwani, product manager, Tata Communications; JB Singh, general manager, Voice Business, Sify Technologies; Aman Mustafa, VP and country head, ACS Global Operations Support; and Shyamanuja Das, editor, Dataquest.

As the BPO industry is growing, there is substantial rise in demand of sky-scraping volumes and quality of services from the customer perspective. Furthermore, companies also need to make profits for incessant development. Also, the mounting competition from other Asian neighbors can put a real time pressure on India.

After much discussion during the session, experts came to a conclusion that it was very important to progress in delivering customer services in an advanced manner. The panel strongly recommended the need to manage the process and functionality in an enhanced way.

The second session's panelists included Anil Bajpai, senior VP and head, Integrated Technology and Operational Delivery, iGate Solutions; Anand Talwai, executive VP, e4e; N Gajapathy, CTO, Aditya Birla Minacs, Apac; Pradeep Sreedharan, head, Service Delivery, Cable & Wireless India, Yazad Boga, head, IT/BPO Verticals, Tata communications; and KS Ganesan, CTO, Microland.

The important part is to find ways to improve productivity of agents in terms of providing them intelligent voice assistance capabilities, so that they can offer better customer experience Sukant Srivastva, MD, Convergys	The BPO sector has created vast growth opportunities in the past. Outsourcing in any manner requires a thinking process but it makes sense because of cost advantage and flexibility Aman Mustafa, VP and country head, ACS Global Operations Support

The viability of hosted contact centers as a long term or a short-term business model was discoursed by the panelists in the session. Many of them opined that while cost is the driving force, hosted contact centers make sense only when the company is setting up limited number of seats in outside regions or countries.