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Serving Minds (P) Ltd. Going for Global Business
Promoted jointly by three young entrepreneurs (Sanjib Raj Bhandari of Mercantile Group, Suraj Vaidya of Vaidy's Organisation and Dipak Bohara, the Chairman of Bank of Kathmandu), the company expects to employ 700 graduates, thus becoming the single largest private sector employer of graduates in Nepal. Housed in 24,000 sq. ft. premises at Thamel in downtown Kathmandu, the center is expected to need a total investment of Rs. 220 million, of which Rs. 70 million is already invested in the first phase and the facility is scheduled to be inaugurated later this month (April, 2000), say the company sources. Though new for Nepal, and also in entire Asia, this business is expanding rapidly the world over, they further inform. A Contact Centre is similar to a call centre, but with the fundamental difference that while a call centre is almost entirely using telephone, a Contact Centre uses variety of media (see box). Among the services provided by ServingMinds include strategic customer analysis like trends, early warning signals (EWS), opportunity identification, top line feedback etc. Presently there are about 100,000 contact centres and two million agent positions in the world, it is estimated. Moreover, the demand for agent positions is growing at the rate of approximately 25% per annum, informs Thupten Bajracharya, Technical/Marketing Manager of ServingMinds. Agent positions, sometimes also called seats, are equivalent to the direct employee in a company, other employees manning support services such as administration, accounts etc. Quoting a study, in terms of business and financial performance, of Fortune 1000 companies, he points out that organisations having contact centres in their operations have outperformed the ones without contact centres. Hence the steady and hefty increase in the outsourcing expenditure of companies in advanced countries.
Coming as it does soon after another IT service company, Himalayan Infotech, shelved its somewhat similar business due to alleged backing out of the foreign collaborator, entry of ServingMinds into business may look badly timed. However, the promoters of the new company are confident of their business as they are not dependent on foreign investor for the capital as Himalayan Infotech did. Similarly, the involvement of big and established business houses in the company is regarded as an additional strength as their existing international links may help tremendously in attracting business to the company. Outsourcing expenditure for contact centre in US and Europe was US$ 295 billion in 1999 and it is expected to go up to US$ 340 billion in 2001. Nepal has very good prospects in getting a handsome share of the expanded pie given the cost advantage, according to Om Bhattachan, Call Centre Manager of ServingMinds. Between 55 to 60% of the total cost of a contact center operation is in the manpower, he estimates, and says that this cost in Nepal is approximately one tenth of what it is in developed countries. For example, the per agent cost in USA is nearly US$ 40,000 whereas it is only US$ 3000 in Nepal. Another reason that companies in advanced countries have to outsource the services to other countries is the very high turnover of employees in the contact centres there. Bajaj describes the job as a very stressful one, thus requiring a very specific type of workforce. At the same time, the contact centre operation also requires suitable compensation structure and management style.
Nepal with its vast resources of highly skilled, English speaking and cost effective workforce is gaining a lot of attention worldwide and is expected to be a good base for providing such services, says Bhattachan. But he also agrees that competition from India and Philippines is likely to be strong. However, he points out that the units in India so far are only call centres, that is, they do not use multi-media. "Thus we have advantage in technology. And we are the first multi-media international Contact Centre in whole of Asia," he claims. His claim seems to be based on the fact that the company has installed Rockwell Transcend software, IBM midrange Netfinity and IBUS CT server. Similarly advanced are the hardwares in terms of workstation and Network that ServingMinds is going to use, as stated in the company's brochure. Moreover, as Bhattahan adds, most of the people who go into call centre business have no background in technology. As one of the major promoters in ServingMinds is Mercantile Group, the pioneer and leader of Nepal's IT industry, the company is very much confident of maintaining its lead in Contact Centre business as well. Though the main source of business for the company is going to be US and Europe, it also plans to have 10% of its revenue from local market with the MNC subsidiaries as major targeted clients.
– By Business Age Reporter |
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"Your
Business is Our Business." Thus goes the slogan for recently established
ServingMinds (P) Ltd., an IT company that is to operate a Contact Centre.
The company is targeting a share from the US and European expenditure
on outsourcing their services expected to hit US$ 340 billion this year.
Outsourcing
for contact center service in US and Europe for 2001 is expected to increase
by 15% and with this figure in mind, ServingMinds has projected to have
200 seats operational within 18 months. "With workload of three shifts,
we'll need to employ 700 graduates which will include 100 employees to
handle weekend shift," says Nikita Bajaj, Human Resource Manager
of ServingMinds. 
To
address such needs, ServingMinds has devised a unique system, at least
from Nepali standards, for recruitment, training and pay. Summarising
the system, Bhattachan says, the organisation structure of the company
is relatively flat, recruitment is done through a multiple-steps process
of application-screening, a telephonic interview to be followed by aptitude
and finally interviews by function manager and human resource team. Due
to such rigorous process, the selection rate so far been only 10% in ServingMinds,
informs Bajaj. In the process of inducting the employees, the company
has adopted mentor system, under which the new recruits are guided and
helped by the mentor into the culture of the organisation.