Call Center! The moment one reads these words a myriad of phenomenal lifestyle, well-dressed youth on calls and easy money flashes across the mind. Contemplating a little longer over the same word a glance at the second thought will reveal the ugly side of it, the unbalanced working hours, unthinkable attrition rates followed by stress and burnouts. Every industry has its own pros and cons but the fact remains unchanged, “Call Centers” is the buzz of the moment, a mantra for employment and a promise for the future. Call centers has emerged as a key ingredient of management strategy as an information channel which stretches all the way from Delhi to Denver to Washington. 

The world is experiencing new facets and it is not like anything it has ever experienced. With the changing world there is a realization that flexibility and adaptability is a strategy that will be followed by organizations. The call center is one of the fastest growing industries in India and the excitement is evident. The emergence of the Information Technology has resulted in the expansion of the customer services sector. This expansion has redefined the notions the concept of borders, boundaries, distance and time.  The idea behind outsourcing is not new. It commenced in the late 1700’s during the industrial revolution where the manufactures shifted the manufactured goods to countries that had cheap labor.

The Yesteryears of Call Center Services in India

The emergence of outsourcing services in India has an interesting story. After a decade most of the competitive global business was outsourced to India. Reaching the apex has been a long journey and then the service outsourcing began in the 1980’s while rapidly accelerating in the 1990’s. Today’s scenario is such that the IT has become pivotal and the outsourcing has experienced a drastic change over the years. The trend is such that while companies are focusing on their own competencies they outsource the non-competent areas for which they do not have any resources be it infrastructure or capital.

Originally, a few airlines companies that functioned globally outsourced most of their work to India which was followed by the IT companies. The primitive players in the market were British Airways which outsourced their back office works in India in the early 1980’s, then came the American Express (AMEX) consolidated its Japan and Asia Pacific (JAPAC) back office Operations in India. Then General Electric Capital International Services (GECIS) entered the market for Voice operations in the 1990’s. GECIS came to be known as GENPACT. Then there was an introduction of Telecom Policy which ended the practice of monopoly on international calling facilities. That was when the growth of inbound and outbound call centers was initiated. IT Majors then entered into India and all the Indian software organizations advanced towards the call centers including Infosys, Patni and Inforlinx. Dell, IBM, Accenture, Convergys and SITEL too went up to set up their offices in India.

The compelling part about the history was that in spite of being the largest democracy in the world, India continued to be a closed global market economy. When the Indian Government was faced with currency crisis in the year 1991 most of the gold reserves were used as collateral for the IMF Loan which led to deregulation of the economy and reduction in the import tariffs. These adjustments in the economy attracted the Multinational companies for they recognized the value of Indian population that was outstandingly educated most of them were English speaking and were tech savvy. Due to the development in telecommunications, satellite communications, fiber optics made transfer of data possible through the internet based communication channel created the path for outsourcing services in India.

The Sunshine Sector

Call Centers has now emerged as India’s most phenomenal sector. The country is witnessing the prominent technology housekeepers in the world, which takes care of multiple routine activities for the multinational firms. The firms here are proficient to handle the back office work like the enquiries related to credit cards, invoice preparations, settlements related to daily accounts, billings and collections. The spurt in the call center industry has prompted planners to view the potential avenues of the sector and absorb the mass of the educated unemployed. The increasing possibility of creating jobs along with the scope of providing modest employment has enabled the Call Center industry to be represented as the one. India is today the hottest destination for most of the companies that want to outsource.