Orange to consolidate India BPO operations

CONVERGYS, IBM TO HANDLE ALL OFFSHORE WORK

IN AN about-turn in its outsourcing strategy, Orange UK, the mobile services arm of France Telecom, is now consolidating its offshore work amongst two vendors — Convergys and IBM Daksh — taking it from other vendors such as EXL and 24/7 Customer. In June this year, Orange UK had announced that it will reduce dependence on BPOs in India for its backoffice work.
And in a first of its kind recruitment experiment in India, Orange along with its largest BPO vendor Convergys is also advertising jointly to ‘transplant’ or simply poach Orange-trained erstwhile employees working in other BPOs back to Convergys. The ads are being published in large national dailies. Orange had earlier taken back some processes from 24/7 Customer and Convergys this year and from Vertex last year.
As a follow up to the new strategy Orange UK conducted a bidding process to consolidate operations. An Orange Spokesperson told ET: “As part of a commitment to deliver consistently excellent customer service across our business, Orange UK has been reviewing our requirements with our Indian outsourcing partners. Following a competitive pitch process, existing partners Convergys and IBM Daksh will provide customer service support for Orange UK mobile and broadband customers moving forward.”
BPO executives working on Orange processes out of offices in Gurgaon offer customer service, collections and sales for many of Orange mobile and broadband customers in the UK. According to estimates, the joint transplant process will save the Convergys, Orange’s largest vendor in India, almost 70% of training time and cost.
Convergys is calling the new hiring process for Orange as ‘transplanting’. “We are inviting people who went outside Convergys or outside Orange processes from other vendors back into the family. Many of these people might be working with other BPO vendors. Due to our superior service levels Orange has chosen Convergys as a preferred BPO vendor and thus the consolidation of business and employees is taking place. We plan to complete the transplanting of employees by end-2008,” says Convergys recruitment director (Gurgaon) Ashutosh Sinha.