Time zone is a disadvantage for the Indian BPO industry

Yes, India’s time difference leads to more expensive and inefficient
operations as well as significant people- and attrition-related issues

It is the biggest misconception prevailing in the market that India’s
12-hour time difference with the US is a huge advantage. While that may be true
in the IT-services industry, which enables follow-the-sun approach for software
development; but as far as the call center industry is concerned the time
difference is actually a significant hurdle and disadvantage. Let me explain how
the time difference with the US impacts the call center industry here.

Unlike the software development industry, the call center industry involves
realtime, live interaction with customers. This means that call-center support
has to be provided as per the requirements and time-zones of customers.
Naturally, the staffing in call centers needs to reflect the calling patterns of
customers and the time-zone difference with the US means that international call
centers have to operate at night in India.

Zia Sheikh CEO, Infowavz "The time zone not only impacts the lifestyle of employees, but also the companies themselves. They face increase in costs for providing transportation and other similar heads"

Working in the night shift, which is against the body clock, is obviously not
an ideal situation. It rules out a whole universe of people who could have been
effectively employed in call centers, such as housewives and retirees. Further,
it increases the attrition rates at international call centers in India as,
often, people get tired of working in the nights and want to move to a normal
daytime job. In other cases, there is often resistance from parents and other
family members about working in the night. This resistance increases
significantly once the person gets married and has to strike a balance with
spouse, in-laws, children, etc.

The time zone not only impacts the lifestyle of employees of international
call centers but also the companies themselves, as they face significant cost
increase due to the time zone difference. One such material expense item is
transportation cost as home pick-up and drop needs to be provided at the
beginning and end of shifts, which start or end late evening or in the middle of
the night or in the very early hours of the morning.

Similarly, there are expenses associated with running a cafeteria on a 24/7
basis, as external restaurants and food outlets are all closed in the night.
Good centers have also set up medical facilities, including doctor-on-call, and
other such in-house setups.

Obviously, call centers in the US don’t have to incur such expenses nor do
they have to worry about attrition and employee dissatisfaction arising out of
night shift working. Also, the time zone difference acts as a hurdle to
effective client communication and coordination as often the senior management
of international call centers in India works during the day to coordinate and
manage domestic Indian issues, but at the same time need to talk to clients
regularly, which can only happen once the client offices in the US open in the
morning, when it is evening in India.

In fact, the time zone difference also makes the Indian centers less
efficient as flexi-staffing and short shifts are not possible in the middle of
the night in India, while in the US, call centers are able to adopt
flexi-staffing and also have their agents work on two or four hour shifts as per
specific client requirements and customer call volume.

While it may be argued that the time zone difference between India and the US
enables India to effectively handle off-peak, late-hour work in the US (which
can be very easily be done during the day-time in India); but the reality is
that such off-peak call traffic is minimal. The bulk of the work that Indian
call centers are getting is two-shift US daytime operation; and such realtime
work gets done during the night shifts in India even as international call
centers here have largely empty capacity during the daytime in India.

There may also be an argument that Indian call centers can take non-realtime,
back-office work during the daytime here and turn around completed work by the
time the US offices open. However, once again it is mostly not possible to use
the same seat during daytime, because almost all clients have confidentiality
and data security issues and are not comfortable in their seats being utilized
for other purposes during daytime in India.

I am sure that if there is a survey conducted amongst the international call
centers in India, almost all the people associated with the industry would
respond that they would rather be in a situation where there is no time zone
difference as that would make the Indian offshore call center delivery so much
easier, more effective, and cost efficient. 

R Mohan president and CEO, IT & ITES division, Hinduja TMT "North American customers can send across their requirements before they leave for the day and when they walk in the next day, the problem is solved and ready at their table"

No. For services that require back-office processing, the difference gives us
a distinct advantage

A lot has been written about the fact that the Indian BPO industry can never
be seen as a career and only as a temporary job thanks to the late hours the
industry follows. It has been the target of several articles, HR studies, and
sometimes BPO bashing, but it is this very same time difference with our biggest
market, the USA, that has seen the growth of this industry.

The BPO industry worldwide is still very much a North America-based industry
with over 62 percent of worldwide spending. The European market with 22 percent
contribution and the Asia Pacific region with 15 percent are far behind, making
the US market the most attractive for Indian companies. The question then arises
as to whether the time difference we have with our major market is an advantage
or not.

For years together, the Indian IT-services industry has sold based on the
tremendous advantages the difference in time zones provide. North American
customers were wooed by the fact that they could send across their requirement
or problem thousands of miles away before they left for the day and and behold,
next day when they walk in, the problem is solved and ready at their table. The
same advantage remains and in fact enhances itself when applied to a mission
critical activity like business process outsourcing. Claims move across the
Internet late in the day and get resolved and ready for dispatch by the next day
morning. Stock trades get effortlessly resolved before the next day’s trading,
doctors walk-in to neatly done up case sheets, and airlines track their luggage
and keep customers happy.

Many of the services that we provide need time for problems to be looked at,
analyzed, and resolved. Thanks to the time-zone phenomenon, while customers
worldwide submit their requirements and close their day’s work, Indian
companies have the time to get these problems resolved and delivered.

It is also this very same time zone that allows us to cater to the
requirements of our customers whether in the east in Australia or in the west in
handling their overflow calls. Further advantage is provided by the fact that
several truly global corporations such as GE, Dell Computers, HSBC, Amazon, and
Aetna service their worldwide customers from their India base. India lying
midway between some of the biggest markets for these companies, provides the
ideal link between the working of their various offices around the world while
getting the job done cost effectively and efficiently.

As employees in this fast-paced industry, we often bemoan the fact that
working odd hours has robbed us of a social life and leads to an unhealthy
lifestyle. How many of us realize that it is this very fact that enables
employees to use daylight hours available for pursuing another degree, or
another job or even just getting the day-to-day jobs done during daylight hours.

It is also these very same time zones that enable us to actually use the
company’s assets and infrastructure twice even three times over in a single
day. Different time zones also mean that while we can provide realtime services
relating to voice and customer services, the very same seats, communications and
infrastructure can also be used for back-office processing at other times.
Indian companies with end-to-end outsourcing companies are going a step further
and providing both front-end customer services and high-end IT services using
the above time split, thus making maximum utilization of all resources.

In a world that is moving more and more towards global business, the adage–the
city never sleeps, defines this very natural phenomenon of time zones, that
prepares India to be a global leader. Picture this, if India were in the same
time zone as some of the world’s biggest markets, the fact that we could offer
them ‘round the clock business enabling services’ would never have worked to
our advantage. Time zones not only keep the world’s economy moving, they have
also made the Indian BPO industry what it is.

As Indian companies move from a pure voice to a healthy mix of voice and
non-voice BPO services, time zones will prove to be a much bigger advantage than
people can imagine. Not only will they cut the processing time for consumers in
North America, it will allow Indian companies utilize the same seats for
non-voice work during the (Indian) daytime and voice work in the night.