TRAINING: Train Your Guns

When VOICE&DATA carried a story on the training industry four years ago,
the fly-by-night retail training providers were ruling the roost. Things have
changed since then. Not that these training schools do not exist anymore (in
fact, they have proliferated), what has changed is the realization by some of
the leading training companies that there is a huge market, growing in leaps and
bounds.

There has been a strategic shift by all the leading training providers such
as NIIT and Aptech from retail to corporate level training. It is surprising
that these players virtually exited from the retail BPO training without even
properly getting into it. Some hitherto unknown names like Akiko have taken
advantage of the failure of NIIT and Aptech to address this large market and
have gone all out opening their centers across the country. On the other hand,
some players like Saphire Callnet and North Start College failed to capitalize
on the BPO boom and are reported to have shut down their operation. Tata
Infotech, which entered the IT-enabled services market by launching Customer
Relationships e-Management Expert (CReME) programme does not play in the space
anymore.

What Has Changed?

There is no unanimity on whether the BPO training industry is still
unorganized or has it taken some shape. According to Monica Doshi, the COO of
Karrox, a leading provider of BPO training, "The BPO training industry
has graduated from a completely unorganized sector to a fairly
organized one. While most captive BPOs have started looking at long term
training partners who understand their (client's) work culture and cater to
all internal training requirements, third party BPOs still consider freelancers
as an option."

Over the years, companies have also fine-tuned their internal training
strategy. According to S Nagarajan, founder and chief operating officer, 24/7
Customer, "We have over the years revisited our approach to training,
methodologies and training modules." According to him, the BPO industry
over the last five years has matured and the work is more high-end, requires
greater analytical skills and is more critical to the clients' business.

According to Asheesh Gupta, CEO of Hero Mindmine, part of the $2.2 billion
Hero Group, "The BPO training mirrored the way BPO industry has undergone.
When this industry started, the challenges of training were not well understood.
Most of these companies thought they will get away with 3-4 days of training as
was done in the US not realizing the gap that existed in terms of language,
attitude towards customers etc."

The Industry in Training Aashu Calapa Vice President, Human Resources, ICICIOnesource S Nagarajan Founder and Chief Operating Officer, 24/7 Customer Vikas Sharma COO, Akiko Callnet “How can one say that there is no career in a $4.5 billion industry. There are several people in this industry who are working since its inception” “The BPO industry over the last five years has matured and the work is more high-end, requires greater analytical skills and is more critical to the clients' business” “We have developed vertical specific expertise for the training that we provide and then place them to companies who require such specific skills” Sidharth Talwar CEO, Evolv Monica Doshi COO, Karrox “Client demands have increased as they are now more aware of what they need than they were four years ago” “The retail training model is not viable. This is the reason for most of the so-called training companies switching over to the placement/training blend”

Whether to outsource or to do it in-house has also been a difficult decision
to make for most of the BPO companies. Is the quality of training that these BPO
training centers provide are good enough? According to Gupta, "Earlier,
companies used to put their own training teams in place, as they had no other
option. But in the last 2 to 3 years, companies, that are ramping up their
operations, are realizing the importance of outsourcing. Today, we have more
experienced than other BPO training companies because we have trained so many of
them."

Retail vs. Corporate Training

It is surprising that some of the big names in IT training such as NIIT and
Aptech could not replicate their IT training success stories in the BPO space.
According to Aashu Calapa, vice president, human resources at ICICIOnesource,
"We thought the IT training boom would replicate itself in the BPO arena,
but that did not happen and it is really puzzling."

Most of the retail training providers like Akiko, Karrox, and Lawkim have
been trying hard to attract people to enroll for their BPO training courses with
placement guarantees. The response has been mixed. Akiko, a Delhi based company
of the Sherman group, charges between Rs 8000 to Rs 16000 for the training,
claims to have churned out 26000 professionals in three years that its three
years of existence.

While the focus remains on servicing international BPO companies, training
providers are also eying a large chunk of the banking, finance and telecom
companies who are servicing the domestic market. Says Vikas Sharma, COO, Akiko,
"We have developed vertical specific expertise for the training that we
provide and then place them to companies who require such specific skills."
When asked about the quality of the candidates they admit for training and
placement, Sharma says, "Out of 1500 applications that we get every month,
we take only 500 of them after assessing them."

Calapa says, "If someone is competent enough to get a direct job in a
company, he would not like to waste money in getting trained." He wants
retail training providers to identify and train the borderline prospective
candidates who are average and are trainable. "We would be happy to take
trained manpower from the retail companies as that would save a lot of our
internal training cost."

Monica Doshi, COO, Karrox echoes similar sentiments. She says, "Good
candidates are not willing to pay for their training. The retail training model
is not viable. This is the reason for most of the so-called training companies
switching over to the placement/training blend." Gupta of Hero Mindmine
says, "People are also seeing that every week there are several
advertisements for walk ins. Then why do you need training. It is better that we
get selected by companies and then they will train us."

While Sidharth Talwar, CEO of Evolv, a Noida based B2B training company,
agrees that the number of training providers has increased drastically, with
countless individual trainers coming into the market. He says, "Client
demands have increased as they are now more aware of what they need than they
were 4 years ago." He also sees a marked change in ways of communication
with the West, expertise in cross-cultural communication and a high level of
customization of material for clients.

Manpower Crisis?

According to industry experts, the demand supply gap is increasing fast and
a high rate of attrition is multiplying the existing manpower shortage. The
situation is also leading to a hike in salaries, which have started attracting
more qualified professionals who are over-skilled. According to a Gartner
report, while there is abundance of trainable human resources, a dearth in
skilled manpower is being felt across the industry, from call centers to
solution providers, and this has resulted in hike in salaries.

Calapa brushes aside all talks of manpower shortage. "There is no
manpower shortage. It is only that all of us are trying to attract the same set
of people in limited locations like Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore etc. The need is
to go to second tier cities and expand the talent pool that is available in
abundance."

However, according to government, estimates every year, 2.1 million graduates
and 0.3 million post-graduates pass out of India's non-engineering colleges
and there will approximately be 17 million people available to the BPO industry
by 2008. But what is clearly missing here is the ready and trainable manpower,
which is pretty less. According to McKinsey estimates, only 5 percent of the
available talent is ready for call centers and only 15 to 20 percent can be
trained for deployment. NASSCOM estimates the number of people employed by the
BPO industry at 1.5 million by 2008, against 170,000 at present.

There is also talk of a middle level management crisis. Gupta says,
"What is happening today is that good agents are being made supervisors.
They lose a good agent and they don't get a good supervisor either. There isn't
enough specialized training for them. The need is for a structured training in
people management skills." Calapa, however, is more comfortable looking
internally from middle-level manpower.

Is there a Career?

Does the BPO industry offer long-term career prospects? Opinions are divided
on this. Rajeev Katyal, senior vice president, marketing, enterprise learning
solutions at NIIT agrees that BPO jobs are primarily a short term career
opportunities, and people do not stay long, due to night shifts, stress, and
other factors. Gupta believes that the BPO companies have failed to highlight
back-office jobs as long-term career prospects. Calapa thinks otherwise.
"How can one say that there is no career in a $4.5 billion industry. There
are several people in this industry who are working since its inception."

The Initiatives

Recognizing the criticality of human resource for the IT industry, last
month NASSCOM and the University Grants Commission (UGC) signed a MoU to
undertake curriculum up-gradation and modification/additions to provide
education and skills relevant for IT services and ITES industry. The primary
objective of the initiative is to identify the needs of the IT industry in terms
of number of persons, skill-sets needed, quality etc in various disciplines at
different levels (graduate, post-graduate, doctoral) in different time-frames.
This is also aimed at strengthening Indian professional education (through
curricula, faculty, infrastructure, pedagogy improvements), in line with the IT
industry's requirements.

The UGC has also partnered with NASSCOM to set up Techno-Business Skills
Development (TSD) Centers for high-end BPO training related to equity research,
human resource and e-Learning content management and accounting back office. Two
TSD Centers are proposed to be set up at reputed universities on a pilot basis.
One can only hope that this pilot also does not remain a pilot for years to
come. Most of the state governments have been very slow in realizing the gravity
of the situation and have done precious little in this direction.

Several initiatives, which have been taken at policy level, are yet to show
any concrete results. Some of these initiatives include the Andhra Pradesh State
Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) with Hero Mindmine, the Department of
Information Technology, the Government of Kerala, the Department of Development
of North East Region (DONER) with DOEACC to set up call center agents'
training facilities in Guwahati, Tezpur, Imphal, and Aizawl. Globsyn
Technologies Limited has planned to open a BPO academy in association with Webel
to cater to the rising manpower needs in the outsourcing industry.

Hero Mindmine has tied up with MP State Open University to offer a degree
program, BBA in BPO, in association with American Express, GE, Wipro Spectramind,
and Convergys. The course would cost in excess of Rs 1 lakh.

Training Providers Galore

There are two categories of players in the market today. NIIT and Aptech
fall in the category where they are trying to leverage on the basis of their
previous reputation as leading IT training providers. They have failed to a
large extent in replicating their IT training success in the retail BPO training
business. However, they have managed to make some headway and fill the gap in
the post recruitment and pre-process training space for most of the BPO players.
NIIT runs this business under the Planetworkz brand and provides training;
sourcing, screening and training; screening and training. According to Katyal,
"We even go out to college campuses across the country to look for the
trainable manpower and provide them training and facilitate their placement in
BPO companies."

Hero Mindmine, Karrox, Evolv, and Next are some of the players who largely
play in the corporate space while Lawkeem and Akiko are mostly retail players
trying to make a mark. According to industry estimates, there are around 500 BPO
training companies that have mushroomed across the country due to lack of any
regulation for the sector. Some unscrupulous elements have also got into this
lucrative business trying to make fast money.

The Way Forward

The first step towards giving a proper shape to the BPO training industry
could be the setting up of a forum, preferably online, for exchange of ideas
among the stakeholders.. This could also give voice to those who work in the BPO
industry. According to Madan Pataki, CEO of Merittrac, "Training companies
need to tie up with universities across the country to launch courses for those
who want to work in the BPO sector."

Taking advantage of lack of government initiative in formalizing the BPO
education as a curriculum, some private universities and colleges have
introduced high cost courses that are beyond the reach of average job seekers.
The government should put the NASSCOM-UGC initiative, aimed at introducing BPO
courses in universities, on fast track, if it feels that BPO is the sunrise
sector of Indian economy.

Sudesh Prasad