'Today, the BPO industry stands at the cusp of many opportunities'

‘Outsourcing will be more widely accepted’

With the organic and linear expansion of the IT (information technology) sector, in general, coming under threat as a result of the global economic crisis, what would be your advice to the fresh graduates from our professional colleges who see a bleak placement scene? When I pose this question to N. Ranjit, President and CEO of the BPO Division of HCL Technologies Ltd, pat comes a reassuring answer — that the sure thing about the current economic downturn is that it is not going to last forever.

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'Analytics helps people to make data-driven decisions rather than gut feel-based decisions'

Find toxic assets with analytics

It was an early morning meeting, only a few days post 26/11, and when Rita Chakravarti arrived at the Business Line office, after surviving an adventurous auto-rickshaw ride on Chennai roads, she had a tremendously positive outlook about analytics, as an industry — that it has a great potential, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, which is developing fast.
“Banks, insurance companies, telecom companies — if they don’t invest in analytics, they will perish, due to sheer competition. Risk management is becoming of utmost importance, and this demands a data-driven approach, which depends on analytics,” adds Rita, Head of Analytics, RedPill, Singapore.

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'. Phone and fax are still the most preferred means of communication'

‘Use CRM to build customer intelligence’

The downturn should be looked at as an opportunity to re-evaluate all the internal processes including the most important one, which is CRM (customer relationship management), says Rajendra C. Mruthyunjayappa, Managing Director, APAC, Talisma Corporation Pvt Ltd, Bangalore. “CRM is an investment for the future, and organisations should look at this as a means to scale up operations and, more importantly, the ability to reach out to their customers in creative ways,” he argues, during the course of a recent e-mail interaction with eWorld.

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'SMEs seek to make timely decisions based on facts and data'

Leverage ERP in slowdown

In what ways can enterprises leverage their ERP systems during a period of economic crisis such as what is currently being experienced? When I pose this question to Ranjan Das, Managing Director, SAP, Indian Subcontinent, soon after his completing a Chennai marathon, along with his team, on February 15, 2009 morning, he has a positive answer — that there are three ways enterprises can leverage ERP and other enterprise applications in today’s environment.

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