Introduction:
If you are a graduate and looking at a career in
Customer Relationship Management, then the IT Enabled
service industry is where you should be.
You could be a ‘Jane’ or a ‘Mark’ calling up a
credit card holder in the US and following up on his
credit card payments. The credit card holder would not
know that the call is from a remote location in India
where you are located. You would be trained on the
accent, given sufficient inputs and have access to a
huge reservoir of information to handle all customer
related queries.
What is an IT Enabled Service?
How
does a Call Center Function?
Types
of a Call Center, an Outbound Call Center and an
Inbound Call center.
Application
Areas of a Call Center.
What
is Data Processing and Back Office Operations ?
Which industries would require data
processing and back office operation?
Employment
Opportunities.
The
positives and negatives of working for the IT Enabled
Service Industry.
Generic
skill sets required.
What is an IT Enabled
Service?
IT Enabled Services are functions and services
provided from a country different from the one where
the end products are delivered. These services are
delivered over telecommunication or data network
lines.
Spectrum
of IT Enabled Services
-
Call
centers
-
Medical
Transcription
-
Back
Office Transactions, Revenue accounting,
-
Insurance
claims processing
-
Legal
databases
-
Content
Development/Animation
-
Payroll
-
Logistics
Management
Top
How
does a Call Center Function?
A typical call center functions as follows - A caller
uses a toll free number that is connected to a
customer support center. When the call reaches the
call center, a trained consultant with access to a
wide database of information, answers the call. The
dedicated telecommunication links connect a remote
call center to the parent organisation through voice
links and online database access. There for a caller
maybe calling a local number in USA, but the call
maybe answered in India without any time delay and the
caller is oblivious of where the call is being
answered. These services are very popular in countries
such as USA, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Top
Types
of a Call Centers.
There
are two types of a Call Center, an Outbound Call
Center and an Inbound Call center.
Key
Responsibilities of an Outbound Call Center Personnel
-
Make
outgoing calls to follow up on overdue account
holders worldwide, offer solutions
-
Update
the relevant information in the database
-
Adhere
to highest standard of quality and compliance
-
Be
customer friendly and extremely courteous
Key
Responsibilities of an Inbound Call Center Personnel
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Application Areas of a Call
Center.
Sales Support
Complaint
Handling
Technical
queries
Relationship and Accounts Management
Lead
generation and follow up
Telemarketing
Credit
and Billing problems
Market
Research
Database
Development
Call
centers are operated by large airlines, banks, mutual
funds, telecom services, IT product companies among
others.
Top
Data
Processing and Back Office Operations
What
is data processing?
Data
Processing is a category of IT Enabled Services that
pertains to collecting, digitising and processing data
that come from various sources. Most organisations
like banks, financial institutions , airlines need
large scale data entry and accounting work. The raw
data is sent to remote locations where the data is
processed and reconciliation's are done. The data
processing services comprise of data entry from
various forms or publications, documents, images,
sound and video, preparing databases and integrating
them.
The
range of services would include the following:
Which
industries would require data processing and back
office operation?
-
Insurance
-
Banking
-
Public
utilities
-
Telecom
-
Legal
-
Transportation
-
Manufacturing
-
Publishing
Insurance
Claims Processing
Large
insurance companies get a number of claims every day.
These claims need to be processed based on set rules
and regulations and can be done remotely. To save
costs a large number of insurance companies are
outsourcing the work. This is another service that is
provided by the IT Enabled Sector
Legal
databases
Lawyers
need a steady flow of information on rulings, relevant
laws and precedents to build up their case. A lot of
legal firms have started outsourcing the work of
creating a ready database/source of well managed and
intelligent information.
The
job comprises of:
-
Create
database of existing records
-
Keeping
track of new documents
-
Creating
an index of the records
-
Incorporate
the changes in the database as per established
parameters
Lawyers
can then use their computers to gather any information
they need.
Top
Employment
Opportunities.
According to a survey there are more than 100,000 call
centers worldwide and is expected to grow to 300,000
by 2002, employing around 18 million people. As per a
survey, Customer Interaction Services including call
centers in India employed about 8,600 people as on
July 30, 2000. This segment will create employment for
2,70,000 people by year 2008.
Estimated Manpower figure by year 2005
The
estimated manpower figures in the IT Enabled Services
Industry by 2005 are as follows:
Back office operations-accounting, data entry, data
conversion 150,000
Medical Transcriptions and Insurance Claims Processing
100,000
Call Centers 125,000
Database services 50,000
Web Based Help Desks 200,000
The above estimates are based on industry surveys
conducted by leading Consultants.
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The positives and negatives of
working for the IT Enabled Service Industry.
The positives of working for the IT Enabled Service
Industry
-
Working
for a reputed Multinational company
-
Young
energetic and enthusiastic colleagues
-
Fun
filled environment
-
Top-of
the line communication equipment
-
Good
performance rewards
The
negatives of working for the IT Enabled Service
Industry
-
Night
shifts
-
Monotonous
-
Short
Career span
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What
are the Generic skill sets required.
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