EX V/s Tally

About 10 -12 years back, at Vital Link Outsourcing, when we started BPO operations, we had to make a choice of choosing our accounting software. We had a choice of EX a accounting package from Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS ) from the House of Tata’s, India’s leading business house. The other alternative was Tally from a small no name business outfit in Calcutta.

The launch of EX was preceded by a slick advertising campaign, that many old timers from India will recollect. Naturally the strong ad campaign and the big house name behind the product made our decision veer in their favor.

Starting 1st April, 2009 we mark the end of our decade long tryst with a software that caused us more pain and anguish that we had bargained for. ( But aren’t all software like that you might ask  ) We made the decision and moved to Tally. If ever there was a most damning statement against the House of Tata’s this is one of them.

Why did we do that?

EX was never supported. Bug fixes were paid version releases. Usability issues were never fixed. User base of accountants / CAs was rather restricted and getting more limited by the day. Dealers were not interested in the product any longer and support was sporadic and patchy, at best.
TALLY on the other hand had acquired a large user base of folks who knew its intricacies. With the release of the VAT regime in India, Tally was all over the place with its VAT compliant upgrade. The folks at EX were sleeping on the job. In short Tally was the pre-dominant market leader in its category. And did we have a choice?

Why this had to happen? The simple fact is that for TCS, EX was a small division too miniscule to merit top management attention. For the Tally guys, it was their livelihood. It was Tally or bust for them. Naturally the Tally guys had the fire in their stomach, that the guys who ran the EX division of TCS sorely lacked, sitting on their fat behinds.

No one gets fired for buying IBM they say. So it would be, we thought, with TCS. But IBM just kind of closed the division, it looks like.
What does all this ranting of changing accounting packages, have to do with running a BPO unit in India, you might as well ask.

The question is whether your BPO vendor is solely focused on serving you or not. Or is he a current ‘must have’ BPO division of a large multi focused conglomerate?

At Vital Link Outsourcing we are seeing a lot of large names not satisfying their large name customers. Giving BPO a bad name in general on both sides.
All due to a strong lack of focus on the part of the service provider.

Venkat

BPO Hype Cycle – Gartner Report

The Gartner report released about 4 days back is all that a report should be. Alarming, shocking and meant to make folks sit up and take notice. Propel them enough to go out and buy the report. After all the primary business of all analysts is to first and foremost sell what they generate.
Having said this, is the prediction that about 60 -70 % of all call center BPOs will shut shop true or not?
In one word the answer is YES.
In one word your question may be WHY?

The answer will now have to be a little longer. Most of these BPOs have been started in the first flush of enthusiasm by every Tom, Dick and Hari in search of the pot of gold at the end of the BPO rainbow. Most of them lack a solid business model, are undercapitalised or lack sheer grit and execution capability that would separate the men from the boys. What ever the reasons for the weakness, there has to be some element of culling that nature has ordained.

Is this good? Not if you are one of the those going to be culled.
But if you are the one who is strong enough to survive then it is good.
Those who are going to close will throw up lot of trained talent and other resources which the strong can grab and emerge stronger.
I can already see this happening and it is good for the industry.

Venkat

Why a Blog on BPO Industry – 2/?

Having covered a little of the early days of how I came to be the CEO of Vital Link Outsourcing, I have been personal witness to all the explosion going on around in this segment now called BPO.
With a historical background and with some modesty, terming myself as a pioneer, I felt that the perspective that I bring to this field should not go unshared for the common benefit of the newer entrants.
I have also personally seen quite a bit of things going wrong and am anguished that as in any emerging segment gold diggers have rushed in. I think of myself as a crusader and feel that some of the trends emerging need watching for the benefit of all concerned. I have in this time seen quite a few ‘hype’ cycles and know that most press coverage during this period is ‘sponsored’ and that the media in a rush to file stories has little time for due diligence. In this Blog I am hoping to counter some of this for the benefit of all those who care to read it J .
Again with traditional media there exists very little scope for insiders and veterans to share their perspective for the benefit of all. I am hoping that with this blog there would exist a platform for all like minded individuals to come together and share experiences.

Venkat

Why a Blog on BPO Industry - 1/?

When the Internet started in India, circa 1996, we at Vital Link Outsourcing got our email id from VSNL on the giasbm01.vsnl.net.in server in India. This server was / is the first email server available to the public and we were there. As such we had one of the first 1000 or so email ids from India. We still maintain this email id though in a shorter form now. For those who came in late, this server is now renamed as bom1 server by VSNL. And oh… VSNL itself got renamed as Tata Indicom.
In my earlier avatar as a Chartered Accountant ( a.k.a. CPA ) I had run a practice of advising US based clients. When my father was posted in NY from 1972 to 1976 I had spent my teenage years in the US of A and knew all about labor cost arbitrage. These years gave me an exposure in the business cultures of both countries. From 1992 to 1996 we had created capacities to capture data from Share application forms and with the collapse of the IPO market we did not know what to do with this capability. My Ham Radio ( VU3PVN ) background propelled my continuing interest in emerging technologies such as the Internet.
The confluence of all these forces led Vital Link Outsourcing to take its strategic assets and leverage its capabilities in the offshore markets so as to capture the labor arbitrage opportunities. Simply put, we started writing emails and asking for work, promising we could do it cheap. Ahhhh thats easier now…
From those beginings we have come a long way now. We now service Fortune 100 clients with with their business critical data with strict quality and tight turn around times on a daily basis.
This blog is to share with you my musings on this industry from its early days as also current and future trends in the emerging BPO industry in India.
I promise to write atleast once a week and from a common point of view so as to interest readers on both sides of the border.
Thanks for taking the time to stick to the end and do feel free to comment.

Venkat