It appears that HCL’s CEO, Vineet Nayar has heard enough about the inferior Indian educational schooling that most tech graduates receive in India. He recently sounded off as saying American Technology graduates are “unemployable”. While I see his perspective of trying to win business for offering a cheaper option, I don’t understand his tact. HCL just signed a $170 million dollar outsourcing agreement with Microsoft. According to Steve Ballmer, “That extra mile walk by the team (at HCL) has increased our mutual trust and has taken our relationship to newer heights. “
I respect Vineet’s tenacity, but man-oh-man, let’s hope Steve Ballmer doesn’t change his tune!
When I was blogging regularly, I would get requests to talk about pricing and what would be considered a competitive rate in the call center industry.I have finally decided to do a short piece on pricing, and this article will briefly discuss what I am seeing in the marketplace.
The times were much different 24 months ago.Offshore call center pricing in the Philippines and India was appreciating because the Peso and Rupee had gained so much on the dollar.Most vendors didn’t hedge currency and the only way they could operate was to increase their pricing models.With the dollar weakening in the global economy, business started to rethink their sourcing strategies.The value of going offshore wasn’t necessarily a slam dunk anymore.
About 12 months ago, the American economy fell hard.The macro economic factors then pushed the rest of the world down. Countries that were dependent on American business started to tumble.As the rest of the world started to feel the pinch, the American dollar started appreciating against foreign currency, even in the dire economy.
When economic conditions got tough, business got more diligent.They started scrutinizing every proposal and really performed their diligence on pricing.This then drove offshore rates down.With vendors losing clients, it became (and still is) a frenzy to win business.
If you were ever going to consider outsourcing, now is the time to take the plunge.Rates are cheap and you can negotiate most setup costs and telephony costs away from your contract.Also, you can pretty much get any type of skill set at the rates I mention below. This would include Outbound, Inbound, Service-To-Sales and Telemarketing.
This all being said, this is my assessment of hourly FTE rates that are now being presented to accounts with 100 seats or more.Add 10-20% if your operation is less than 100 seats.If your operation is less than 50 seats, you should seek out a mid-size vendor and pitch that the business will grow together.This will help keep your rates in these ranges.
Philippines$9.50 – $12.00
India$9.00 - $11.00
Costa Rica$12.00-18.00
Guatemala$9.00 – $11.00
El Salvador$8.00 - $10.00
Mauritius$9.00 – $11.00
NOTE: Outsourcing to El Salvador may require a helmet and kevlar vest. All kidding aside, it is a beautiful country.
Hey all.It has been almost a year since my last post and I appreciate the notes for more content.While I know I disappeared, this past year has been both insane and great.The startup life has consumed me; however, the career move has been highly rewarding.I have learned a great deal and all the experience has been worth the effort and sacrifice.I have enjoyed the work and job immensely.It was a great change for me and I am happy I made the switch.
Here are some highlights of the past year:
1.I was interviewed and cited in a great book, The Services Shift, Seizing the Ultimate Offshore Opportunity, written by Robert E. Kennedy who is a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and Executive Director of the William Davidson Institute
2.Built an entirely new service strategy at my new employer, Shopatron.
3.Bought a new house – I need to give thanks to TransUnion Interactive, my old employer, for providing me with knowledge and insight to the credit markets.Seriously, that was huge.
4.My wife decided to go back to work and teach 5th grade - this severely reduced the free time I once had and blogging went away first.Sorry.
a.It should be noted that I have an awesome wife and she is as passionate about teaching as I am about business.
5.The gray hair on my head doubled.
Well, that was the year in a nutshell.Now that I am back to blogging, I have to commit to a few new blogging rules.Going forward, I am no longer going to write the long and lengthy articles that you were accustomed to reading.In order to keep generating content, I need to keep it simple.So, this will probably be the longest post you read from me in a while…although, since most of my readers unsubscribed, not many of you will read this one.
Last, but not least.I want to reach out to my ‘anonymous’ friend over at 360VendorManagement for inspiring me to blog again.If you haven’t seen his recent makeover, go check it out!I am eagerly awaiting more content.
