ABN Amro BPO to up headcount to 5,000
ABN Amro Central Enterprise Services (ACES), the BPO arm of ABN Amro Bank, is set to scale up headcount to 5,000 by June ’07, across its three locations in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
By NS Ramnath & V Balasubramanian, TNN |
CHENNAI: ABN Amro Central Enterprise Services (ACES), the BPO arm of ABN Amro Bank, is set to scale up headcount to 5,000 by June ’07, across its three locations in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. ACES is evaluating a number of tier-II cities and State capitals for further expansion.
Paul Abraham, managing director, ACES, told ET in Chennai that BPO operations have grown to over 3,700 people, across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai in the past four years, with an investment of about $50m in infrastructure, IT, staff and training.
“We wanted to have critical mass at each of these locations. Having done that, we are thinking in terms of business continuity and disaster recovery,” Mr Abraham said. ACES would create mirror capacities at these centres and integrate operations at the work-flow level. If a disaster were to strike one location, the work would move to some other location seamlessly, he said.
ACES operates from multiple sites in each city to take care of any site-level disaster. The Chennai centre has a 1,400-seat facility. It would be moving from an incubation centre to a new 900-seat facility at Olympia IT Park, Guindy. In Delhi, it has a 600-seat facility and it is taking up another 900-seat facility at Infinity. In Mumbai, it operates out of two centres with 1,300 seats and plans to add 600-700 seats through a third facility. “We are creating facilities to support our growth,” Mr Abraham noted.
“We are looking at about eight locations, including Mangalore, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Kolkatta,” he said. The BPO would choose a centre based on the availability of infrastructure, talent, connectivity, hotels and even entertainment, he added. “These factors are important when you bring in customers, and also to retain talent,” Mr Abraham said.
Mr Abraham said the BPO’s attrition rate was lower than that of the industry. The perception of BPO work has changed as Indian BPOs take up high-value activities. Even some call-centre jobs that used to be seen as a low-skilled activity involved a high degree of knowledge, he said. ABN Amro was offering a range of high-value services to the bank’s global business, he added. Mr Abraham said the BPO was pro-active in recruiting differently-abled people. Disabilities such as deafness, cerebral palsy and dyslexia demand a change in the processes.
“Once you make those changes, they are as good as others,” Venkatesh Subbaraman, ED, services operations, transaction banking, ACES, said.
Paul Abraham, managing director, ACES, told ET in Chennai that BPO operations have grown to over 3,700 people, across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai in the past four years, with an investment of about $50m in infrastructure, IT, staff and training.
“We wanted to have critical mass at each of these locations. Having done that, we are thinking in terms of business continuity and disaster recovery,” Mr Abraham said. ACES would create mirror capacities at these centres and integrate operations at the work-flow level. If a disaster were to strike one location, the work would move to some other location seamlessly, he said.
ACES operates from multiple sites in each city to take care of any site-level disaster. The Chennai centre has a 1,400-seat facility. It would be moving from an incubation centre to a new 900-seat facility at Olympia IT Park, Guindy. In Delhi, it has a 600-seat facility and it is taking up another 900-seat facility at Infinity. In Mumbai, it operates out of two centres with 1,300 seats and plans to add 600-700 seats through a third facility. “We are creating facilities to support our growth,” Mr Abraham noted.
“We are looking at about eight locations, including Mangalore, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Kolkatta,” he said. The BPO would choose a centre based on the availability of infrastructure, talent, connectivity, hotels and even entertainment, he added. “These factors are important when you bring in customers, and also to retain talent,” Mr Abraham said.
Mr Abraham said the BPO’s attrition rate was lower than that of the industry. The perception of BPO work has changed as Indian BPOs take up high-value activities. Even some call-centre jobs that used to be seen as a low-skilled activity involved a high degree of knowledge, he said. ABN Amro was offering a range of high-value services to the bank’s global business, he added. Mr Abraham said the BPO was pro-active in recruiting differently-abled people. Disabilities such as deafness, cerebral palsy and dyslexia demand a change in the processes.
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“Once you make those changes, they are as good as others,” Venkatesh Subbaraman, ED, services operations, transaction banking, ACES, said.
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