How many times have we heard the complaint ‘why when I call my local company do I get diverted to a call centre in another country?’ In the UK, this seems to be all we ever hear. Well like it or lump it, offshore call centres are here to stay.
This week, Computer Business Review revealed research from Datamonitor which concluded: “Despite struggling against overwhelmingly negative public opinion the benefits of moving work to low-cost locations are now well established, and it is clear that offshoring is here to stay”. To summarize ‘moan all you want, its not going away’. Also, here is an idea – if you’re an end-user – why not have a really good call centre?!
Call centres however have not been the biggest news in the sourcingfocus.com news room. Once again, IT outsourcing has been the main theme of the outsourcing news. Understandably the public are not as consumed with concerns regarding the running of their IT as they are over who answers their phone calls.
One of the major ITO contracts reported on this week was Amnesty International’s deal with Claranet. Claranet, a managed services provider, will support the charity’s website and social networking activities.
Amnesty has streamlined its IT which, according to the charity’s head of IT, was complicated in the past. Prior to the contract with Claranet, Amnesty’s online properties were managed by multiple suppliers which were demanding to manage.
Again another ITO contract reported on this week was between a Brazilian sugar-energy group and IBM. COSAN signed the $4.5 million (Brazilian Real) contract to have its IT infrastructure updated. I could think of worse places to work.
And finally, the US Agency for International Development signed a contract with CSC. The $200 million contract is set to modernise the governmental department’s technology infrastructure.
The USA more than most, seems to be contributing to embrace the outsourcing model despite previous protectionist sentiment. I guess it is up to the rest of the world to follow suite. Offshoring is an important part of the industry and, from the recent reports, the public will need to get used to it.
