Rising investment in India`s IT-enabled services (ITES) sector is delivering a steady stream of business for Datacraft Asia. The application network integrator has won a string of contracts, worth more than $7 million in the last nine months, from international firms migrating call centre operations to India and local companies establishing customer contact outsourcing operations.
In the past nine months, Datacraft has clinched network design, implementation and support contracts from some ITES operations such as AOL, Ocwin Financials, Phoenix, Dell, Spectramind, GE and Amex in various provinces. A notable success has been Datacraft`s multiphase engagement with GE Capital International Services (GECIS), which established a trend among international companies to relocate call centre and other back office functions to India and is now the country`s biggest call centre operator.
"The euphoria about the call centre business in India is second only to dot-coms but there`s one vital difference - while the dot-com bubble burst, the call centre business worldwide continues to thrive," said Dilip Kumar, regional director of Datacraft India. "India does not have to invent anything new to succeed in this market; it just has to leverage its inherent strengths of language and increasing technical sophistication. This is an excellent niche market for Datacraft and promises continued opportunities to sell sophisticated networks and high-value services for several years to come.
"Our expertise in complex project management has enabled us to build a strong track record of successful implementation work encompassing multi-site and multi-country deployments. And since these electronic contact centres are clearly mission-critical operations, there`s plenty of scope to provide them with carrier-grade managed network services from the new Datacraft StarTRAC in Bangalore."
According to a report released by NASCOM-McKinsey published earlier this year, export earnings by India`s ITES sector is projected to be between $21 billion to $24 billion in 2008 with the domestic market worth another $13 billion to $15 billion.
Datacraft`s involvement with GECIS began with a project to replace its existing wide area network infrastructure without impacting customer service operations. Having been brought in on a consultancy basis, Datacraft`s high level of commitment resulted in it being given the prime contractor role for the full implementation, entailing deployment at GECIS`s four Indian call centres plus several locations in the US and Australia.
Subsequent expansion projects, for which Datacraft has been appointed the technology partner, have seen the number of GECIS customer service seats in India rise from 3 000 to 8 000 and is due to hit 10 000 next year. GECIS serves 22 companies within the GE Group and up to 50% of its capacity is being devoted to non-GE customers. Datacraft is now supporting GECIS on a 24x7 basis with resident engineering teams at its major locations in India.
Concurrent with the growth of call centre seats in India, Datacraft has also benefited from the trend to upgrade call centres to IP-based contact centres incorporating e-mail, Web-based instant messaging and ultimately real-time multimedia communications. Much of this demand is being driven by US-based technology companies looking to outsource customer service functions to Datacraft`s customers such as Phoenix Global Solutions and Talisma.
Datacraft built India`s first full-fledged IP contact centre for Talisma Corporation, Bangalore. Datacraft`s IP Contact Centre solution delivers intelligent call routing, network-to-desktop computer telephony integration, and multimedia contact management to contact centre agents over an IP network. By combining software automated call distribution functionality with IP telephony in a unified solution, it enables Talisma to support its customers` global e-sales and e-service initiatives.
"Keeping in mind the dynamic nature of the call centre business, we specifically developed a network solution that is flexible enough to support multiple and upcoming technologies and can be upgraded to accommodate new and additional modules in response to expanding voice or agent requirements," said Kumar.
"Call centre integration business is going to be one of the strategic developments in Datacraft. This is not new to us. Dimension Data, the major shareholder of Datacraft, has a proven track record in call centre integration with major customers such as Telstra, Optus, Westpac and Australia ANZ. India represents a huge opportunity for us to provide end-to-end infrastructure and call centre integration services," added Vincent Lum, Director, Marketing.
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Datacraft Asia is the leading independent IT services company in Asia Pacific. It specialises in providing IT solutions and services that enable businesses to operate seamlessly across Application Networks. Application Networks are the convergence of two previous separate areas of IT: application integration and network infrastructure.
The group`s expertise in networking integration, application deployment and global managed services makes it uniquely positioned to deliver the IT solutions that businesses need to connect information, applications, business processes, people and organisations. A member of the worldwide Dimension Data, Datacraft Asia is listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange and is a component company of the Straits Times Index. Anchored by a distributed headquarters in Hong Kong and Singapore, Datacraft spans more than 50 offices and 1 500 staff in 13 Asia Pacific markets. More information about Datacraft Asia can be found on the Web at www.datacraft-asia.com.
Dimension Data
Dimension Data Holdings plc (LSE: DDT) is a leading global technology services company. It specialises in providing and managing IT solutions based upon a new architecture called the Application Network. These solutions enable businesses to evolve their IT infrastructures incrementally to reduce both capital and operational IT costs by removing systems duplication and inefficiency. At the same time, they help businesses create competitive advantage by enabling them to operate seamlessly and flexibly.
Application Network architectures are the result of the convergence of two previously separate areas of IT: application integration and network infrastructure. Dimension Data`s unusual combination of expertise in networking, application integration and global managed services makes it uniquely positioned to deliver these solutions, connecting devices, information, applications, business processes, people and organisations.
Dimension Data`s priority solutions address those areas in a client`s infrastructure where there is greatest duplication and waste and the opportunity for significant and immediate ROI. They include: security, storage, IPT, customer interactive services, service provider solutions and offshore resourcing.
Dimension Data, founded in 1983, had revenues of $2.4 billion in 2001 and operates in 30+ countries with over 9 500 employees.
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