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Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii spoke Tuesday with Wall Street Journal reporter Alison Tudor at the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo. Read excerpts from the interview.
On the Japanese economy:
"I'm not sure if the numbers are going to get worse but up until now we had an export-led economy. In the month of August exports had a 36% decline. I think the economic situation is reflecting the fact that we were heavily dependent on exports, so we believe we have to steer our economy into a domestic demand-led economy, so we are now working on a major economic policy shift.
"I think this policy change has only become possible with the change of government. In the past it was very difficult because it meant a major policy change to change this export-led economic management."
* * *
On U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner:
"The other day I met with [Timothy] Geithner, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, and I told him about our intended policy change and he said this policy direction matches well the course that American economic policy is pursuing, and indeed that world economic policy is pursuing.
"As you know, in the U.S., Geithner is trying to revert the U.S. economy into a savings-led economy, and he wants to see a strengthened dollar."
* * *
On structural changes:
"By fiscal means, we would like to implement the reallocation of resources to as many people as possible directly.
"We shouldn't be overly dependent on export growth. Recently 60% of Japanese GDP growth came from exports. That is quite abnormal, and something we have to correct.
"However, I'm not saying that exports altogether are wrong. Japan has an outstanding state-of-the-art technology. So through our state-of-the-art technology we can make a contribution to the international community."
* * *
On currency intervention:
"I for one do not believe that authorities should intervene in foreign-exchange markets in an excessive way. However, if forex market movements are outrageously reckless, or acting without any order, then I think some kind of measures are needed and I think that is the way it always is all over the world regarding foreign exchange policies."
* * *
On the yen:
"Looking at the current situation, I don't regard it as being extremely abnormal."
* * *
On the U.S. dollar:
"Looking at the economic competence and the economic prowess of the countries of the world, I see the United States by far exceeding other countries in terms of economic capability. I think currency is something that reflects the real economic prowess of any given country and therefore I have no doubt whatsoever that for the time being the key currency will be the U.S. dollar.
"The current situation stems from the fact that the dollar is weakened. The reason is that the U.S. is sticking to the consistent policy of low-interest rates. I respect the consistency of policy.
* * *
On China's advantages from a weakened dollar, because its currency is tied to the dollar and a weaker currency makes its exports attractive:
"This issue is not an issue of China alone. The U.S. dollar is involved. So saying something strong to China alone would not resolve the situation. This should be dealt with as part of the international currency problem."

With high cost structures during a recession, many Nordic countries are looking towards India to help them cut those costs by almost 30-40%. Some of the biggest banks in the Nordic region, NORDEA AB, Svenska Handelsbanken and SEB are looking at outsourcing technology to India.
According to a senior official of an offshore advisory firm, QuantumStep, Nordic companies studied many successful offshoring case studies like Ericsson and Ikea before considering India. Nordic countries prefer to start off with small contracts in the region of $10-20 million, but are expected to sign larger ones only after looking at the benefits of the earlier contracts. Belgium, another potentially huge market for service providers, is also signing contracts to the tune of almost $30-40 million and more, said the official from QuantumStep.

EquaTerra, an outsourcing advisory firm, in a study involving 370 contracts, signed by over 200 Nordic customers and worth around $4.3 billion, found that Indian service providers were better than their European counterparts such as TietoEnator and Capgemini when it came to quality of services offered. EquaTerra said in a recent report that there’s no doubt that India leads the pack when it comes to providing services for the Nordic firms with at least 61% of firms using India for all or at least some of their outsourcing needs.

Unlike other European markets, such as Germany, where labor laws make it difficult for service providers, Nordic countries are more flexible and this is what makes it more viable for India. Major Indian IT companies are looking at outsourcing contracts to the tune of $100 million each, in the coming years.

When Handelsbanken was looking at offshoring, it shortlisted many firms, including European and Indian ones, before finally deciding on Indian firms. Handelsbanken had tentatively been exploring offshoring for almost a year; the recession forced them into considering it as a definite possibility. Handelsbanken are looking for suppliers to maintain their legacy mainframe systems in addition to making them work with newer business software applications.
Though one top Indian IT firm confirmed that Nordic countries are indeed looking at outsourcing to India, others declined comment.

The head of the European division of an Indian IT firm says that the overall Nordic market will not grow much this year but the demand for outsourcing is seeing a steady growth. According to him, about 100 deals which have been signed over the past six to eight months are collectively in the vicinity of € 500,000 to € 150 million with the most significant one in size and in terms of frequency being in the vicinity of € 8-20 million.
Norway is expected to show a high IT market growth in Europe this year, around 1-2% every year, while most other markets have not grown or have declined.

According to Nasscom study, the current size of BPO industry is $11 billion and it is expected to grow by five-fold in size to $50 billion by the year 2012. This growth in Indian BPO will add nearly 2.5 percent to the India's GDP from the export earnings and employment to nearly 2 million people.
There is popular belief that,there are numerous job opportunities but fewer career opportunities in BPO sector. This is not true,the Indian BPO industry has boundless career opportunities. This is evident from the fact that, over the years the BPO services have grown from just voice to other customer relationship management services like human resources,finance and accounting, learning and procurement, animation and multimedia, legal transcription, content development, as well as industry-specific services focusing on the health care,insurance, pharmaceutical and utility industries.

The companies in the life science industry are quite familiar to the process of outsourcing. They outsource some of their critical process like drug discovery, product manufacture,clinical trials and data management. Thus the mainstream BPO service providers requires special knowledge and skill set to perform the traditional life science functions such as clinical data management and monitoring of drug safety.

India happens to be one of the most attractive destination for such specialized functions due to low cost benefits and availability of high skilled work force.
Today, the Indian BPO companies are creating comprehensive roles for employees by expanding globally and providing them the opportunity to work on multiple verticals. It is indeed a fast growing industry as it provides ample opportunity for growth and entrepreneurship.

This change in the role of BPO sector from transaction-processing to high end specialized services has led to the growing demand of skilled workforce. Today the industry needs capability development. Even the professionals with degrees like M.tech,MBBS,MBA, CA, ICWA are taking up work in domain specific back office processes in advisory,analytical and consulting arena. This requires a clear relationship between IT/BPO industry and the academic world which train the workforce with industry specific jobs.
Nowadays even parents are becoming more supportive to the youngsters who want to join the BPO industry because they genuinely see it as a long term career. There is a realization that, BPO are not only about call centers but providing the right opportunities, skills and global exposure. In a nutshell the employees in the BPO industry are now getting challenging careers with tremendous job opportunities,hands-on experience,information about the culture and customs of various countries across the globe. This experience in understanding and appreciation of diversity is valuable for their personal as well professional growth.

Of late, BPO industry does get support from reputed academia. There are companies who provide training programmes specifically designed for the BPO sector in collaboration with some of the renowned institutions of India. More courses of this nature are being designed by other companies to provide outsourcing services. This one step forward towards making BPO as a long term career opportunity.

outsourcing.

Today, any young entrepreneur who is getting into call centre business should understand that, he is entering into a commodity- like business.

Anyone who claims to offer innovative ideas regarding starting a call centre business is clearly not in the loop of the industry. One should accept the fact that, call centre business is not based on innovation but rather on strategies.
Given this, there are some people who go ahead with the proposition of call centre business. To start a call centre business you need to arrange for a certain amount of capital. After having finalized that you want to get into call centre business, it is imperative that you need the infrastructure in place. Then plan out for a core team to propel your business and around ten trained call centre agents to start the pilot process.

If any call centre firm has to make a mark in the call centre business, the focus should be on high-end quality. Any call centre business will excel if there are experienced people in the company. Accent neutralization and training in various situations is must. The message should be very clear in terms of handling a call. This is an intense business and there is no getting back after the call has been messed up.

The next is to register under STPI so as to get maximum benefit of duty free imports for all kinds of computer hardware. In addition to this, the other important requirements are carpet area, equipment, communication and manpower. The carpet area can range from 55-155 sq feet per agent and this depends on number of seats. It also depends on the number of services rendered by the centre.

You can estimate the total carpet area by planning the space for facilities, amenities and support areas. The communication or connectivity depends on the volume of traffic and services rendered by the call centre firm.
For example a 200- seat call centre will usually invest in a 2 Mbps international private leased circuit for inbound services. This will comprise of two half circuits in India and the other two in US or UK through an international carrier.
The manpower employed in call centre falls under two broad headings. These are operations or agent and management or support staff. The ratio between the two depends on variety of parameters based on organization, services deployed and the client requirement.

Next comes the technological needs, in terms of technical resources the following things are needed like a voice witch/EPABX, modems, routers, multiplexers ( for data and voice transport), RISC/CISC servers, headsets, desktops, IVR( Interactive Voice Response), E1/T1 circuits for connectivity, CTI( Computer Telephony Integration) and ACD( Automatic Call Distributor) are needed.

One can look up to spending $10,000 per agent for setting up a call centre that includes all types of expenses. The cost of maintenance for a seat would be around $4000-$5000 per year. The industry experts say that most of the operation costs will be two- third of their billings.

One thing which has been highlighted before is the consistent delivery of value services and no BPO firm should be generalist but should have an expertise in certain vertical. In terms of getting clients, the company should have a core team who have gone through a learning process in a call centre and the essential team of HR, Finance, Trainers and Operations in place.

Speaking in terms of return on investment, if a call centre business is managed efficiently, the entrepreneur can reap profits within two or three years in business. One more important aspect of this business is the attrition level of BPO industry. One should have proper recruitment plan in mind and should try to stick to it.

What is a call center?

A call center is centralized office where large volumes of requests are received and transmitted by telephone. A call center is a place set by a company to administer incoming product support or to answer the queries of the customers. It is a physical place where customers and telephone calls are handled by a BPO service provider usually with the help of computer automation. Typically, a call center has the capability of handling considerable volumes of calls, screen calls, forward them to qualified agent who can handle calls and log them.

Types of call center:

Call center are of two types, these are outbound call center and inbound call center

The other types of call center are web enabled call center, CRM (customer relationship management) call center, telemarketing call center and phone call center

What are the key responsibilities of outbound call center personnel?

• Make outgoing calls to prospective customers to promote product and services
• Update relevant information in the database as and when required
• The agent is expected to stick to the highest standard of quality and compliance.
• Be friendly and courteous to the customers.
• Make sales to the required target.

What are the key responsibilities of inbound call center personnel?

• Handle inbound calls relating to customer queries on a product or service.
• To offer customized services that are designed to meet the requirements of the business.
• To integrate customer care services.
• To understand the business, product and services
• Help in maximizing the efforts of direct marketing.

How does a call center function?

A typical call center functions in the following way, a caller dials a toll free number that is connected to a customer support center. When the call reaches a call center, a trained call center agent answers the call and has access to wide database of information. The dedicated telecommunication links connects the remote call center to the parent organization through voice links and online database access. Therefore even if the caller may be calling a local US number but the calls will be diverted to an offshore BPO service provider.

What are the application areas of call center?

• Sales support
• Technical queries
• Database development
• Complaint handling
• Relationship and accounts management
• Lead generation and follow up
• Telemarketing
• Credit and billing
• Market research

How to start a call center?

Starting a call center is a complex, time consuming and expensive business. The steps to start a call center may vary depending on whether you want to start an in-house or outsourcing call center. Similarly the equipment and manpower requirement is also different for an inbound and outbound call center. Both large and medium sized companies are realizing the benefits of call center. Starting a call center of your can be a lucrative business. Here are some points to consider while starting a call center.

• Study the call center industry and select a location.
• Examine the four basic types of call center.
• Determine the process, permit and licenses required in order to comply with the rules and regulation of your area.
• Compare the prices of equipment such as Internet and telephone.
• Define the company’s strategy and methods that you will apply to measure the productivity, quality, customers and employee satisfaction.
• Create a business plan and outline the business goals, financial needs, staffing plan and logistics
• Choose a business mentor. There are experts who offer business advice to entrepreneurs, their advice can be beneficial.

Most of the in-house call center function as part of the business and provides services for that business. While an outsourcing call center is the one that provides BPO services to other companies. By knowing the basics of call center industry one can successfully venture into call center business. The next important goal is to follow the plan, improve it, expand it and fine-tune it.

Today many companies outsource their inbound customer services to an offshore call center. Most of the business owners have a hard time to give up the responsibility to their own employees, let alone an outsider. Customers are lifeline of any business and most of the companies value their esteemed customers. Most of the large business houses outsource the non-core aspects of their business after much thought and extensive research.

Today, the companies have realized that, customer service outsourcing is an important tool to boost sales and gain maximum revenues. While there are still many who are reluctant to outsource their inbound customer services. The truth is that in today's competitive business environment inbound customer service is smart choice. It allows companies to handle the important aspects of their business. Most of the reputed call centers have skilled work force. They are professional and are trained to handle calls proficiently which are needed to manage a business successfully.

Inbound customer service is important for retention of customers. Acquiring a new customer is seven times more costly than keeping the existing ones. An inbound customer representative understands the importance of customer relations and manages those relations in most professional manner. The call center services offered by an outsourcing firm is tailored to place the importance of customer service.

The inbound customer service offered by reputed call center is focused to make each customer a customer for life. A professional call center agent makes sure that each phone call that he or she handles results in something positive that your business can build upon. They play a pivotal role in making sure that the customers are satisfied with your product and services.

By outsourcing inbound customer service, a company actually increases the level of customer service. A call center has trained operators that are always available to handle customers need,concerns and problems. They process the requests of the customers as well as answer the queries of the customers related to the product or services. They also take all necessary action to resolve each and every issue so that the customers have unmatched level of satisfaction.

Today running a small or a large business is a daunting task. This is due to labor costs, recruiting problems and ever changing telecommunication equipment. At this time inbound customer service provides the basic ingredient for a company's success.

The call centres in India providing inbound customer service are well equipped with good infrastructure, highly qualified agents, security solutions and cutting edge technology.

The call centres in India have state-of-the-art multimedia centers that offer multichannel interaction through voice email, SMS and fax services. There is no doubt that Indian call centres can handle a range of outsourcing services.

Some of the inbound call centre services have specialization in appointment setting, research surveys, lead generation, debt collection, consumer response, dealer locators, direct mail response, email management services, help desk solutions, inquiry handling, interactive voice response, product technical information and telemarketing in verticals like mortgage, insurance, telecom industries. The inbound customer service includes order taking, technical support, customer service, answering service and help desk services.

In today’s business environment outsourcing is often not a decision that needs to be justified. Some of the non core business functions that are handled internally could be outsourced. Business process outsourcing refers to the rearrangement of entire business functions to some other BPO service provider. Most of the companies that look to outsource are multinationals or companies from the western part of the world. Most of the BPO units are in countries like India, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Kenya and even Russia.

Customer Communications Group, Inc. (CCG), a full-service customer relationship marketing agency, and Pluris Marketing, a provider of multi-channel marketing solutions that optimize the value of each consumer engagement, today announced the formation of a strategic partnership to provide marketers with the groundbreaking promotions optimization solution, COMP. COMP, the CCG Optimized Marketing Platform, drives traffic from a business’ most profitable customers with minimal impact to resources by combining engaging customer content with Pluris’ proven real-time data analysis and sophisticated modeling.

"COMP is all about making customer-centricity easy for our clients, and Pluris brings to the table a high-functioning, real-time optimization technology that is simply unequaled in the industry," said Sandra Gudat, President and CEO of CCG.

The partnership idea between the two companies began when Gudat and Pluris Marketing’s Senior Vice President, Bob Fetter, had a conversation about the state of traditional segmentation and offer versioning. Both knew they had complementary resources for a one-of-a-kind promotions optimization offering.

"The match between CCG and Pluris seemed like the perfect combination," Fetter said. "We knew that both CCG and Pluris Marketing clients needed a better way to produce highly targeted, relevant communications. Many of our clients understand that more than half of all of their promotions were disproportionately reducing margins on generated revenues."

Gudat agreed. "This partnership allows us to meet a need that’s been growing in the marketplace for some time. And now, because of the current economic climate, that need for an ROI-based, seamless optimization offering has grown exponentially."

The COMP product will reduce the time needed to gather customer data, analyze it and respond to it with a customized offer from more than six months to less than one day.

I have to leave now as I have to catch the news of Soccer 2010 World Cup

Cognizant Building

The global organizations all over the world have always preferred India to outsource their non-core business services. Today, outsourcing BPO services in India has almost become a norm for many global companies. In fact, BPO services are one of the fast growing segments of Information Technology Enabled Services( ITES) industry. India has constantly been able to provide the growing demand for BPO services in terms of cost effectiveness and customer support contact centers.

Over the years, many call centers have mushroomed in India, because India has a huge array of working professionals. Most of the work force here, specializes in science and technology. BPO services also help in time management and proper use of resources. In other words, it can said that BPO services in India help organizations to improve their level of efficiency as well as effectiveness.

Most of the offshore clients outsource work to India due to multiple reasons. These have been summarized below :

• More number of English speaking tech-savvy professionals
• Expertise in all types of customer support services.
• Time zone advantages enables offshore clients with 24 -hour support services.
• Large, skilled and educated work force.
• Specialized BPO services
• Supportive and flexible Indian government policies.
• Equipped with latest technology and high end infrastructure.
• Cost-effective BPO services.
• Confidence and trust of global organizations

The common BPO services in India are as follows:

Inbound call center services

• Outbound call center services
• Order taking services
• Telemarketing services
• Technical help desk services
• Email support services
• Chat enabled services.
• Business transcription services
• Medical transcription services
• Human resource outsourcing
• Accounting services

BPO services in India is undergoing a sea change. This radical transformation has give rise to many new areas of outsourcing. The BPO services in India offer a wide range of cost-effective and quality driven services. Here are some of the new areas of BPO services in India.

• Research and analytics services
• Data entry services
• Financial services
• Engineering services
• E-learning solutions
• Creative services
• Web designing services
• Health care services
• E-governance services
• Retail services
• Pharmaceutical services and a host of other services

The BPO services is one of the fastest growing segments in India. BPO has also attracted huge number of youngsters to join the industry. Most of the young and sharp minds are willing to work in 24X7 environment. Most of the companies globally are looking India as a potential option because Indian companies have proved themselves with quality services and high end performance. Today, some of the world's big giants have their base in India. India has been the main hub for BPO services around the globe. Most of the successful BPO ventures have encouraged more and more companies to outsource their BPO services to India.

Twenty-one Indian companies, including Infosys Technologies, TataConsultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro, are among the top 100 BPO firmsin the world, according to a new study.

Five of the Indian firmsfiguring among the 10 best outsourcing service providers are: Infosys(No.3), TCS (6), Wipro (7), Genpact (9) and Tech Mahindra (10),according to the study - '2008 Global Outsourcing 100' - compiled bythe International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). Accentureand IBM head the list published as an advertising feature by IAOP inthe current Fortune 500 issue of Fortune magazine. The other 16 Indian companies in the list are HCL Technology (11), Mastek (16), WNS Global Services

There are not many bright spots in the Philippine economy these days. Exports are tanking. Remittances are tumbling; and some of the country’s legion of so-called overseas workers are returning home from the hardest-hit of world markets. Amidst this, one B.C. company, Telus, is deepening its reach into the Philippines’ BPO or business processing outsourcing industry, which is expected to post stellar growth of 20 to 30 per cent in 2009. This month, Telus International opened its fourth call centre in Manila, one that currently employs 900 workers, but will ramp up to include at least 3,000, possibly by the end of the year. To fill these new positions, Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said the company would “absolutely” look to hiring from a growing pool of returning workers to the Philippines.

“Because of its history as a U.S. colony, the Philippines is a great place to run these kinds of businesses,” Hall said. “People there have very good educational levels, speak English well and have an affinity to North American culture, as well as lots of family.”

In recent months, a slew of other mid-sized and large BPO centres like the one opened by Telus have announced their own expansion plans, according to Manila-based consultant Michael Hamlin. His clients, including Convergys, TeleTech, eTelecare, Sitel and StarTek, have been keeping him busy with one inauguration ceremony to another. “BPO really is the only bright spot,” he said in an interview. “Everyone I know is hiring.” A new survey published jointly by Hamlin’s company, Team Asia, and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines found that more than 80 per cent of respondents said they will increase their workforces this year and almost 50 per cent cited a growth of between 10 and 200 per cent. The BPAP is projecting 30-per-cent growth for the industry overall.

For an increasing number of clients, Hamlin said, the Philippines is one of many BPO centres in an international string. “For risk mitigation, they don’t just want a presence in India or just in Eastern Europe or North America,” he said. Indeed, while the bulk of Telus International’s employees are already in the Philippines, the company recently announced plans to open a 1,000-seat centre in Las Vegas and three others in Central America.

Speaking to reporters at the opening of the new facility in Manila, Telus International president Jeffrey Puritt emphasized that the expansion is focused on getting beyond basic call centre capabilities into more complex tasks such as network troubleshooting, risk analysis, human resources and finance. He said: “As the contact centre industry evolves, it’s more than just voice. The trend is definitely up the value chain.” However, how exactly to move up is a big issue for the industry, said Hamlin. “Finding people with supervisory and managerial skills is key,” he said. There definitely was a more sobering side to the survey’s results, which suggests that it will not just be a matter of plugging in casualties of the global economic slowdown, that is, would-be or returning overseas workers into the Philippine BPO industry. Almost 70 per cent of BPOs said that they hire only 10 per cent or fewer of the applicants that apply for work, indicating that a significant skills mismatch continues to exist, according to Hamlin. Survey respondents cited oral and written communication skills as the biggest gap, followed by analytical thinking and problem solving. In Vancouver, Maria Javier, a program manager at Multicultural Helping House, which is helping foreign workers from the Philippines cope with the economic downturn, added that while it might seem encouraging to hear that BPO facilities are faring well, most workers from the Philippines who lose their jobs here and face being forced to return will find little comfort in such news.