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V. Rishi Kumar

Hyderabad , Sept. 18

WITH the new legislation that seeks to regulate the functioning of call centres in the US set to come into effect from November 1, changes in the way these centres would have to handle their business are in the offing.

The Chairman and Managing Director of the Hyderabad-based VisualSoft Technologies Ltd, Mr D.V.S. Raju, told Business Line on the sidelines of the company AGM on Wednesday that given the proposed changes, the outlook for call centres handling outbound calls seems to be getting tougher by the day. This would mean call centre companies, operating out of the US, and also which are outsourcing their business, will have to re-orient their strategies.

"There will be a sea change in the way these call centres will henceforth work, given the norms set by the new legislation. As against calls from these call centres to attract customers, this move seeks to invite customers to make a call to the call centre for a product or service, and those who will make a call will henceforth be incentivised." When asked to clarify if this will impact the overall outsourcing business from India, Mr Raju said that there was no way out for global corporations but to seek ways to cut down on their costs. And this can be best achieved by leveraging the advantages of cost savings that outsourcing brings to them.

"But, certainly, the existing call centres handling inbound and outbound traffic, will have to in a way, change their business models to meet these new norms."

"On the other hand, in areas such as technical help desk, which calls for specialised skills, and in high-end areas such as handling accounting for global corporations, just as Ernst & Young handles out of Bangalore, or for that matter in areas of various legal services, we will see more business," he said.

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`Call centres have to change tack to tackle new US law'

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