The Hindu Business Line : ISO plans quality norms for call centres

FOLLOWING the US backlash on outsourcing of services to developing countries like India, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) is planning to come up with quality standard norms for call centres.

Speaking at the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the ISO Secretary General, Mr Alan Bryden, said, "We need to initiate formation of international standards on call centres given the fact that these have become a major source of business all over the world." He added that India was the leader in the call centre business and would like to remain in the forefront of framing these practises.

Mr Nirmal Singh, Director General, Bureau of India Standards (BIS) said that the issue was very sensitive. "We have so far not committed to anything," he said. But once specific ISO standards are fixed, they will be used as a benchmark for the quality of services provided and also linked to pay scales. So far the IT and call centre industry has been allowed to develop without linking them to any standardisation, he added.

Mr Bryden further said that some countries had already national standards for call centre services but there were no international standards. "To initiate the process of setting up a standard, a market study is first conducted to establish that creating a standard in a particular sector is needed. At least five members of the ISO should concur with the proposal of having a standard," he said. A technical committee has not yet been set up.

He said another area, which the ISO was focusing on was IT and 15 per cent of the standards the organisation published every year was related to this sector. "Standardisation of security systems including those related to IT is a priority area for the ISO," he said.

The ISO is also working on the area of standardising norms for travel related services and security related issues. Mr Bryden said that with various travel related information available on the Internet, it was important to have standards there as well, especially with respect to information about tourist offices, hotels and restaurants. Another area of importance is biometrics, which concerns movement of people. "Already there are restrictions on movement of people and each country has new practises for circulation of people as there are a number of security concerns," he added.

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