Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, May 18, 2004 |
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Info-Tech
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IT Training Exclusive training for Reliance Info call centre cadre Kripa Raman
Mumbai , May 17 THE training demands of some of the country's mega-sized call centres are so large that educational institutes are sprouting entire client-specific departments to cater to the new opportunity. At least two training outfits — NIIT Ltd and the Centre for Excellence Management, Research and Development of the Mumbai-based South India Education Society (SIES) — have signed Memoranda of Understanding with Reliance Infocomm for the latter's call centre training programme. Part of the training is for the immediate needs of Reliance Infocomm; however, it appears that the training is also with a view to priming the corporate's call centre for its future BPO and outsourcing activities. "This means they would handle call centres for others as well. In any case, they plan to be a global player in outsourcing. So, we are also going to train call centre managers and operational heads. In fact, we are developing manager programmes which will lead to a diploma or certificate course," said Professor K. Neelakantan, Director (Call Centre and Executive Training) at the SIES Centre for Excellence Management. "Call centre employees would need to evolve, and we are offering them career growth and management skills; they cannot grow unless they acquire managerial skills as well." The Centre for Excellence Management's call centre training programme is currently devoted to training Reliance Infocomm employees, said Prof Neelakantan. Earlier, trainees would be picked up by the institute from the SIES-run colleges in Mumbai, put through a course, and invariably be picked up by Reliance Infocomm. At present, Reliance itself does the hiring and sends its recruits to the centre, said Prof Neelakantan. The recruits are given training in soft skills, product knowledge, telephone etiquette, attitudinal development and general customer relationship management. A 21-day call centre learning programme is the standard bullet course. In time to come, the centre is going to develop training programmes for all of Reliance Infocomm's call centre cadre, said Prof Neelakantan. Reliance's call centre capacity is 5,500, while the actual number of employees is over 3,200. A spokesperson at NIIT said the company did have a MoU with Reliance Infocomm for the latter's training needs. "However, we cannot provide moredetails," he said. Call centre training is almost a virgin field and few institutes in the country have recognised courses or certified training programmes to offer. It will be no time before other training institutes in the country develop programmes in call centre management. "We are among the early birds, that is all," said an official with the SIES group.
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