The Hindu Business Line : exevo plans to tap tourists to do market research, translation

Info-Tech - Outsourcing
Industry & Economy - Tourism

exevo plans to tap tourists to do market research, translation — Work-holiday model in conceptual stage

Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee

New Delhi , Sept 26

WHEN it comes to tapping opportunities in the emerging knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) space, companies seem to be devising novel ways. Driven by a client push to take on an increasing amount of work in foreign languages, KPO company exevo is toying with the idea of tapping visiting Europeans such as students and tourists on short duration trips for doing voice-based market research work in French, German, and Spanish, in return for part-funding their vacation.

"The idea is at a conceptual stage, but we are considering starting a programme where we will utilise the capabilities of visiting European tourists and students who are on an at least three-month trip to India," said Mr Manish Modi, CEO of exevo.

"We will offer them an option to work for a particular period, say 3-4 weeks out of their three-month stay in India, in return for a suitable remuneration. These people would require permission to work in the country on a temporary basis. The model is currently being looked at and it is still too early to talk about details."

Headquartered in New York with delivery facility in India, exevo provides a range of research outsourcing and support services including data collection, data entry, data processing, and data analysis.

To offer this `work-holiday' arrangement, the company plans to tie up with universities as well as travel companies based in India and Europe.

"For us, the arrangement would bring knowledge about their local market as well as language capabilities. More importantly, it is a cost-effective model."

Currently, exevo's Indian operations are focused on market research in various languages including French, German, Spanish, and Arabic, besides English.

Some of the work is done by its own employees, while others are sourced through various tie-ups that the company has.

With regard to its new plans, the company would look at a screening programme for those people who travel to India for ensuring quality, and provide them with a week-long training programme.

"The tourists and students would focus on voice-based market research in foreign language as well as foreign language translation and surveys," Mr Modi said.

When contacted, a visa and immigration consultant said that such an arrangement would require an employment visa and a contract letter by the employer.

exevo, which has tie-ups with various firms, has 275-300 professionals working on orders undertaken by the company.

"Of this, 100 are our own employees and the rest are through existing tie-ups with companies including call centres. By December-end we will have 400 in-house professionals. They will be based in our new facility in Delhi that has 525 seats - which in multiple shifts can house 800-1,000 people."

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