The Hindu Business Line : Cable damage: Redundancy plans save outsourcing cos

Bangalore, Jan. 31 Outsourcing firms are battling the crisis following a cable disruption on Wednesday in various ways – from conserving bandwidth and picking up extra bandwidth to better time management and efficiency. At a time when many networks are going down, companies which had put in place contingency plans are reaping the benefits of their foresightedness.

A common complaint is slow access to the Internet. But companies say this has not really affected operations. Says Mr Pradeep Narayanan, Chief Delivery Officer, 24/7 Customer – a BPO firm in Bangalore, “Though there is a marginally slower access to Internet, this has not disrupted or affected our operations. Our IT team is working closely with our service providers to ensure that operations continue to function seamlessly.”

Tulip IT services of Delhi has a redundancy plan that allows it to pick up extra bandwidth from multiple service providers. With its providers Bharti, Reliance and Reach going down at various points, the company is picking up extra bandwidth from other service providers.

Col. R.S. Perhar, CEO, Tulip IT Services, and Secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of India, says: “Any large BPO will have adequate redundancy plans in place which will enable switching traffic between service providers. Of course, there will be some impact – like slow speed and disruption in data flow. But it is only the smaller BPOs and the individual retail customers who depend on a single service provider for bandwidth who will be largely affected.”

The Bangalore-based Unisys, which offers voice-based technical support, has also geared itself to face emergencies. The company has circuits on both the Pacific and Atlantic routes, thus ensuring that it has 100 per cent back-up at all times. Its two providers – AT&T and Masergy – offer 100 per cent redundancy (back-up). “This means any one circuit can carry out all the workload without affecting operations,” says Mr Mukul Agrawal, Managing Director, Unisys.

Ms Shoma Bakre, Co-Founder and Director of Empower Research, a KPO firm in Bangalore, says its staff have been “scrambling to meet deadlines” as its work relies heavily on the Internet for its research functions. “Since our work involves sending out reports on the dot, we are tiding over by managing time better. We are also instructing our staff to conserve bandwidth and not use the Internet for any other purpose other than research. Internal communication through the Internet is off,” she says.

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