ABN Amro BPO to up headcount to 5,000

Economic Times
ABN Amro Central Enterprise Services (ACES), the BPO arm of ABN Amro Bank, is set to scale up headcount to 5,000 by June ’07, across its three locations in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. ACES is evaluating a number of tier-II cities and State capitals for further expansion. Paul Abraham, managing director, ACES, told ET in Chennai that BPO operations have grown to over 3,700 people, across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai in the past four years, with an investment of about $50m in infrastructure, IT, staff and training. “We wanted to have critical mass at each of these locations. Having done that, we are thinking in terms of business continuity and disaster recovery,” Mr Abraham said. ACES would create mirror capacities at these centres and integrate operations at the work-flow level. If a disaster were to strike one location, the work would move to some other location seamlessly, he said. more...

Low-cost carriers take to outsourcing to stay fit

EconomicTimes.com
To mitigate the effect of increasing costs, low-cost airlines are increasingly looking at outsourcing to lower their operational expenses. While Air Deccan is in talks with an Indian company to outsource its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) needs, GoAir recently announced its joint venture with Singapore Airline Engineering Company to provide MRO services in the country. Some others are also expected to follow suit. Outsourcing fits well in their business model because of the overcapacity in the low-cost airline segment. Indian low-cost carriers (LCCs) are therefore high on outsourcing following a global trend to this effect. “For LCC outsourcing is a good option as it helps in cutting capital costs and increasing efficiency. Besides, by outsourcing they are partnering with the best in industry,” says Kapil Kaul, CEO, Indian Subcontinent and Middle East, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA). Most LCCs are outsourcing their ground handling and heavy maintenance to an extent. more...