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Saturday 8 November 2014

Install GPS in BPO Cabs

From the Archives-3: This manuscript which was recovered had been written seven years ago following a tragic incident...
Concern for BPO employees safety
The gruesome rape and murder of one of our industry
colleagues at Pune by her driver yesterday (08 November 2007) has once again shaken the BPO industry nation-wide. As an EXLite in particular and BPO fraternity in general we extend our deepest sympathies to the bereaved family members.

The victim Jyotikumari Ramnand Chaudhuri, a 22-year old working as an associate at Wipro Spectra-mind call centre in Pune was on a late night shift on that fateful day. The incident occured while she was being transported to office. The driver and his friend who was in the cab later strangled and smashed her skull.

This incident has raised the central question for a safe
transportation for BPO employees. Here at EXL security measures had been beefed up following the
2005 tragic incident in Bangalore when a newly 24-year old employee of HP Globalsoft was raped and murdered by a person posing as her driver. It was then EXL Service Holdings Inc Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Vikram Talwar initiated pro-active steps to provide the highest level of security for all its employees. This had indeed paid some dividends - touch wood, no such incident of such nature has ever occurred to date.

After analysing a cross section of the media reports, post Pune incident suggests that there is a crying need to implement few important measures on a priority basis by all BPOs so as to foil any such attacks on its employees in the near future. Among the major ones include the following:

Global Positioning System (GPS): It must be made mandatory to install GPS in all cabs operating in the BPO sector and a deadline must be fixed for all the vendors to comply with it.

GPS is a satellite based device mounted on the dash-board of a car through which movement of a vehicle
 can be monitored by the transport/logistic department. The unit has a small back-lit LCD (liquid crystal display) screen displaying the local map it is moving or poposes to go. It continuously sends signals via satellite to the computer terminals located at the transport/logistic department that enables them to track exact location of the cab. So in agiven situation if a driver tries to misinform about his actual location or deviate from the normal route then the transport/logistic department can send a warning call to the driver through the two-way UHF (ultra high frequency) radio sets.

There are various types of GPS available in the market
while the hand-held one is gaining popularity. In the west including some South Asian countries such devices has become a standard fitment in most vehicles. Advanced GPS system comes with a very sensitive hidden mike and can pick-up audio signals of conversation or any kind of altercation taking place inside the cab. Therefore, it is widely argued that if a GPS was installed in Jyotikumari's cab then at the very outset such incident would never happen since the driver would always fear of being monitored.

Bandwidth Connectivity: The Business Process
Industry of India (BPIAI) has made a remarkable move by agreeing to give bandwidth connectivity of all cabs to the police so that they can contact any driver. They observed this would help create fear among drivers but the light of its day to be implemented remains to be seen.

Speed Governors: Speed Governors must be installed in all cabs which would immensely help check rash
driving. According to prominent IT leader from Pune who is actively involved in industry issues through NASSCOM and CII Ganesh Natarajan, the menace of over speeding by BPO drivers has not been effectively addressed by the industry.

Blacklist offending drivers/vendors: There is a need to blacklist all offending drivers by creating a central data base to be shared by the BPOs. Office-bearers of BPIAI feel that to ensure erring drivers don't find job else where, they would start "blacklisting" such drivers and circulate the list of names among BPOs.

Behave professionally with drivers: One of the leading daily quoting a call centre employee has pointed out that a major problem is that many employees are guilty of not behaving professionally with the drivers. It is true that unacceptable behavior includes not being punctual and forcing drivers to speed, becoming over friendly with them, requesting drivers to drop them at unscheduled spots and getting into quarrels with them.

Conclusion: The Pune incident has once again reflected a clear message to the nation that woman employees are not safe in the BPO industry, It is true that every time a young Indian woman leaves home for work, particularly during the the early morning hours or after dusk, their family members skip a heartbeat and remain tensed till these woman return safe. This is even worse for female employees whose family is thousands of kilometers away.

Therefore, to thwart recurrence of such unfortunate incidents in future and give confidence to the employees, all cabs operating at BPOs must be fitted with a GPS. Already a few companies at Gurgaon and Bangalore have installed such tracking devices in their cabs.

At EXL with a total fleet of more than 400 cabs, all vendors must be directed to install GPS within a given
deadline. It is obvious that vendors will cry foul in fixing such devices in their cabs because of the additional costs involved. But here, EXL has an upper hand and must call the shots. If cab vendors want to remain in business then they must comply with the industry needs. After all no one wants a repetition of another Jyotikumari incident! May the Almighty rest her soul in eternal bliss.

Friday 15 August 2014

Patriotism in BPO Industry

From the Archives-2: Recovered this manuscript that was written six years ago on this day...
A Mini India
Kya batt hai aaj 15 August hai aur aap office ja

raheho...?! Quipped my confused and disturbed landlady as the cab had come to pick me up for office. All my efforts to explain her about the functioning of a BPO industry and that we were equally patriotic since we celebrate Independence Day in office turned out to be futile! I guess many of us too must have experienced similar situations while coming to office on this day.


Most BPO organizations functions 24x7 servicing clients from different parts of the world and therefore, have to work according to the respective country's local office timings. Hence, because of the time zone difference, work is largely in the night shifts or early morning. Similarly, holidays too are based as per the national listed holidays of the respective countries.
It is due to such reasons that here in India BPO employees have to work on all major festivals. Whether it is Holi, Independence Day, Dusshera, Deepawali, Eid or Republic Day, one has to report to office unless the day coincides with  a public holiday of  the (business process) out sourced country or it falls on a weekly off day of the employee!

EXL Chairman Vikram Talwar
But that does not mean one is deprived of such celebrations. Keeping the sentiments of all individuals and to bridge the gap, BPO organizations often make all major festivals happen within the floor in a unique way. Whether you are picking up a call or busy in transaction of a back-end office, the Human Resource team ensures that fun is reached to every individual in between the calls and transactions. Usually exciting programmes are chalked out thus, energizing the employees to look forward for the day to come to office with attendance in full strength.

Over the years EXL service.com has gained the reputation of being a perfect "fun at work place" which has been increasingly envied in the BPO industry. While speaking to a cross section of ex-EXLites who are presently working at Steria (formerly Xanza), Patni Computers, HCL and CSC reinforces this point. The organization's vibrant logo - X-man (if we can call it) truly portrays the personality and philosophy of its founder Chairman Vikram Talwar, particularly after analyzing between the lines of his interview that had recently appeared in The New York Times!

Vikram Talwar & Rohit Kapoor(CEO) at EXL C4 Barista outlet
At EXL festivals such as Independence Day,Dusshera, Deepawali, and Christmas just to name a few are celebrated with great pomp and show. For example, during Dusshera the entire floor looks
spectacular with executives wearing headgears and attired depicting various epics from the Indian mythology. Deepawali is marked where all turn up to office wearing ethnic dresses, special food is served including various games such as lucky-dip, wheel of fortune, housie, etc. During Deepawali, Christmas and New Year all EXL centres are tastefully decorated and buildings are specially illuminated.

Coming back to the Independence Day celebration at EXL, the efforts from the HR
team is so spontaneous that it naturally creates an ambience of patriotism in all the centres. Inspite of heavy dose of cross-culture exposure, the spirit of patriotism gets so high on this day that can make any government organisation or a common man in the street to blush!

The entire floor is decorated with little tri-colour national flags while different teams come out with various collages and posters depicting the freedom struggle among others. Singing the national anthem too is a major event where all employees take an active part. Quiz competition and kite flying are also held to mark the occasion. On this day every employee is expected to come to office in ethnic or regional dress. Not to be left behind, the caterers too at the cafeteria gets a little trendy by presenting certain food items decorated in the symbolic tri-colour. All these make each one of us happy on such a special day.

It may be mentioned here that the BPO and IT sector employ a large number of Indians thus, shouldering the perennial burden of educated unemployment of the government to a certain extent. These two sectors have been significantly contributing to the government's exchequer in terms of foreign exchange. But the recent rising inflation in the US economy and its impact in the rest of the world have been causing anxiety for a while. Though such situation is a temporary phase but many IT and BPO firms are in the verge of pressing the panic button. Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait for the sunshine days to return soon. 

To conclude, BPO organisations like EXL in particular can be best described as
'Mini India' since employees constitutes of all cultures, religion, caste and creed including physically challenged drawn from every nook and corner of the country. It is a perfect place of unity in diversity. Today if we look at the explosive situation in the north, secessionist threat in the north-east and the recent terrorist attack in the south and west can only dampen the spirit of a true citizen. As members of this 'Mini India', there is a crying need to spread the message of peace, love, tolerance and respect of Mother India! 

Jai Hind!
An appreciation Email from EXL Chairman Vikram Talwar:
The videos below can cause one to walk down through the memory lane...



Friday 1 August 2014

Guitar God Santana

The Nile: An Unforgettable Song 

After ages came across this! A rare track and
unforgettable song by Santana - 'The Nile' is a sure treat to the ears which has some crafty lead guitar, drumming and percussions. Infact, this is one of the classic songs of the living legend, Carlos Santana and would never mind listening to it thousand times!

This track brings back a lot of memories of good-old-days and reminds me of the black vinyl LP Records playing in our family furniture radiogram day in and day out. I was never aware that this awesome number also had a video.

Hats off to Madaxe Slingertrece for uploading this in YouTube. Had a glance of his collections and felt that he has some of the finest playlist in his YouTube channel.

Though the video is in sepia colour, but the overall production is simply awesome considering the time when it had been made. Ten Grammy award and three Latin America Grammy award winner, guitar god Carlos Santana really looks super cool.


The video has scenes of Egypt, river Nile, surrounding desert, camels, pyramids and mommies including some kind of mystical situations and enigmatic objects. The scene appears like a caravan may have pegged a tent at a nearby oasis while its chief being entertained by an Egyptian belly dancer. The chief sporting a typical hat and a waist coat is flanked by two well built bodyguards wielding daggers and that's the time Santana arrives... and for the rest watch the video although, it is quite hazy.

Going through this video several times, it appears such scenes must have greatly inspired many Bollywood producers as it is evident from several Hindi movies which have adapted to such kind of episodes.

I believe good music is a precondition to create attraction for any song irrespective of language or geography followed by lyrics. And here, this real unique music appears to be a blend of Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales, and congas besides, drums.

The lyrics too deserve special mention; part of the lines goes like this - "...her skin was dark, her voice was liquid fire..." I am sure watching this video could lead many to get goose bumps! 

Still remember Santana's maiden performance at Greater Noida, India during the autumn of 2012. It was an occasion that had made the homegrown rock aficionados proud in particular who had traveled from various distant states to attend the show and witness
From left: Santana, Tripti and Ruddy at Greater Noida
India's rock band brand ambassadors, Soulmate sharing the stage with the guitar legend. The group which comprises of Ruddy Wallang and Tripti Kharbangar impressed Santana by the duos performance and had special words of appreciation for Tripti's voice clarity. Soulmate is one of the country's leading blues rock band from the picturesque hill station, Shillong and once popularly referred as the 'Scotland-of-the-East'. The group has been frequently performing gig and shows nationwide and abroad.

Tuesday 29 July 2014

My Mercedes Benz

Umbrella With Premium Insignia!

It was a perfect day to leisure around due to a public
holiday on the occasion of Eid-ul-fitr. Woke up little late and after a quick breakfast and glance through the newspapers, decided to get my wardrobe organised.

Suddenly, behind heaps of clothes, I came across a
fourteen inch long barrel wrapped neatly with several layers of newspapers that appeared almost like a grandmother's parcel! Curiously, unpacked the stuff and then discovered it was the Mercedes Benz pocket umbrella which I remembered putting it out of sight ever since I bought it at the the eleventh Auto Expo held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on January 2012.

The reason behind keeping it off from public view was
primarily due to the guilt of purchasing it at a prohibitive price unknowingly which I realized only after scrutinizing the bill and SMS on the transaction sent in the mobile by my bank on reaching home.

For the first time I took a close look at it and examined it from every angle. The two-fold telescopic umbrella is definitely made of high quality spokes, designer waterproof fabric and an elegant polished wooden handle.

The wooden handle sports a black square metallic button in the side that enables the umbrella to open up at a press and a big logo of Mercedes Benz at the tip. Holding the umbrella gives a premium feel and appears it had been manufactured with utmost precision just like its range of automobiles.

At the Auto Expo, there were several pavilions set up
by almost all major global automobile manufacturers. The Mercedes Benz was one of the topmost pavilions which had maximum footfalls. During the seven-day event, I had made few attempts to visit this pavilion but gave up due to the serpentine line.

On the final day, I decided to come to the venue early morning and squeeze up sometime to visit this pavilion in particular. To add up extra spice to the event, dozens of international models were flown in and each stood modelling besides different Mercedes variants displayed.

After viewing a variety of sedans, off-roaders, sports,
hybrid and concept cars, I moved across a stall selling Mercedes Benz memorabilia. From calf-links, tie pins, caps, key chains, badges, bags, jackets, umbrellas, etc all with the Mercedes Benz logo in it. The counter appeared to be pretty crowded with fashionable young men and women and a couple of models too walk passed that encouraged me to do some quick photography.

I had spotted an umbrella and asked the price. And I heard the person responding with an accent and a smile, "Sir, this is 378/-..." Although I thought it was slightly expensive compared to such varieties found in the open market, but then, I felt it was fine considering it buying at an event like this plus, I would hardly get time to go shopping for an umbrella. 

Having decided my mind, I flaunted my debit card at
the counter and within seconds the amount got debited and the umbrella inserted in an elegant paper bag turned out to be my new possession. It was only after reaching home late evening I realized the blunder I had made - the original price quoted for the umbrella was of four digits and I had missed just the last one! This drove me to hide the umbrella completely from public view and best way to forget about the episode.

But today I realised that this is a wonderful piece and also a remembrance of my visit to one of the world's best premium car manufacturer's pavilion. Even if I can never own a four-set of wheels of this brand in my life, but who cares - I have atleast a Mercedes Benz umbrella. Let the Delhi monsoon rains start and I am surely going to flaunt it!   

Video clips related to the Auto Expo:
















  

Sunday 13 July 2014

A BPO Party

From the Archives-1: Recovered this manuscript that was written six years ago...
 The Great Night of Indulgence 
Noida's night life has slowly gained momentum. Come
weekend and the pubs and resto-bars are abuzz with people from the BPO companies relaxing after a hectic work schedule.

Often referred as the Sunshine Industry, organisations such as HCL, Steria (formerly Xanza), CSC, EXL Service .Com etc are known to hold parties just to ensure employees stress level stay low and to bridge the gap of high attrition.

And here the coolest hangouts to name a few can be
anywhere from Chicane, Ice Cube, Tantra, RPM or Elevate depending upon the budget allocated by respective organisations.

FLASH DANCE: Party revelers rocking 
On Friday, 09 May 2008 all roads led to RPM - a resto bar located at Sector 18, opposite Atta market. The occasion was EXL's Aviva process party.

Headquartered in New York, EXL Service.Com's
Noida employees were all dressed to kill. From jeans. capri, mini skirts, spaghetti and high-heeled clogs, women-folk were sporting bright colours with sparkles and sequins. The no makeup visage, smoky eyes, metallic coloured lips and eye-liners including designer tattoo added to their glam quotient.

Men-folk too were smartly dressed in casuals and semi formals while many sported a clean shaven and gelled-wet hair look.

Though small to accommodate a big crowd, but this
resto bar is unique and out of the world. The walls are covered with smooth polished round logs that can remind a cowboy salon from one of the flicks of yesteryear Hollywood super star Clint Eastwood's. RPM's owner Reshmi disclosed it had been designed to give that cool effect. 

BAR CODE: Shsss...!! Pour us each a large, strong & chilled one!
To beat the heat there were various mock-tails, cocktails, including hard and soft drinks. From Blue Lagoon, Virgin Pinacolada to beer, vodka, gin, whisky, scotch was all there to chill.

Gradually the lights got dimmer, lazer and strobe lights
in full action. Resident DJ Prashant took control at the
DISC JOKEY: DJ Prashant belting out sizzling tracks

console belting out sizzling tracks thus, sending the crowd into the dance floor.
Remixes of the '70's and '80's such as Daddy Kool by Boney M; Honey - Honey, Dancing Queen by Abba while Hindi remixes of Bapi Lahiri's famous Pyar bina chain kaha re... and a couple of songs of Nazia Hassan did the trick causing a mass hysteria.

At one point of time confusion arose when RPM's owner pleaded to allow a small group of her loyal customers into the resto bar. EXL's managers were assured there would not be any trouble since she was confident about her clients who would be confined to a secluded corner. To keep the slightest of any kind of unpleasant situation at bay, a network of infrared surveillance cameras were fitted in strategic places, besides a few bouncers at standby.

The floor swelled up with a turnout of more than 60  EXLites and invitees leaving no space to stand. The mood was perfect with every individual pumping extra bit of adrenaline and sweet summer sweat shimmering in their forehead!

Conspicuous by his late appearance EXL's Vice
EPICUREAN'S DELIGHT: Eat, drink and make merry...
President of Aviva Operations, Vinod Khemani was seen wriggling and moving to the beat of the music. He had a reason to flaunt his new look trim figure! Invitees such as Assistant Vice President Gaurav Puthran of Aviva Third Party Motor Claims, Managers Mudit Mathur of IB Claims and Philips Philips of Process Excellence including Tamal Bhadra, an ex-EXLite and presently manager at Fidelity in Gurgaon were among others to grace the occasion with their presence. 

Resto bar staff in full regalia served dinner in buffet style but party revelers preferred to grove in until the last beat of the music was over.

As the clock chimed midnight, the curtains came down - the great night of indulgence was finally over. It was
indeed a party in full control. The heavy fuel in the party reveler's body took a back seat and it was now the spirit of EXL - the vibrant logo (X-man if we can call it) virtually coming to life at centre stage with its hands up expressing either to strive for more or telling it was enough for the day...!!

Thank you EXL!

Following are few collages and a video:














Friday 27 June 2014

TRIBUTE TO EX-EMPLOYEE OF EXL SERVICE

Obituary

Do we ever know when we will leave this world? Life and death are so unpredictable!



After months of heat wave, the cool early morning downpour today drove me to rush out to the terrace to take a short video grab of prelude to the Delhi monsoons. After a quick editing had uploaded the video clip in my YouTube channel and then shared directly with one of my WhatsApp group - EXL Buddies that constitutes ex-colleagues of our former organisation.

My WhatsApp had been muted since the past few days while I had deliberately shutdown the mobile data service in order to avoid distraction due to an urgent piece of work. After having posted the video clip I started glancing through the huge number of pending mails.

Scrolling down caused some confusion as almost all messages had similar words like R.I.P., condolences, shock, etc. until I followed the thread where it originated and then a pal of gloom came over me ever since.


The message from our esteemed member, Gaurav Banerjee's ID read the following with date and time stamp:

"                   25-06-2014
Finally free from all the pain and suffering.. He lost his battle against Cancer and left us in pain..
We love you n wish u cud come back just once..
Gaurav' Family..
                                            2:05 pm"


It was most difficult to accept the truth that Gaurav Banerjee passed away at such a young age. Barely two years ago, Gaurav tied the knot with his co-worker who hails from Assam. Although we have never met for years, but the WhatsApp forum was good enough to keep in touch frequently.

A senior human resource and admin personnel who was employed with a multinational organisation in Gurgaon, Gaurav had always some of the finest humour up his sleeves that kept people rolling out of laughter. Most members and colleagues recall him as a jolly young guy and a team player.


His last humour message to the EXL Buddies WhatsApp group was on 21 June 2014 but, it is an irony indeed that he never confided his fatal ailments to anybody within the group, thereby, giving a false impression with his communique and profile picture that all was fine with him.

He hailed from Lucknow and had his education from Institute of Management Studies, Dehradun and HNB Garhwal University. Besides, he had a great penchant for cameras and photography.

In general, Gaurav was fun-loving, compassionate and always ready to help people in distress that we will always remember him. Every time I scroll into my WhatsApp group an image of him flashes up my mind and his messages reverberates in my ears. Gaurav Banerjee, may your soul rest in eternal bliss!

Below are the videos:




Message from Vikram Talwar, former Chairman of EXL Service
Message from Rahul Deo, former Manager Operations at EXL Service and currently Service Manager at Aon Hewitt