Overseas Call Centers Plan Ahead
By Justin Lee, theWhir.com
August 30, 2006 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — With customer bases growing, and demand for customer support growing with them, Web hosting and IT businesses have created a demand for affordable overseas outsourcing of tech support, particularly in India, in an effort to reduce operating costs.
The trend has produced a significant boom in IT call centers throughout India, where there is a large population of English-speaking people.
But while India offers an affordable English-speaking labor force, businesses in the region also face a range of security and safety threats not necessarily like what a similar facility based in the US would face. In addition to natural disasters, particularly during monsoon season, the country has also faced political turmoil in recent months that has, at times, manifested in violence, as with the in the July 11 terrorist bombings in outsourcing hub Mumbai.
For this reason, most of India’s larger call centers prepare themselves with stringent disaster recovery procedures.
One of the biggest IT call centers, the Cochin-based BobCares (bobcares.com), has taken extra precautions to ensure its employees are kept safe and that the service goes uninterrupted, implementing a full disaster recovery solution.
Sangeetha Naik, director of BobCares parent company, Poornam Info Vision, says that while no company can predict potential disasters, it is important to be prepared.
“There are major and minor disasters that can occur,” says Naik. “Disasters here can arise from major things like terrorist attacks, or minor things like power outages, so it’s all about planning.
Power outages occur frequently in the country, as often as once a month, requiring companies like BobCares to ensures their data is sufficiently protected. Naik says BobCares backs up its data onsite, as well as offsite in a remote location.
“We include measures like daily and weekly backups of all our client information, employee information,” says Naik. “We have a 250 KVA Generator Backup and uninterrupted power supply for all our systems, in case of a power outage.
As important as the safekeeping of information is, it pales in comparison to human lives. Naik says BobCares prides itself on its disaster recovery plan ensuring the safety of its employees.
“We even go to the extent of providing shuttle service to our employees to ensure that they do not have to rely on public transportation to get to office,” says Naik. “In addition, we include 24-hour security with guards and access control.”
In an unstable environment where political and natural disasters occur unpredictably, IT companies must ensure they have the proper disaster recovery solutions in place, regardless of whether they are located in the North America, Europe, Asia, or India.
“A disaster recovery plan should include who should be contacted,” says Naik. “When a disaster occurs, you normally look around not knowing what to do. Our employees will know exactly what to do. They will know how to implement the backup system, the backup procedures to follow, and so on.”
About theWHIR.com
Since 2000, The Web Host Industry Review has made a name for itself as the foremost authority of the Web hosting industry providing reliable, insightful and comprehensive news, interviews and resources to the hosting community. TheWHIR is an iNET Interactive property. For more information on iNET Interactive, visit http://www.inetinteractive.com
No related posts.
