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Posts Tagged ‘Call centres’

Seminar On ‘Best Practices For Call Centres’

March 9th, 2010

SiPADU Systems, the ICT solutions integration arm of Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru), in cooperation with ICT Leadership and Management (`ILM)Academy yesterday held a one-day forum on ‘Best Practices for Call Centres’ at The Empire Hotel and Country Club in Jerudong.

Three international speakers were brought in from Singapore, the Philippines and India to present best practices adopted by call centres in the US, India and Philippines as well as the benefits of a planned, top driven performance management and the utilisation of a performance scorecard for call centres.

“This event is aimed at providing a wide spectrum of call centre best practices with international industry bench-marking strategies for Contact Centre Services to support both government and corporate organisations,” said Lim Hong Beng, the General Manager of TelBru’s Strategic Investment unit in his opening remarks.

“SiPADU Systems intends to explore the call centre business in Brunei Darussalam to support help desk business functions at SMEs, government departments and ministries. It is entering the business process outsourcing market with a view of creating values that will bring about economic benefits, cost reduction and optimisation of resource allocation given the shortage of ICT talents in the country,” he said.

More than 50 delegates from relevant government agencies, including the Royal Brunei Police Force, the Fire and Rescue Depaitinent and the Department of Electrical Services as well as various companies from the private sector attended the event at the resort’s Member’s Lounge and Grill.

S Vishwanathan, an Associated Vice President at the Executive Office of Oman-based IT company Bahwan Cybertek, presented the delegates with a talk on “Profiting from onshore contact centre outsourcing during the recovery (Strategic focus) – Sustainable domestic contact centre delivery through the economic rebound”.

Ferry Fibriandani, a consultant for COPC Asia Pacific Inc, delivered a presentation on “Increasing customer satisfaction whilst reducing operating costs – How to deliver an efficient and effective contact centre in a Telco environment” while Jonathan Defensor De Luzuriaga, the Executive Director of the Industry Affairs at the Business Processing Association ofthe Philippines, presented a talk on “Global best practices in contact centre operations and metrics management of call centre”.

SiPADU Systems is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TelBru. Established in 2009, the company focusses on providing a host of end-to-end managed ICT services for corporate and government organisations. Besides providing call centre outsourcing services and solutions, its current initiatives also include the provision of Unified Communications solutions, which involve IP-based communications systems combining voice, video, mobility and data communications into a single, unified solution.

`ILMAcademy is the corporate learning arm of TelBru. Established in 2009, it provides a wide range of workshops and programmes focusing on personal and professional development in areas of ICT Skills and Certifications, self-development, general management and leadership, and sales and customer programmes.

Through collaborations with a global network of consultants, practitioners and trainers, `ILM Academy offers an effective blend oftraining and consultancy services to deliver complete, integrated and holistic solutions to meet corporate and people development needs, which is in line with fulfilling the demands of increasing human capital in the field of ICT in Brunei and the national vision of a knowledge-based society.

Source:http://www.brudirect.com/index.php/2010030817322/Local-News/seminar-on-best-practices-for-call-centres.html

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Strengthen values at call centers

February 6th, 2010

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A group advocating education in information technology (IT) in Cebu yesterday urged call centers to respond positively to the results of a 2009 survey that showed that call center agents lived lifestyles that gave them higher chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and other health risks.

Bonifacio Belen, president of the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology, said companies should take the information as an opportunity to strengthen values formation in the workplace.

“Perhaps they could do some activities that will divert the agents’ attention from those things, perhaps by engaging them more in community activities,” Belen said. He was referring to “risky” behaviour noted in the study such as unprotected sex, casual sex, smoking and drinking.

The report, however, has not affected the morale of call centers workers, Belen said.

“What I know though is that some companies, because of the reports, have started including reproductive health tests in their medical benefits,” he said.

Among those companies is Qualfon, one of the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies holding office in Asiatown I.T. Park.

According to Joslyn B. Canon, human resources and administrative manager of Qualfon Philippines Inc., the company will start including HIV tests in their annual physical exams for employees in response to the report.

“As much as possible we also want to protect our employees and for us, doing that will help aside from holding some awareness forums for them,” Canon said.

As of yesterday, Canon said she has not received any report of an STD case among Qualfon employees.

D.J. Moises, manager for the global operations center of Lexmark Research and Development Corp., said such things were a matter of personal choice for anyone, not just call center employees.

Jon Escobar, a recruitment manager for Convergys Philippines Services Corp., said the survey was no indication of wrongdoing or a liberated culture among call center agents.

“We don’t really know if they started doing it when working at a call center or since college,” Escobar said.

He suggested carrying out a similar study on college level respondents.

“Trust me, it’s happening everywhere not only here and not only in call center companies,” he said.

The study by the University of the Philippines Population Institute surveyed lifestyle and reproductive health issues among 929 young professionals, including 675 call center workers in Cebu and Manila.

The study noted that three out of four call center workers engaged in premarital sex, compared with two out of three for non-call center workers. However, the study cautioned that “we cannot conclude that the higher prevalence of risk behaviors among call center workers can be attributed to work in the call center. There could be a selective bias, such as those who enter call center work already exhibit higher risky behavior.

The average age of call center agents who were interviewed was 23.

“There is evidence that risky behaviors are now highly prevalent in that age group,” said the study.

Department of Health statistics showed 96 recorded HIV cases in Cebu City from 1989 to January this year. Of that number, “most” were call center agents, and 65 were male.

Source:http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20100206-251575/Strengthen-values-at-call-centers