Telecom Company drops Indian BPO
By Shalini Singh

European telecom services provider Orange is reducing its BPO involvement in India.  As part of this downgrade, Orange has ended its call centre services contract with BPO Company 24/7.   400 Agents and management at the Gurgaon Call Center of 24/7 supported Orange customers in Europe.   Orange continues to use other Indian BPO companies like EXL but all the signs are that it is trying to consolidate services in UK.

24/7 says it will not sack any of its Agents and will try to relocate them to Bangalore and Hyderabad. 

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom which is one the leading telecommunications operators in Europe and Africa.  France Telecom serves more than 172 million customers in five continents as of March 31, 2008, of which two thirds are Orange customers. The group had consolidated sales of 53 billion euros in 2007. As of March 31, 2008 the group had 111.9 million mobile customers and 12 million broadband internet (ADSL) customers.  In 2006, Orange became the group's single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates, and Orange Business Services the name for services offered to businesses worldwide.

But all has not been well with Orange.  In UK, Orange is the only Broadband provider who is losing customers.  In Sept last year, they had 1.142 million customers which dropped to 1.107 million this year.  This has been blamed on Orange having a complicated pricing plan as well as poor support from its Call Centers.

If that was not bad enough, a BBC report in 2007 labeled it the worst ISP in UK

Last year, Orange sold its business in Denmark and Netherlands because they did not meet sales targets.

With such setbacks Orange hired a new Chief Executive Tom Alexander in Jan, 2008.  Tom announced sweeping changes.  Orange would expand its chain of UK retail stores and cut its use of offshore call centers.  Orange will also invest in a new high-speed data network.  Early this month, Orange unveiled a new global brand vision and marketing campaign.

Earlier this year, the new CEO Tom Alexander told British reporters that in the future he would prefer that only British Call Centers serviced their clients.  While this statement was not reported in India, it signaled the beginning of the end of Indian Call Centers.

EXL India still has 600 staff on the Orange account.  Time will tell if Orange returns to Indian in a big way.