BPO:  No voluntary turnover?
By Pulkit Sharma

BPO Sparsh is a subsidiary of Intelenet Global Services and operates in the Indian market.  Sparsh has 16,000 employees in 20 BPOs across 9 locations in India.  In 2008, Sparsh was ranked No. 1 in the Dataquest Domestic call centre survey.  As exclusively reported by Techgoss, Sparsh has lost a number of processes recently, including Indian telecom major Aircel.

In May, 2010, Techgoss had exclusively reported that Intelenet’s Indian BPO operations in the form of Sparsh had losses of Rs. 6 Crore in the previous year.  Techgoss had also reported on how Intelenet’s Indian operations have lost HDFC Standard Life Insurance inbound customer care, Kotak Mahindra Insurance process, TATA AIG Life Insurance, Hyperciti, Reliance Life Insurance Company Ltd., Reliance General Insurance and most recently vCustomer.

Like all BPO’s, Intelenet (operating as Sparsh in India) has had good and bad times. In 2009-2010, it suffered high attrition in some of its BPO centres.

But imagine our surprise when we saw the highly regarded Economic Times survey of best workplaces in India which recognizes organisations which are employee friendly and follow global HR best practices. At least 15 IT-ITES companies had made it to the list.  While one can understand Google, SAAS and even PayPal on this Economic Times List, I am perplexed how Intelenet-Sparsh made it the No. 20 spot among the best companies in India

The Times of India owned Economic Times describes Intelenet (whose BPO operates as Sparsh in India) as

“
At No. 20 is Mumbai-based Intelenet Global Services. What makes Intelenet among Best companies to work for is facilities and support provided?

The survey shows that the company has made efforts to ensure that along with adequate facilities, work-life balance is also maintained via fun at work concept.

From having a two-week Employee Appreciation Programme where the employees' families are invited to take part in the activities to having facilities like a gym, diet and nutrition sessions and counsellor onsite, the company places employee happiness on its high list.

Number of employees: 25,810

Gender ratio (F:M): 1:2.27

Voluntary turnover: Nil
“

Did Intelenet tell Economic Times that their voluntary turnover was nil?  (See image from the Times of India and Economic Times article published above).

Am I missing something?  What have Intelenet – Sparsh’s successes been in India to make it to such a prestigious list?

(Techgoss had published the following on May 10, 2010)

Sparsh BPO: Rs. 6 Crores loss
By Pulkit Sharma

BPO Sparsh is a subsidiary of Intelenet Global Services and operates in the Indian market.  Sparsh has 16,000 employees in 20 BPOs across 9 locations in India.  In 2008, Sparsh was ranked No. 1 in the Dataquest Domestic call centre Survey.  As exclusively reported by Techgoss, Sparsh has lost a number of processes recently, including Indian telecom major Aircel.

On April 9, 2010, Techgoss had exclusively reported on how Aircel was switching off Sparsh.

Sparsh BPO has filed a signed and certified notification with the BSE and it gives a snapshot of its turbulent recent few years.  Sparsh told the stock exchange that its annual loss for the year 2009-2010 is Rupees 5.98 Crores (Audited).  And the accumulated losses till date as per its balance sheet are a whopping Rs. 17.88 crores.  The general reserve or accumulated profits had been wiped out years ago due to the accumulation of the losses.

In comparison, last year's losses were Rs. 11.40 crores. Turnover for the year 09-10 is Rs. 249 crores as against Rs. 215 crores the previous year.  Sparsh had an increase in turnover of Rs. 34 crores in the year 09-10 as compared to 08-09.  But the increased turnover did not translate into a profit.

The Sparsh declaration to BSE also reported the fact that two long standing customers, PNB and Aircel, had taken their business elsewhere.  Additionally, Sparsh BPO's Dehradun center is online, and will contribute towards depreciation.  The BSNL's customer care process also had a ‘negative contribution’ to the balance sheet.

In addition to that, Rs 20 crores worth of Non-convertible Cumulative Redeemable Preference Shares at 8% have been issued in a private placement to Intelenet. This would add to the net payouts of preferential dividend year on year.

With possibly lower and less consistent pricing or pay per call incomes by various domestic BPOs, it seems like Sparsh BPO's woes will continue. Recently, its shares rallied to hit Rs. 50+ but then sharply declined.