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.

(Techgoss had published the following article on April 9, 2010)

Techgoss exclusive: Sparsh losing Aircel?
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 lost few processes recently.

On its website, Sparsh says: “We leverage Intelenet's knowledge and understanding of international best practices to deliver superior solutions to its customers. Our teams combine deep knowledge of domain and business practices with a laser focus on quality, timeliness and costs. Our combined workforce of over 32,000 employees makes us the 'Second Largest BPO Employer in India' according to Nasscom. With our vastly experienced management team at the helm, Sparsh is committed to remain the leader in the Indian BPO business.”

In Nov, 2008, Indian national media splashed the news of the tie up between Sparsh and national telecom company Aircel.  This strategic deal manifested in Sparsh opening a new delivery centre in Pondicherry.  This south India based BPO was to look after Aircel operations in Tamil Nadu and Chennai circles.

How things have changed since 2008!  A senior Aircel manager rang Techgoss with the news that because of a number of complaints with the Aircel Inbound Customer Care Process being run out of Sparsh’s Thane Center, the process was withdrawn in the first quarter of 2010.  Over 300 people were employed for this process at Sparsh’s centre in Thane, Mumbai. This process which was being run out of Sparsh’s Mumbai offices since 2008 is now being handled by ALLSEC in Pune.  ALLSEC in an international BPO which has taken a stake in erstwhile iSmart BPO.

The tipster from Aircel tells us that the North India customer care operations being handled by Sparsh BPO for Aircel customers is also being moved out.

The south center which was set up by Sparsh at Pondicherry will be letting go of the Aircel Customer care operations soon.