BPO Guru Raman Roy misquoted
By Techgirl

There are very few people in the BPO world who have earned the respect accorded to Raman Roy.  Raman not only has the Midas touch, he is equally admired for his superb managerial skills.  When Raman talks, the Indian BPO industry is all ears. When the Sri Lankan media misquoted him about local productivity being half of India, it caused a minor sensation.

On July 4, we had run an article where we quoted a news report by popular Sri Lanka business site ‘Lanka Business Online’ that Raman Roy felt distressed about the low productivity in his BPO’s in Sri Lanka.  Lanka Business Online quoted Raman as saying that his Sri Lankan BPO staff took twice the effort to do the same task as their counterparts in India.

Lanka Business Online is popular and claims 2 million page views every month.

Not surprisingly, their article was picked up by Indian media.  Few Sri Lankans wrote in complaining about the remarks.  The Lanka Business Online published the comments:

“
S. Muralidharen Jul 09
I totally agree with Mel G. Roy may be the father of BPO in India, from his statement clearly shows, he has failed in Sri Lanka. He is known as father of BPO in India because of his initiative in bringing back office work to India. There are enough companies and individuals who have succeed in this industry and way ahead of Raman Roy. I personally know his local company recruit all freshers just paying Rs. 5000 (My messenger's basic is more) and expect them to be 100% productive within short period. You better to re-visit your business model.

G D Perera Jul 08
Mr Roy states that 'trainability' is the single most important aspect for BPO staff. I beg to differ ... The single most important aspect is 'recruitment'. If this is done right the pain of 'trainability' is taken away. His statement about HIS employees in Srilanka being 200% slower reiterates this and in no way should be attributed to employees in the BPO industry across other successful organisations in the industry, some of which have operations in India and other countries

Mel Gunawardena Jul 04
I am very disappointed with Lanka Business Online on publishing this article with an inaccurate heading and negative publicity to Sri Lanka's BPO industry. The title should have stated that "Quatro Pro's Sri Lanka unit productivity low" instead of "Sri Lanka Unit productivity low." Clearly, this is an internal business unit issue and not a general reflection of Sri Lanka's BPO industry. Mr. Rao may be the father of India’s BPO industry and we appreciate his foray to Sri Lanka. However, his statement saying that Sri Lanka should focus on the accounting BPO market and not compete with India in other markets is ludicrous and unsubstantiated. Sri Lanka may not have a mature BPO industry as yet, but will make massive strides in the years to come will be a threat India’sBPO market very soon. I am a Sri Lankan born US Citizen and the CEO of a US Based Healthcare BPO. Our operations in Sri Lanka have over 180 highly productive employees.
“

Raman Roy has now clarified to BpowatchIndia that he was misquoted and that he was only referring to one process.  Raman told BpowatchIndia that he would actually be sending more work to Sri Lanka.

“
Quatrro BPO to send more work to Sri Lanka
 
Raman Roy led Quatrro BPO Solutions may be increasing the business it sends to its Sri Lankan unit. Quatrro's joint venture with the John Keells Holdings conglomerate provides BPO operations in both India and Sri Lanka.

In a statement Roy said that the company is in active discussions to move more processes to Sri Lanka and Quatrro continues to be a strong advocate of Sri Lanka for the potential it offers as a BPO destination.

This correction comes quick on the heels of comments made by Roy at an economic summit in Colombo earlier this month that their Sri Lanka BPO unit was not performing as well as anticipated.

Roy said productivity of Sri Lankan staff was below that of the firm's Indian staff but the Quatrro statement said his remarks referred to a specific process and not all Sri Lankan BPO businesses. 
“

(Techgoss had run the following article on July 4, 2009)

BPO Guru distressed
By Techgirl

There are very few people in the BPO world, who have such the respect accorded to Raman Roy.  Raman not only has the Midas touch, he is equally admired for his superb managerial skills.  When Raman talks, the Indian BPO industry is all ears.

So, why is Raman Roy distressed?

Gurgaon-based Raman Roy owns Quatrro which is in the BPO and KPO space.  Quatrro BPO Solutions had tied up with John Keells Holdings to set up BPOs in Sri Lanka and India.

But Raman Roy is not too happy with the productivity of BPO’s in Sri Lanka.  Lanka Business Online is reporting that Raman Roy told the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce that: "The single most important aspect is trainability,"

Raman Roy is quoted to have said: “We've been in Sri Lanka for about three years and it is a big challenge. We tried the tricks we tried in India but I'm distressed to report: it didn’t work."

He said the average time taken by their Sri Lankan staff to carry out a task was over 200 percent of what it takes in India.

Bad news for Sri Lanka can only mean good news for India.  So while Mr. Roy may be distressed about the progress in Sri Lanka, he will be joyous to see the continued booming growth in India.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com