BPO:  Lateral thinking ensures phone security
By Catherine

Every evening before he logs in, Rahul, a senior agent with Interlenet – the back office operations for Barclays bank - Chennai, has an important ritual he and his colleagues partake in as they swipe their access cards. They hand over their swanky camera phones at the security guards.

Measures like guards checking everyone at the entrance, and restricting the use of camera phones and denying entry if found with one is a common ritual in almost all BPO/ITeS firms nowadays.

Even basic mobiles without camera are not allowed in workspace in some BPOs.

“Though there is a landline on the floor, I wouldn't be comfortable taking a personal call with people around me," feels Rahul, who always fears for his expensive cell phone being tampered with by the security guards.

And even if there were any emergency calls, he or his colleagues would be able to attend to it only during the two 15-min intervals they have per shift, apart from the 30-min lunch break.
 
“We have our own policies. There is no guarantee that an employee won’t take a snapshot of the software or design of a CMS tool and sell it to rival firms or take it with him/her while he quits our firm. Hence these strict measures,” says an official from Interlenet, who did not want to be named.

Disagrees Nivedita. "It hurts. One has to understand that life in a BPO environment is different from the world outside. You are cut off from your social network. At the most we will use a camera phone for taking snaps of some fun moments with the team members, not for any other purposes,” argues this process associate.

Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab (HTSL), headquartered in Bangalore recently made it mandatory for its employees to shift to basic cell phone in a move to contain usage of camera phones at workplace.

While the debate is still going stronger on whether to allow mobile phones at workplace or not, Sytel, a BPO firm based out of Chennai has come up with an out-of-the-box idea.

The company has found a cheaper way to curb the camera phone menace at workplace. The lens of the camera phone is covered with a special insulation tape that doesn’t come off so easily. If an employee wants to take a snap inside the office, he has to remove the insulation tape that will eventually lead him to the security desk to cover the camera lens once again. 

While the employees are happy with the new system, the management says it’s the most easiest and inexpensive way to put an end to this menace. Certainly a win-win situation for both.  Would the others too walk in the same footsteps remains to be seen in the coming days!