Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Feb 13, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Feb 13, 2004 |
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Info-Tech
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Outsourcing Rising labour costs, attrition rates — Data typesetting units feeling the heat Nina Varghese
Chennai , Feb. 12 NEW entrants and fast pace of growth in the scientific data typesetting business in Chennai have put pressure on labour costs and attrition rates, according to Mr William Alden, Managing Director of the UK-based Alden Group. Chennai, with its large talent pool of scientifically trained manpower, he said, has emerged as a centre of excellence for this business with as many as 20 to 30 large players and 100 more small and medium ones in the Chennai- Pondicherry belt. Alden Prepress Services Pvt Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Alden Group started in 2001 in Chennai. Alden has invested around one million pounds here. Mr Alden said some of these companies had shifted from Mumbai to Chennai as the cost of labour would be the same. This segment of the business process outsourcing has been growing at a furious pace and this has put pressure on the labour force. Mr Alden said that this had led to poaching. One way of dealing with this was to train people, he said. Alden, for instance, had invested a lot of money into training and at any given time there will be 50 people undergoing training. The company was able to retain 97 per cent of its people against an industry average of 60 per cent. Alden Prepress Services Pvt Ltd achieved the ISO 9001:2000 certification and was the second company in the group after Alden Translations to go for full certification, Mr Alden said. The printing company in UK has been spurred on to achieve the same. The second benchmark that Alden in Chennai is all set to achieve is "Investor in People Standard'', which the company has achieved in the UK. The human resources manager from UK will be visiting India to make an assessment whether the company meets with international standards. Mr Alden said that the company ended 2003 with a profit of $70,000 against a loss of $120,000 in the previous year. Mr Alden said that there was some talk in this segment of the BPO industry to start a trade association to deal with issues inherent to it. A move, which Alden fully supports, he added. Talking about the recent opposition in developed economies to outsourcing, he said that jobs shifting out was inevitable. "I am basically a book printer and I compete in the global market with global players and this investment helped me compete,'' he said.
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