With broadband becoming more common and walk-ins becoming less by the day, Internet surfing outlets like Reliance Web World are knocking at the door of BPOs to keep the cash registers ringing. Part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, the 240-outlet strong chain is now leasing out its premises and the infrastructure to BPOs at night.
?All our properties are in the high street areas and we decided to give it to call centres in these recession hit times, in a way that doesn?t affect our main assets,? said Sandeep Saxena, head, BPO, Reliance Web World. Currently, four of its centres in Delhi and Kolkata with around 200 seats are being leased out to three call centres — Aryans BPO, Digital Domain and Mastermind. Saxena admitted that most of the BPO entities that are showing interest in the initiative are start-ups that are looking at saving the initial cost of investment.
The company is looking at a turnover of Rs 2 crore from the initiative from the first year of operation. It is currently charging $2,5 per hour per seat, which translates into approximately Rs 45,000 per seat. Normally, a centre has between 18-20 seats and could be used by a BPO between 9 PM to 9 AM. ?We hope to give out at least 20-30 centres within this year,? said Saxena.
It is a win-win situation for both as BPOs don?t can just move in and start their operations as they don?t have to worry about putting the required infrastructure into place, for Reliance Web World, it means additional income as their centres are idle during the night. However, the company is also mulling leasing out their space during the day time as well. ?While, we won?t be able to give out the entire centres but we can provide between 6-8 seats for day-time processes as well,? said Saxena.
He added that the company is not just leasing out the space but is also making available the entire technology required to run a call centre including the plug-in, controls and security. Its operating cost would be around 40% of its revenues. ?There is also a facility where employees can just walk-into their neighbouring Web Worlds and start working. This could save considerable travelling cost for the BPO,? said Saxena. However, that would only happen when the operations scale up.
