When We No Longer Have Nsi/ssaib Will We Run Our Arcs From India?

[norman]

Only a matter of time, especially in the demise of the inspectorate.

[matthew.brough]

Only a matter of time, especially in the demise of the inspectorate.

Taking my VMware example, ADT would be perfect to implement this kind of setup. Assuming the caller spoke to me in English I could understand id have no problem with the call/tech support coming from 5000 miles away. I think I'd rather talk to a yank than a Manc.

[datadiffusion]

Loads of outsourced call centres are actually coming back to the UK.

 

However this is usually the ones handling 'complex enquiries', i.e. not automated alarms etc... where the standard of english and CS skills

generally needs to be perfect. It isn't altruism, companies are realising there is no saving at all when pi55ed off customers go elsewhere.

 

If you want a good story about how a consumer goods company assumed without even asking that it would be cheaper to make in China,

google for the story of how UK company Earlex found things when trying to make their £24.99 paint srpayers in China... (it wasn't good).

 

AFAIK Webway boards are made in Wales, so there is probably a heap of grants available to the subcontractor to keep them there,

no doubt for WW it is just a good business decision. What will be key as always is the rapid access to prototyping and the short lead times

when you don't have to factor in the lag time when it comes to deliveries from China. Sadly South Wales is also littered with the remnants of

previous multinationals attempts to call it their EU home; Siemens IAS at Caldicott is in one part of the remains of a once huge MITEL facility, Cooper

in part of the ex-Xerox factory, and about a year ago I went past a huge presumably dormant Sony facility near Swansea.

 

As for the opening post, I would have thought overseas outsourcing itself will be the next thing to go - to pure machines? I can't remember the

last time I used my bank, insurance etc's telephone lines other than automated balance check when I had no PC connection?

 

Finally I don't think we should kick ourselves to death for not Buying British. Companies like Bosch or Siemens are where they are because (ironically)

they benefited from a kind of clean-sheet economics which a certain nation gave them 60 years ago... They could only look forward, not back,

whereas in many industries we just carried on with on-ice 1930s designs once the war ended. When Siemens visited Ferranti in the 1990s,

they made an comment in German that wasn't meant to be understood along the lines of 'this is just like one of our pre-war factories!'

[matthew.brough]

It is indeed in Wales. Personally I would prefer to use an automated system than speak to an outsourced call center. There must be some future in this BPO stuff though as the Philippines are hot on the heals of India lining up to do it and have seen good growth by doing it.

 

HP's support is in India and I must confess the service has been good. Apart from understand us, what's the beef with Indian call centres? Makes me laugh when they answer the phone and Raj pretends to be called Dave as if we aren't clever enough to realise where they are.

[datadiffusion]

None, indeed its often seen as a graduate profession over there and can be excellent. But I'd say there are certain nuances that are key when handing

with 'customer service issues' that learning a language alone can't help with. For example, if you live in a society where it's normal to wait 3 months

to get a phone line installed, and if they don't turn up that's tough luck, can you effectively empathise with someone calling to complain that the engineer

was 25 minutes late? Not saying you can't, or that the complaint is justified, but can you see my point?

 

I think with things like the HP tech support, you are just taking to similarly highly skilled graduates once you get past the gatekeepers and that is often

no problem at all. The names thing is funny though, I would much rather talk to someone with their real name.

Personally I would prefer to use an automated system than speak to an outsourced call center. 

 

I remember the early days of the 'online' Halifax bank IF where everything took 3 days minimum.

 

Because every so-called 'online' operation simply generated a printout/email to a secure area where staff would

manually process your request as if you'd walked into the branch! Innovation eh.

[matthew.brough]

I'd rather call them Raj than Dave. Nothing against Dave's, just an unlikely name for someone from India.

 

Learning our culture and slang we use I'd find so hard for them. I remember in the early days of oursourcing they use to show them our soaps such as Eastenders so they must think we all meet down the pub, smash bar stools over each other and sleep with each others wives.

 

We outsource a lot of our software development to China. Bit of a different kettle of fish as I write a spec and say make it do x. Occasional questions but no real need for much chit chat so not noticed it being an issue but if I had a complaint as an end user single word exchanges on MSN might not cut it.

[datadiffusion]

they must think we all meet down the pub, smash bar stools over each other and sleep with each others wives.

 

 

Bit like last nights shift though.... Won't say too much as in public!

[jiml]

This is a fantastic outsourcing story http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/16/developer_oursources_job_china/

You have to admire the idea and the front.

[datadiffusion]

I remember this, ace!

 

 

 

1:00 p.m. – Ebay time

 

Got to watch those not-really-earned pennies!

[arfur mo]

The shed ARC made me think back, one firm i worked for was Combat Alarms, based in a large 4 story house in N1

All the ARC receivers were on the top floor, and thats where the recordings were made for 999 Tx's.

On an activation 3 fire bells sounded, and a manager would run up the stairs to react, that was crazy enough, but if you were recording a tape at the same time that also got onto it, usually along with a few expletives.

Other times you could hear engineers shouting to each other in the background "Joe, got any 1/2 galve and lace wire" and often very rude 'banter'.

And they were NSCIA Registered - Happy Days lol! .