BT-Infosys collaborate to manage RCEs

PUNE: British Telecom (BT) is set to close down its Sydney and Hong Kong Regional Centres of Excellence (RCEs) by April. The work will be relocated to the Infosys campus here, with Infosys staffing the operations and BT managing it.
The RCE, located on Infosys'' campus in Phase I of the IT Park at Hinjewadi, currently has 55 people who do roughly 60:40 front and back office work.All of this will change in the next few months, beginning with the location, number of people and the composition of the work.
Roel Louwhoff, president, customer service, BT Global Services, BT, said the Pune centre will handle most of BT''s Asia-Pacific customers from here.
"This is the first time we have set up an RCE with a partner, Infosys, with who we work on other projects, too. The Pune RCE will soon handle most of our Asia-Pacific customers, when we close down the Sydney and Hong Kong centres. It is not just about cost reduction; the labour conditions are good and the business continuity processes robust. Centralised activities give us economies of scale and cost effectiveness," Mr Louwhoff said.
Priti Rao, vice president, Infosys Ltd, who heads the Pune centre, said the new Infosys campus, in Phase II of the IT park, spread over 125 acres to eventually house 25,000 people, will be ready by July 05. At which point, they will move BT''s RCE, which is expected to have 200 people, from the present 55.
"We support BT''s customers in Hindi, English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese," Ms Rao said. The international team comprises engineers from Korea, China and Japan.
Paul Jancek, vice president (technical and service operations), Asia Pacific, BT Global Services, said the work composition will change as they move more back office moves here from Sydney and Hong Kong.
"Now, 60 per cent of the work we do here is front office and 40 per cent back office. This will change as the back office work takes off by April, as more back office functions start coming here," Mr Jancek said.
BT has a joint venture with Mahindras, Mahindra British Telecom (MBT) located in Pune. Mr Louwhoff said the reason they have preferred Infosys over MBT to house the RCE was because this is a very specific business.
"We chose Infosys over all others since they have the required expertise. We are moving to become a company with the network infrastructure to deliver IT capabilities, a global ITT player. And this is not out-sourcing; it is collaboration and right shoring, since the RCE will handle Asia-Pacific clients from here," he said.
He admitted that BT does not have a big presence in China at present but this is set to change with its acquisition of a company there. The RCE will provide service management for BT''s customers, including managing orderism faults, video and audio conferencing and help desk services. Its functions include customer help desk for the whole range of services including data, voice, mobile and CRM.