American Express: India's Advocate

Just like its peers in the DQ Top 15, GECIS, e-Serve and HSBC, American

Express was one of the biggest growth stories of the year in the Indian BPO

scenario. This was thanks in no small measure to its rapid scaling up whereby it

more than doubled its headcount at its Gurgaon facilities. The pioneer of

offshoring to India (yes, even preceding GE) has been an unbridled votary of

outsourcing to India-not only does it function out of its captive, the Indian

operation also outsourced many processes to other third-party vendors in the

country.

Otherwise, the Gurgaon facility was used to primarily handle data management,

information analysis and control operations. The center also provided the parent

company administration, recruiting and staffing services, payroll services and

record management, and other HR management-related services. One unique feature

about Amex: it was the only company in the DQ Top 15 present in only one

location, ie, Gurgaon. While this might have been an advantage till now in

providing centralized management, it could place any future scale-up in jeopardy

owing to manpower shortage.