BPO Rankings: 3 | IBM Daksh: Of Losses and Gains

Rumors did the rounds that IBM is looking at putting its BPO
division, IBM Daksh, on the block. Even as IBM denied the mounting speculations
and rubbished off the rumors, the industry was abuzz that it was looking for
buyers. The fact that even after the IBM acquisition, Daksh had not evolved much
beyond a call center, fueled the speculations.

There was yet another dampener for IBM DakshDelta Airlines
pulled out from its five-year long back office relation with Daksh. This
contract alone would have fetched IBM Daksh about $50 mn till now (the billing
rates were around $11 per hour five years back). But, more importantly, it meant
uncertaintly for about 500 employees working on the Delta project. IBM Daksh
soon managed to shift them to the United Airlines contract.

The mounting speculations about an impending sell off or the
future of running primarily a call center, however, did not prevent IBM Daksh
from scaling up. With 20,000 people across seventeen delivery centers, it was
one of the biggest employers in the DQ BPO Top 20 list. What helped IBM Daksh,
to an extent, on this massive recruitment process was its collaboration with IBM
Research Labs to develop an innovative HR tool called Sensi that enabled
expeditious recognition of voice patterns and their adaptation for voice-based
processes within a BPO.

Another positive was the emergence of IBM Daksh as an HR
breeding ground whereby it gave opportunities to its people for acquiring bigger
roles at the senior management level throughout IBM. Sample the movements from
IBM Daksh into bigger roles within the IBM organization. Vikas Nanda moved from
being an EVP and GM of the BFSI unit at IBM Daksh to the leader for financial
services sector for IBM BTO Asia Pacific. Chief quality officer at IBM Daksh, CH
Murthy has now taken the mantle at the Asia Pacific level including the
Philippines center. Amitabh Ojha who was earlier the CTO, IBM Daksh now has an
enhanced role in IBM India Research Labs. DQ