Expert View

December 5, 2002
Focus on right training with right certification, leading to right job: KarROX

MUMBAI -- KarROX Information Technology Enabled Services is a pioneer in the high-end education industry. Established in 1992, it emerged as a leading provider of high-end IT training and certification. It provides value to customers through strategic alliances with IT giants like Microsoft, Cisco and Sun, and global education providers such as AT&T and City & Guilds.

It has so far trained over 100,000 personnel, of which 40 percent have been placed globally. Its vision is to lead in providing the right training in IT, telecommunications, CRM and communication skills through an innovative and pioneering process to generate professionals equipped with knowledge, expertise and skills.

KarROX Information Technology Enabled Services or KITES, a division of KarROX Technologies Ltd, was incorporated in Dec 1999. Pioneers in call center training, it has the maximum years of valuable experience. It also has a strategic alliance with the AT&T College of Call Center Excellence - the networking and professional services arm of AT&T that designs and manages some of the world's most sophisticated corporate networks. For over 30 years, specialised consultants have provided proven solutions for thousands of call centers worldwide and helped to design, build and manage some of the industry's largest and most advanced call centers, including their own.

Convergence Plus recently met Monica Doshi, master trainer and vice president, IT enabled services, KarROX Technologies, to find out more about the company and its plans. Monica is a certified trainer in e-CRM from Algonquin College of Canada; known for its call center training programs for Bell Canada and other call centers in North America. She has also been appointed as the pronet consultant for the simulation based training program from Ulysses Learning, USA and is certified to implement, train and support the call mentor program for call centers. She is a certified master trainer for AT&T College of Call Center Excellence conducting training programs for team leaders, supervisors and managers. Excerpts from an interview:

Convergence Plus: What is the focus of KarROX? Who is your targeted market audience?

Monica Doshi: Our focus is purely training and recruitment for call centers and companies handling backoffice projects. Besides these, we focus on IT training - mainly networking and security.

Convergence Plus: You have alliances with several leading companies. How are those alliances helping you?

Monica Doshi: For our ITES training division, we have an alliance with AT&T College of Call Center Excellence. karROX is the only organisation outside the US which is authorised to conduct these special programs for managers, team leaders and supervisors. These programs equip candidates with the skills required to handle call center operations to meet international standards. [Monica has been certified as the fourth master trainer and the only one outside the US.] We also offer simulation-based training modules from Ulysses Learning, USA. This program is for customer service reps and coaches It provides ongoing opportunities for participants to practice applying the modules as they work through sophisticated, engaging, and appropriately challenging computer simulated calls catering to the telecom, insurance and finance industries. We would soon be offering a Telesales program from the same company.

These alliances help us offer programs as per international standards that consistently meet clients' expectations. It also enhances the quality and performance of the call centers to meet international benchmarks.

Convergence Plus: What made karROX foray into ITES?

Monica Doshi: karROX has always followed the route of the "right training with the right certification, leading to the right job." Making our learners employable has been our focus right from inception. It was this vision that led us into ITES. Our chairman, Darshan Shah, saw this as an opportunity and sent a research team to the US to study the training requirements and programs being conducted there.

Convergence Plus: What kind of investments have you made?

Monica Doshi: Our alliances, design and development of training programs and training and certification of our trainers from universities and colleges in the US has led to an investment to the tune of Rs 2 crores.

Convergence Plus: Who are you presently targeting?

Monica Doshi: Our target market is the call center and backoffice centers in the country. However, we have recently signed an MoU with the Kerala IT Mission to provide this training in Kerala under the auspices of the Kerala government and hence, our present focus is in this area.

Convergence Plus: What is your expertise in this arena and what is specifically your USP?

Monica Doshi: Our international alliances, internationally designed programs and international certifications are our USPs. We offer programs not only at the agent level, but also at the team leader, supervisor and manager levels. As I have already mentioned, we are the only company to offer the training on the simulation-based training modules from Ulysses Learning for various verticals in the industry such as insurance, telecom and finance.

Convergence Plus: Apart from India, do you conduct call center programs anywhere else in the world?

Monica Doshi: We conduct training programs for call centers in South Asia, South East Asia, the Middle East and the UK.

Convergence Plus: What sort of understanding do you have with AT&T College of Call Center? Have they made any investments in India?

Monica Doshi: karROX is the only organisation outside the US, authorised by the AT&T College of Call Center Excellence to conduct its programs. Besides, our master trainer is authorised to train both the candidates as well as the trainers.

Convergence Plus: How important is ITES for India? It is generally said that once the Chinese learn English, companies will flock there and leave India far behind.

Monica Doshi: India not only has a huge pool of english speaking population who can be trained on accents and soft skills, but also has an added advantage due to its technical skills and brand image in the software sector. With these advantages, India can offer higher value services such as tech support, etc. English is not the only criterion. A whole lot of other skill sets and expertise are needed to offer high value services to clients and gain their confidence in terms of quality and performance.

Convergence Plus: Customers usually look for the 'extra' they can get. Are you offering any kind of value-added services?

Monica Doshi: Besides, training we offer our clients a complete HR solution in terms of assisting them in the recruitment process, implementation, knowledge transfer and upgradation and retention tools. As a part of the knowledge transfer, we understand the requirements of the client in the US/UK and assist the call center in India to implement the process and training to ensure performance. The entire process involves creation of reports and documentation as required by the client, scripting, handholding and monitoring.

Convergence Plus: Employees do not generally see call center jobs as 'jobs for long.' What are you doing to attract employees and make them stay?

Monica Doshi: Employees need to be given a clear picture about their job profile at the time of recruitment. Often, a very glamorous picture is given to the interviewee to make the offer attractive. Once they are on the job, they realise that it is not glamour but a lot of hard work. Some people also find it difficult to adjust to shifts. This does not mean that the job cannot be fun. It can be very interesting and challenging, if presented in the right way.

Often, the employees do not have a clear idea about the growth opportunities within the company and are not given an indication of their career path. Hence, they think that the job is a dead end to their careers. This is not true! They can go on to become a team leader, a supervisor, a shift manager, quality in-charge, client account manager, etc. Besides, they can also get into HR or training if they have an inclination toward these areas.

It is not only important to tell the employees how they can grow within the company, but also educate them on how they can get there. Sharing the performance, appraisal and promotion criteria helps the organisation and the employees in being focused on the goals. It is a good practice to identify, groom, coach and promote people internally to higher levels than recruiting someone new.

Convergence Plus: How do you go about the training procedure? Are you using any new, innovative teaching methods?

Monica Doshi: Yes! For our international tie-ups, we use simulations and case studies relevant to the particular industry. The simulated calls not only expose the agents to customer calls before they actually go live, but also train them on modules which they can apply while taking the calls and check out how they have performed. The program evaluates every candidate before the training and generates a post-training report. It also offers online coaching to candidates who are too inconsistent in their replies to the callers. The programs for the managers uses lot of case studies and practice sessions which allow them to learn from experiences of other call centers and apply the tools during the practice sessions.

Convergence Plus: What are your future plans for the Indian market?

Monica Doshi: There is a huge opportunity for this training in other South Asian countries. We would now like to scale up our operations to be able to train a higher number of candidates in India as well as look at opportunities in the other markets.