Articles by Anthony Mitchell

Indian call center agents and software developers are assuming important roles in Western economies. As a consequence, labor markets in India are becoming a key strategic variable for many Western firms For the last five years, it has become common for directors of Western companies to ask corporate managers, "What is our Bangalore strategy?" Now t...

This has been a bad couple weeks for your country, Pakistan. Every day brings more bad news. The worst indication is the drop in confidence among broad segments of the business community in Pakistan earlier this month, particularly the tech sector, which has been growing at over 50 percent per year and represents one of your strongest bases of support...

Service has been restored on a damaged telecommunications cable that links India and Pakistan to the West, but not before the international service outage caused widespread financial damage, most especially to the cell center industry Service on the cable was restored on Friday. The cable was damaged on June 27, largely cutting Pakistan's telecomm...

Damage to the undersea telecommunications cable SEA-ME-WE3 (SMW3) Monday initially disrupted most of Pakistan's international telephone and Internet connections, but the outage spread to India, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Djibouti as repairs were started yesterday Call centers in India using connections through the Reliance Group, India's la...

Challenges facing new offshore call centers can spill over and impact clients and customers of those clients. Driven by cost considerations and the availability of personnel, U.S. firms are increasingly turning to offshore call centers -- but are often doing so without fully understanding the constraints facing those facilities Here we explore the ...

A new call center just opened in Navi Mumbai, India. It won't be making the headlines for being a new monster facility with impressive clients and well-known managers. But this modest business, Purple Support Services, has more to teach us about call center operations and IT outsourcing than any other center that has opened recently What barriers i...

Do you have a startup that never made it off the ground? What happened? Did you not have all the technical components that you needed? Was your scope too broad? Were your sales and marketing strategies too weak?...

Are you considering outsourcing a customer support or software development project? Here are some practical tips, oriented towards South Asian facilities but relevant to North American outsourcing providers It starts with planning, then moves to address payment and invoicing issues, and then lists outsourcing mistakes to avoid....

New information technology outsourcing opportunities are largely going to India, thanks to India's long-standing advantages. Despite negative press coverage that India has received for problems at a few outsourcing facilities, India is set to maintain its lead as the high-tech outsourcing destination of choice for U.S. clients India has the advanta...

Has India's information technology (IT) outsourcing boom peaked? There have been predictions that India will lose most of its outsourcing firms in the next two years. IT industry wages in India reportedly rose an average of 12 percent in 2004 and are projected to increase by another 15 percent in 2005 New outsourcing destinations have been receivin...

Police in India announced on Thursday that they had recovered 1 million Indian Rupees (almost US$23,000) in funds allegedly stolen from Citibank customers in the U.S. by employees of an Indian call center firm The case highlights the need for a reexamination of corporate cultures and corporate ethics, as well as the sorry state of the Indian judici...

Business process outsourcing (BPO) facilities, which handle non-voicework, are easier to manage than offshore call centers. This is because of the nature of the work itself as well as the human resource issues associated with call centers in emerging economies Common types of BPO work are:...

There are four lessons for U.S. firms setting up operations offshore, beginning with the need for good market positioning, having enough American trainers on the ground, emphasizing quality over quantity, and the need to export American corporate culture overseas rather than have offshore facilities adapt to local workplace culture These lessons ar...

What infectious disease killed more adults and young people around the globe at the end of the 20th century than any other? What resurgent disease has become resistant to each new drug developed since the discovery of streptomycin in 1944? What disease kills one third of all people who die with AIDS? The answer is tuberculosis, also called TB, cons...

If you mention travel in Pakistan and India, Americans often think about safety. I'm in my fifth week of travel in Pakistan and recently spent three years living in India The best safety tip for business travelers is a local cell phone with numbers added to its address book for people whom you are be going to meet. If you or your driver become lost...

Can you describe the three principal business models used by software firms? Before you invest in a software firm, buy products from one, or decide to work for one, look at their business model In this industry overview, we adopt a case study approach to incorporate data from NetSol Technologies. They were founded in 1996 and are listed on NASDAQ a...

Two motorcycles collide, Ben Hur style, spilling four lads out across the roadway, slick with gray water. They pick themselves up, brush off their clothes, pull fenders and other peripherals back into place, then speed away. Not one harsh word is exchanged. Nor is there a single helmet among the lot of them Welcome to the old Saddar market area of ...

Megacities with populations larger than entire countries are changing the physical and economic landscape of the globe. Megacities have economic engines that are powering the future of the world. Megacities have larger markets than many developed countries The megacities are coming. They are the future. They are here now....

Popular style guides such as Strunk and White's 1918 classic The Elements of Style and the original 1906 Chicago Manual of Style were published before the advent of computers or e-mail. As such, their rules are not always relevant to the exigencies of e-commerce and electronic business communications Updated style guidance is needed for the era of ...

E-mail is like having a brilliant friend who is somewhat crazy, not well socialized, and occasionally self-destructive. They can help you. However, they can also get you into big trouble While we might not have the capability to moderate the behavior of a crazy friend, it is well within our capabilities to moderate our e-mail communications. Modera...