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Dell inaugurates its third contact centre in India

Mohali, March 21
The world's largest PC vendor, Dell opened its third contact centre in India here today and plans to take the headcount at the facility to 1,500 in the next 12 months.

The 1,80,000 square-foot facility will go live on March 28 will 300 agents. "Within a year the headcount at the facility will touch 1,500," Michael Dell, Founder and Chairman of Dell Inc, who inaugurated the contact centre, said.

He, however, did not disclose the investment the company had made in the facility. "We cannot disclose out exact investment figures, but we can say we have invested tens of million dollars in India," Dell said.

The company already has two contact centres—one each in Hyderabad and Bangalore—with a total headcount of around 8,000. While the Bangalore centre was inaugurated in March, 2001, the one in the Andhra Pradesh capital came up in March, 2003.

"The three centres in India are a part of our global network of 50 centres and provide sales, customer care and technical support," Dell said.

Apart from three captive contact centres, Dell outsources some of the work to Wipro Spectramind, 24/7 Customer, EXL Services and Sutherland, among others.

On a question whether the company would transfer work from third-party service providers to captive centres, Dell said the company would maintain a balance between the two.

Affirming his commitment to the Indian market, Dell said his company would not move work from India to other countries just to cut costs. "The company goes where it finds talent and not just where it can save money," he said.

The company looks at India as an important market and a resource base for its global operations, he said. "We are very pleased with the talented workforce here. We have had great success in Bangalore and Hyderabad." While the company expands its contact centres and research and development centres in India, it has no plans to set up a manufacturing base here because of the market conditions.

"We do not have a manufacturing facility in every country we sell in. For setting up a manufacturing base, a large market, good supply base and export-import environment is necessary. We do not have that environment in India," Dell said. — PTI