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BPO Curry Rating: 9.5/10

IBM wins the BPO Curry's award for "Call Center of the year -2007". Thanks to the amazing work culture, lovely processes, friendly management and state of the art facility, it was not at all difficult to declare the winner of 2007's call center of the year award.

IBM Daksh was formerly known as Daksh eServices, which is one of the biggest BPOs in Gurgaon. Daksh started its operations in early 2003. Circuit City was one of their pilot processes in Mumbai, which unfortunately is no longer there in IBM Daksh.
Major Processes in IBM Daksh, Mumbai:

1. Orange – Wanadoo (UK ISP Process)
2. United Airlines (US Process for airline reservation)
3. CBNA (Citibank North America Banking Process)
4. eBay (Web based process)
5. Pine Valley (Back Office – Insurance Process)

Selection Procedure: Once upon a time, it used to be very difficult to clear an interview for Daksh eServices. Ever since IBM took over Daksh eServices, the selection procedure has become quite lenient. Gone are the days when even a little fumbling in your interview would have cost you a job. IBM is little bit lenient in its selection procedure. As long as you speak good English, you can easily clear an IBM or for that matter any call center interview.

Let us have a look at the interview procedure:

1. Applying through a Consultancy:

It is advisable to apply through a consultancy if you know that your grammar isn’t that great and you stand little chance if you have to face an ex-tempore round. Though I think it is not that difficult to crack the interview even through walk-in, it is always advisable to go through a consultancy as this would help you save your several precious hours. When a consultant calls you up for an interview with IBM, ask them if they have an in-house interview. If the consultant asks you to directly walk-in to Magnus Towers, Malad, Mumbai – Daksh office in Mumbai, straightaway refuse it as you would end up wasting your entire day appearing for several rounds of interviews which are often delayed either because the HR folks are lazy or they are busy chit chatting in the cafeteria.

When consultants call you up, ask them if they have any in-house interview. In-house interview means the HR from IBM Daksh visits the consultancy and interviews the candidates and the Offer Letter is given in the consultancy itself provided you carry all your documents (10^th, 12^th and TY Results, Residence proof like a copy of drivers license, ration card or passport, any one of them would suffice, and off course your previous experience certificates like relieving letter, salary slips and appointment letter)

2. Walk-in Interview:
Walk-in interview are also easy to crack provided you are confident enough and more than that you have patience to wait for several hours for the round of interviews to be completed.

Before you walk-in, check if you have any friends working in the company. If you have one, get in touch with them and get their employee ID and process details and write it on your resume if your friend agrees to share 50% of the reference money that he would get on your selection. This could range anywhere between 1500 to 2500 rupees or even more. Your friend would get the money only if you successfully complete 3 months in the organization. If your friend is not willing to share the amount, do not write his name or reference on your resume as you should not encourage or benefit someone who doesn’t believe in sharing. J

Coming to the interview, well first you need to register yourself on the 5^th floor of Magnus Towers, Mindspace, Malad West, Mumbai.

Once you are registered you would need to wait for the HR to attend you. Once the HR calls you, she would conduct a basic personal interview asking you same old stupid questions like “tell me about yourself”, “Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?” (Tell them you would like to stay and grow along with the organization). If you are a fresher, they would pose questions like “Why do you want to join a BPO?”

Do not get frustrated by these stupid questions, it is always better to prepare for such questions in advance. Learn something about the BPO Industry and then appear for an interview. Always remember that only a well-prepared horse invites someone to go riding. So before you even think of taking the HR for a ride, be prepared thoroughly.
Once you finish the personal interview, you would be asked to speak on any topic for 3 Minutes and you would be asked to record your voice. Always choose a simple topic on which you can speak for a while. The recording you do would be the basis of your batch allocation for voice and accent. If they feel that you need more time for voice and accent training, they would give you a batch that lasts for 5 weeks. If your vocabulary, grammar and pronounciation is great, then you would be put in a fast track batch where the Voice and Accent training would only be for 2 weeks.

The Salary offered by IBM Daksh:

A fresher would draw around 11000 to 13000 take home salary and an experienced candidate would get 17500 Rupees in hand (including the attendance bonus of 1500, if you are absent for one day you lose 750 Rupees and if you are absent for 2 days, you lose 1500 Rupees). If you are selected for a process called United Airlines, you would be offered a retention bonus of 6000 rupees, which you would receive after 6 months. May be the bonus is also available in different processes now. Apart from the salary, you would be eligible for performance incentive which may range from 500 to 3000 rupees depending on your performance after you complete the voice and accent and process training.

The Voice and Accent Training:

IBM Daksh is one of the few call centers that take voice and accent training seriously and at the same time make it an unforgettable experience. IBM Daksh’s voice and accent training module is perhaps the best in the BPO industry. Once you go through the soft skills and voice and accent training in IBM, you would certainly come out as a real winner. If you get a 2 weeks pre-process training batch for 8 hours each day, 3 hours would be dedicated to Voice and Accent training and 4 hours for soft skills training. Many a times you get two different trainers, one for VNA (Voice and Accent) and one for the Soft Skills training. IBM Daksh’s trainers are extremely talented. The best trainer in IBM is Sienna D’Souza. She has a commanding voice, awesome diction, brilliant vocabulary and she is an ocean of knowledge. She would ensure that your soft skills improve by leaps and bounds in 2 weeks. I must say she is the best trainer in IBM. No other call center would provide you training on how to handle customers who directly insist on speaking to an American/Brit or someone who refuses to speak to an Indian.

At the end of the first week of pre-process, you would have to give a mid assessment. It is easy to clear this assessment as the trainers would provide extensive training and ensure that you are thoroughly prepared to appear for your assessment. You would be marked on an excel sheet filled with 15-20 parameters and it is not difficult to clear the assessment if you concentrate in the training. Apart from Voice and Accent trainer and soft skills trainer, you would have one more trainer for 2 days for culture training which is Fun, Fun and more fun. After the end of two weeks, you would be asked to appear for the post assessment which is not conducted by your trainer. You would be required to clear two assessments. One would be the Voice and Accent and the other one a Soft Skills Assessment. To clear VNA, you would be requested to speak on two topics (would be provided on the spot, though they would be simple ones like what if you were granted 3 wishes, etc) and to clear the soft skills training (Hshh this is tough one to crack), you would need to clear a mock call (Process specific mock call). IBM would provide you awesome training to clear the assessment.

Note: Even though majority of processes in IBM are US processes, they do not insist on speaking in an American accent. They teach you a global accent and focus on globally comprehensible English.

The Dress Code:
Jeans, casuals, T-shirts, formals, jackets, blazers, anything decent allowed. Just ensure you do not wear Bermudas and come to work.



Food:

Food in IBM is quite expensive. A non-vegetarian meal would cost you 30-35 rupees and a vegetarian meal around 25-30 rupees. However, you get a variety of food in IBM Cafeteria on the 4^th floor of Magnus tower. There are 2-3 different caterers providing a variety of food. The fast food you get in IBM is one of the best. Fast food is quite affordable too and you get good quality food for the amount you pay. Thank god, IBM got rid of Manohar caterers. Manohar caterers are there in almost every other call center and provide pathetic food at a not so cheap rate. Pani Puri and Frankie taste awesome. There is a 21 inch Television as well and a Citibank ATM in the Cafeteria, which is crowded on 31^st for obvious reasons.

Transport:

Offers home pick-ups/drops from 10.30 pm to 8 am. Other timings have a station pick-up and a drop to Malad station. They also have a centralized pick up and drop. The Centralized pick up is from Mira road station, Kurla station and Bandra station. (Please confirm this from the HR before joining). The transport is quite efficient and not many people have issues with it. During summer, A/C Cabs are offered for a pick and drop to the employees.


Things You Didn’t Know:

United Airlines has 5 weeks of process training and 2 weeks/5 weeks of VNA. So you would get 2 salaries only to get classroom training.

United Airlines is the process where you can earn the most through overtime, goodies offered, Client incentives and company incentives.

Do not get too excited by the above two points, the fact is that United Airlines has one of the highest attrition. There are back to back calls and the process is very vast and not many would find it easy. However, the process is fun and you get to learn a lot and it provides you a great platform if you plan to venture in the Airline Industry.

The IJP (Internal Job Postings) are very frequent in IBM and loyalty pays here. If you stick with IBM Daksh for more than a year, you are bound to grow either vertically or horizontally.

Orange Wanadoo is said to be one of the most chilled out processes. The call flow isn’t that high and the people are extremely cool in the process. If you are looking to make quick money, UAL (United Airlines) is the best.

CBNA is said to be a vast banking process and isn’t that happening, but one of the most prestigious processes in IBM at present.

eBay: This process has shifted to Prism Towers (located behind Intelenet) is a web based email support process. The crowd here isn’t that great and spoken English is given less importance here.

The washrooms in IBM are extremely spacious and clean. However, some there are people who have no work but to pluck hair in the washroom. Dirty people, get a razor. Mach 3 doesn’t cost much these days.

The entire pre-process training is now conducted in Prism Towers. If you are an Airtel user, then you would have a tough time getting network in the office premises, because Airtel’s network sucks.

The Bench thingy is quite popular in IBM. It means if 20 people are in VNA and 5 of them are from UAL and after they clear the VNA training, they are put on bench until the strength of the UAL batch reaches 10 or more. If you are put on bench, all you need to do is report to office for 4 hours, roam around in the office premises and go home. What’s more? Well, you actually get paid for being on Bench. The bench might last for a week or more depending on the scenario.

Nelofer Fernandes is the best process trainer in UAL process. Trust us, if you are in her batch, you are bound to have lots of fun throughout the 5 weeks of process training. She is one of best trainers in IBM or should we say the call center industry.

If you are thinking of joining IBM Daksh, kindly walk-in with a copy of your Resume at the following address:

Magnus Towers, 5th Floor,
Mindspace New Link Road, Malad West
Mumbai - 400 064
Ph: 91 22 4060 5677