Business: Managed Services
Sector: Research
Client Profile: The Client is a niche Research firm focused on providing information and research on mobile technology and more specifically on various products and services in this fast evolving market. They are a small but rapidly growing London based firm with a team of about 15 people in the UK.
Data Search and Aggregation is obviously time consuming work and one which is integral to a business such as the one the Client is in. In September 2004, the Client approached the Company saying that they were trying to see whether they could get a back office 'facility' in India to assist them in this broad task. In fact they approached the company for advise on the options they could look at and some of the issues relevant in such an enterprise. After discussions the Company agreed to set up such a facility and this was followed up with a week's trial which was successful. This then enabled the Company and the Client to define broad parameters and skill sets and a contract was agreed upon. The Company then recruited people with the requisite skill sets and the formal relationship commenced in mid-October, a month from the time of the first meeting!
The team in Chennai is a young team and the initial challenge was to ensure that they came to grips with the Client's domain quickly. This in a sense was a communication challenge as it also involved managing the Client's expectation. During the initial stages, a senior manager of the Company was actively involved in the day to day communication between the team in Chennai and the Client's team in the UK. This was supplemented by a weekly conference call between the Company's Senior Managers and the Client. Over a period of a month, a process document was generated and this was broadly agreed upon between the parties. In a sense the challenge was to define the tasks and processes while preserving the scope for creativity and initiative.
The team has now grown to do both search and data aggregation as well as support the Client's sales team in business development especially lead generation.
Discussions with the Client, with whom the Company has face to face meetings once a month, have confirmed that they are delighted with the service and that in terms of 'value' it has more than met their expectations. The Client has visited India, know the team members, and discussions are now on to increase the team size. They are also looking at the possibility of getting some basic research reports done from the Company in India.
