IBM software will help workers at call centers improve English [View All]

[OhioChick]

Rajesh Mahapatra
Associated Press
Nov. 19, 2006 12:00 AM

NEW DELHI - Even as Indian call centers have thrived in the past decade, helping U.S. companies cut costs and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, they have faced a seemingly insurmountable problem: Most Indian employees speak heavily accented English.

Now IBM Corp.'s India Research Lab says it has a way to help operators fix the harsh consonants, local idioms and occasionally different grammar of Indian English, often a source of frustration of those who call in search of tech support and other information.

IBM, which operates large call center facilities here, has developed a Web-based training technology that can help improve language skills of operators.

Although the technology was initially developed for its call-center employees in India, it has broad applicability for individuals as well as in schools and businesses, said Ashish Verma, who led efforts to develop the tool at the India Research Lab in New Delhi.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1119outsourcing-accents1119.html

~snip~ Scores of Western firms routinely transfer back-office work to India, where wages are low and skilled workers are plentiful.

Over the next three years, it plans to invest $6 billion in India, making it a hub for its outsourcing business. It plans to hire more employees for all of its businesses, including Daksh eServices, an Indian call-center company that employs more than 25,000 people and was acquired by IBM in 2004.