Airtel in outsourcing pact with IBM

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday announced a strategic outsourcing agreement with IBM to further enhance its customer service experience for its top-end platinum customers through process and technology innovation.

The six-year Q3 contract for outsourcing contact services to IBM's Managed Business Process Services unit would involve augmentation of Airtel's sales, customer service, and back office capabilities, an IBM release said.

"IBM MBPS combines IBM's deep industry and process expertise with innovative technologies and a talented employee force to offer client's repeatable processes and assets that can improve process productivity and deliver cost savings and reduced risk", the release said.

IBM Daksh Business Process Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBM Corporation, would provide a suite of services covering both voice and back office in areas such as customer service, collections, customer retention and the like to Airtel Platinum customers from its centres.

IBM Daksh expects to have over 700 employees in the first year focused on providing services in over 11 languages to elite Airtel customers across the country, it said.