BIG CHANGES

Regarding my efforts to best serve my customers and perform my craft of information dissemination...I'll admit it, I have come to a nexus point. And so I've made an agonizing choice* and decided to end a 3.5 year stint at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park.

*The choice being, get layed off or take another position in a different project run by the same outsource vendor: Convergys.

After 4 different gigs at the Rita Ranch facility: Raytheon, Tucson Technology Incubator, IBM and Convergys, I now have a completely new day-job address on the opposite side of town.

As of MAY 2003, PABlo is no longer working with

Microsoft's (outsourced) Technical Support.

It's the end of an era. The end of 50 mile-a-day round trip bicycle commuting and ride sharing, and a parting with some of the most brilliant people I've ever had a chance to work with in this phase of my career. Fortunately, some of my current team mates are also taking this new option offered by our employer, so we'll be starting our training courses and together facing the changes of an altered environment and workplace conditions. Yes, I'm leaving behind lots of memories as a Tech-Writer, Programmer and Support Professional, and this blog continues as I become a technical support agent for *another* Convergys outsource client... SBC Internet Services.

Here's the background story (circa 2003)
_________________________
You could do a query on the following
http://www.google.com/
search terms:
convergys
cvg
us
call center
india
and you would get the following results:

CONVERGYS MEETS FIRST-YEAR
GROWTH GOALS FOR INDIA CONTACT CENTER
November 14, 2002
Pre-eminent customer care outsourcer
in India builds out 1,900-seat contact center --
(Cincinnati and New Delhi; November 14, 2002)
Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG),
the global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care services, announced today its contact center in India has met its first-year growth projections as the center marks its one-year anniversary of operation. Since opening in October 2001, Convergys has expanded the center's capacity to support a growing base of multinational clients. By year's end, the Convergys center will employ nearly 3,000 and have a 1,900-seat capacity. Convergys' India contact center provides technical help desk services along with customer support programs for Fortune 1000 companies in the financial services, communications, and consumer products fields. All of the center's key staff members are India nationals.

INDIA AS AN OUTSOURCING LOCATION:
Leading global business intelligence and consultancy firms such as Giga, Forrester Research and McKinsey & Co. have cited various reasons for the increase of offshore outsourcing to India. India's quality and cost benefit edge is one of the major draws for these organizations, analysts say. Giga predicts that, compared to other competing countries such as China, Ireland, Israel, and the Philippines, India will continue to dominate as the preferred off shore country.

LEADING PLAYERS IN INDIA:
One of the cases is Convergys Corporation
(NYSE: CVG), a member of the S&P 500 and the Forbes' Platinum 400, global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care services provided through outsourcing or licensing.
The Convergys 1,900-seat contact center is located in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon. Globally, Convergys (tm) employs more than 44,000 people in 46 customer contact centers and in their data centers and other offices in United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. GE, HSBC, DELL, Microsoft...
you name it they have their call centers all across India.

HERE'S WHAT THE INDUSTRY LEADERS SAY:

Jack Welch, General Electric
"A truly global company will be one that uses the intellect and resources of every corner of the world. India is a developed country as far as intellectual capital is concerned. The opening of (offshore) development centers marks a new level of commitment by GE in India."

John Chambers, CISCO Systems
"We are expanding our presence in India to take advantage of the ample research and development talent available...our Global Development Center is a critical component of our future success."

Michael Dell, Dell Computers
"India can become a major part of Dell's operations and a major source of the human capital that Dell takes on as a company...and we are looking for further opportunities to take advantage of skilled labor."

Lawrence J Ellison, Oracle Corp
"I love Indian food and only a few minutes away from my house in Redwood Shores is Gaylord where I eat a lot of naan, dal makhani and baingan bartha. Oracle is committed to India and has invested huge amounts of money in engineering. Yes, symbols are important for other top CEOs like Gates, John Chambers and Carly Fiorina have come to India, but I am deeply committed to the Indian venture where we have 2000 employees, which we will scale up to 4,000."

Bill Gates, Microsoft
"Three years ago, during my visit to India, the country was emerging as an IT superpower. Today, the country is handling the most sophisticated projects in the world...I am impressed with the talent we have in our India Development Center and the quality of software being developed."