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Outsourcing and the establishment of captive customer service operations offshore depend on labor markets to supply qualified talent at affordable rates. Without appropriate personnel, nothing is possible ...

In considering whether or how to reorganize customer service and back-office functions offshore, the option to open a captive subsidiary service center may not receive full consideration in comparison to outsourcing options. Here we look at the case for Western companies to establish their own dedicated service centers -- especially in India ...

One of the most advanced communication hubs in the world crashed unexpectedly in Seattle on Sunday afternoon, July 30, 2006 due to a string of malfunctions in the facility's electrical power system. The facility, called Fisher Plaza, is billed as one of the most secure data centers and telecommunications hubs in the Northwest, capable of surviving major earthquakes and running for weeks on its own power. It is comprised of two buildings, Fisher Plaza East at 197,000 square feet and Fisher Plaza West at 99,000 square feet...

The first article in this series focuses on eNom's acquisition of BulkRegister, and how it would change the marketplace for domain name registration. It details the state of the industry and how it has transformed from the early startup days into a revenue-generating machine. This concluding article will expand on those thoughts and delve into what this means for consumers going forward...

BulkRegister, the original low-price commodifier of the domain name industry, announced that its business and assets are being acquired by eNom of Bellevue, Wash. In an e-mail sent to customers on July 26, BulkRegister said that its user interface would be integrated into eNom's main platform and that eNom would be doubling its office space in Bellevue to accommodate increases in development and customer support operations...

In buying a U.S. company, liabilities do not cease once a seller has completed a deal. The allocation of liabilities is usually determined in the acquisition agreement. Acquisition agreements are described in the previous article in this series. Here we examine the role of indemnifications in acquisition agreements ...

Police in Bangalore, India, reported the arrest Tuesday night of the chief suspect in the theft of funds from a score of customers of HSBC bank in the UK. Nadeem Kashmiri is being charged in India with stealing customer data that was sent to Nadeem's accomplices in the UK. Nadeem's accomplices assisted him in withdrawing funds from customers' HSBC bank accounts between March and May of this year...

The loss of personal data on an estimated 26.5 million U.S. military veterans, up to 2.2 million current service members and an unquantified number of spouses continues to generate public controversy. It also provides lessons for how the private sector could prevent and respond to the loss of personal information ...

Apple Computer announced internally on May 29 that it is pulling back from plans to establish a customer support facility in Bangalore, India. The news regarding Apple's Indian subsidiary Apple Services India was released publicly on Saturday ...

Acquisition agreements are the most important legally binding documents in the acquisition process, but their role is frequently misunderstood. They structure the deal and allocate liabilities and responsibilities among buyers and sellers ...

Buying a U.S. company offers a quick and easy way to acquire a client base without having to build one up slowly through traditional sales and marketing efforts, efforts that can be expensive, time consuming and not always successful. As described in part one of this series, acquisitions can provide U.S.-based expertise and infrastructure that can be used to re-invent and re-energize a business by shifting some portion of its production and service operations to more competitive locations...

U.S. companies that have not globalized their production or service operations are prime acquisition candidates for Western and overseas investors. Following an acquisition, the new owners can gradually shift some or all of an acquired firm's work offshore to competitive locations, making the entire business more profitable and competitive ...

Acquisition of existing enterprises offers the quickest, safest route to entering new markets and expanding rapidly within existing markets. The alternative route is organic growth through traditional sales and marketing efforts ...

The trend of Americans and Canadians buying call centers in India is driven by the low cost of these facilities and by the speed with which buyers can begin using them. Thefirst article in this series in this series focuses on the advantages of buying a facility with less than 100 seats in Bangalore, primarily for outbound voice work ...

Indian call centers are being purchased by U.S. and Canadian companies seeking to quickly gain access to call center services offshore, particularly outbound services. Although media attention focuses more on the sale of U.S. assets to Asian and Middle Eastern firms, this trend in the other direction highlights how globalization is linking economies, consumers and businesses around the world...

On the eve of President Bush's first visit to India, people in both countries are re-examining U.S.-India relations, with special attention being paid to economic relations. An account of outstanding issues in U.S.-India economic relations and India's moves to institute economic reforms can be provided through the record of one man. In this context, we can identify opportunities for improving U.S. ties with the world's largest democracy...

Who are customer relations managers and how do they perform their roles? For answers, we look to IT and call center outsourcing. The roles of customer relations managers have been made more complex by both globalization and the virtualization of organizations, as described in Part 1 of this series ...

Leet has outgrown its roots as an obscure communication system for computer bulletin board users and has become a broad cultural phenomenon. It is expressed by acronyms and synonyms, and by substituting letters with numbers, punctuation marks, and phonetic combinations. In leet, leet itself can be expressed as l33t or 1337. The full formal long form is elite or 31337...

Customer relations managers are the key point of contact between clients and service providers in the outsourcing process. Their role is being transformed by the telecommunications revolution and the globalization of customer service work, as detailed earlier in these pages ...

No type of management position has undergone more profound changes over the last ten years than that of client relations managers. Changes are being driven by economic globalization, competitive pressures and the information technology (IT) revolution. Changes in the roles of client relations managers parallel changes in the importance of these positions, particularly in business-to-business environments...