Posted on 01/30/2006 7:24:12 AM PST by Fawn
Computer maker Dell Inc. said Monday it planned to add 5,000 jobs in India over the next two years, bringing its work force in the country to 15,000.
"Dell is also looking to set up a manufacturing center in India, a move that could help boost the sale of Dell computers here, President and CEO Kevin Rollins told reporters after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Round Rock, Texas-based company will hire 700 to 1,000 workers for a new call center in Gurgaon, a satellite town of the capital, New Delhi, Rollins said. The new call center, the company's fourth in India, will open in April, he said.
The other new hires will staff call centers in the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad in southern India and Mohali in the northern state of Punjab. Also this year, the company plans to double the staff at its product testing center in Bangalore, which currently employs 300 engineers, Rollins said.
During his previous visit to India in April last year, Rollins had said Dell would make India a hub for its software development and back-office work.
Currently, the company has three call centers in India, a product testing center for corporate customers and a global software development center. Some 10,000 people are employed at these facilities.
Scores of Western companies have been cutting costs by shifting software development, engineering design and routine office functions to countries such as India, where English-speaking workers are plentiful and wages are low.
But Rollins said his company's expansion plans were not limited to tapping the talent, but also benefit from the growing demand for desktop computers and notebooks.
Dell accounts for less than 4 percent of the 4 million computers sold in India, whereas the company's share in the global market is about 18 percent, he said.
Taxes levied by the Indian government on computers and computer parts are a major factor affecting pricing of Dell products and their sluggish sales here.
A manufacturing facility could help the company boost its presence in India, where computer sales are expected to increase to 10 million annually over the next three to five years.
"We have come to the conclusion that time is ripe to consider a manufacturing facility in India," Rollins said. "We want to do it fast," he said, but gave no time frame or investment details.
He said the company was talking to local authorities in several Indian states to identify a site and a decision will be made soon.
Dell currently operates nine plants, six of them outside the United States.
I meant the company I 'work' for...not mine.
Bet the cow spot logo has a whole different meaning there.
Hooray for Bali-wood!
Please come again.
Meanwhile plenty of programmers here in the US pound the pavement (at least in the Cleveland OH area) and the biggest employers cry for more H1b's.
Can't we do something about this?
You have to admit one thing. Speaking a foreign language does not hurt the Indians.
Think we would ever see Americans in call centers for say a Chinese company taking customer service calls in Mandarin or Hindi?
What are you trying to say?
Re: see my tagline
I have nothing against our sourcing and hiring foreign workers or opening up factories overseas. I do have a problem with hiring customer service and tech supports reps who speak English as a 2nd language. I think if you are going to deal with customers you need to have a mastering of the language they speak.
Last time I checked Dell could spend it's manufacturing budget as determined by Dell's board of directors to be best for Dell's sharholders. I guess you could boycott Dell, but I happen to like inexpensive computers.
Last week I had a problem with my PayPal account and needed to call to set it straight. The young woman in India was very professional (if not very technical) and was able to help me diagnose and rectify the problem within a few minutes.
It was obvious she had been through the "American accent" classes and she was very good. The only thing that gave her away was at the very end when she asked "Is there anything else I may be helping you with today?"
I can remember calling for tech support late in the evening years ago and getting a surly American working the night shift. And I was lucky the services was offered at all!
Having India take calls in the evening (their daytime) makes a lot of sense.
In the Tampa area, Nielsen Media Research and Verizon are employing their share as well.
Me thinks your talking about Gateway computers!
I heard there's some software firm in Westlake called Highland Software that is hiring an additional 250 programmers.
Once they insisted on sending a technician over to my house to replace a sound card...wouldn't send it and let me do it....he smelled very badly of some cheap perfume and needed a shave....turned out it wasn't the sound card and they never figured out the IRQ conflict....took me an hour to get the smell out.
That's Gateway.......
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