Herald June 2009
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a m o n t h l y n e w s m a g a z i n e o f t h e p e o p l e / f o r t h e p e o p l e / b y t h e p e o p l e o f T C S BPO SER V I C ES
Experience
certainty
Editor’s Note
See it…feel it…Live it!
“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” ‘Experience certainty’ represents the commitment and assurance TCS gives to all its stakeholders in the way it conducts business. Our cover story explores the success stories within TCS BPO Services and how we have taken this legacy forward. These success stories demonstrate what we can do to help our stakeholders Experience certainty. The objective is to live this brand promise, let Experience certainty grow on you, in your mind, in your heart, in your daily actions and behavior and become an
inseparable part of your life at TCS BPO Services. Know TCS Series continues to shed more light on TCS BPO, the foundation of TCS BPO Services. Inside View features a tête-à-tête with V.K. Raman (Head TCS BPO). In Unit Insights know more about CBNA Unsecured Lending Ops and Securitization & Microfinance Ops. Catch all the news and events happening within the verticals in Snapshots. Unplugged offers brain fodder through contests and poll. Feel good about the appreciations that continue to pour in, highlighted in Kudos and Customer Wows. Enjoy the rains and happy reading!
Inside
Focus – Know TCS Series
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Unit Insights – CBNA Unsecured Lending Ops & Securitization & Microfinance Ops 3 Cover Story
Snapshots
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Trainer Talk
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Take 10
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Kudos
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Herald June 2009 1
Focus KNOW TCS Series: TCS BPO - Surging Ahead
INSIDE VIEW
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n continuation to Know TCS Series: Integrated BPO, we bring to you TCS BPO. Headquartered in Vikroli, TCS BPO is a cornerstone of the TCS BPO Services success story. TCS BPO currently provides BPO services out of 12 delivery centers across four countries and handles varied business processes across all key outsourcing areas.
A column that brings you a quick peek into the not so official side of our leaders
TCS BPO: The Organizational Sketch Geo BPO Teams
V K Raman
IT K Swamy
Transition Ramesh Sreedharan
Finance Venky
Prod. Planning Nitin Desai
Quality Pankaj
V K Raman Head TCS BPO
1. First job: I taught children for 15 days when I was in college – both got bored and decided to stop after mutual discussion with their parents. 2.
Leadership style: Don’t do something that some one else can do better – surround yourself with better people, so that you can get by looking better than what you are – there are some risks in this approach.
3. Famous quote: Give benefit of doubt to the other person – wear larger hat (let it not obscure your vision). 4. Big ambition: Visit Mansarovar. 5. Bugbear: Blackberry. 6. When not working: Science fiction. 7. Fav tech toys: Latest Blackberry. 8. Stress buster: Driving – recent development – music – sleeping. 9. One childhood dream that is still unfulfilled: To become a pilot. 10. Three must haves if you were marooned on an island: Books, books, books. 11. Messiah moment: I was waiting outside the labor room when my wife was delivering our daughter that is when it dawned, the beauty of life and how helpless I was, how we need to respect each life form. I have become a more loving person after that. I saw a new meaning to life from that day onwards and a new purpose.
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Presales and Solution Kumar Amitesh
Transformation & KPO Chethan Prabhudeva
Delivery Standardization Ramesh Sreedharan
HR Ranjan
first customer on F&A Platform has gone live this month. The end-to-end F&A Platform managed services model was to support and upgrade platform for a UK headquartered leading trade exhibition organizer which handles over 400 events across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. The scope was to consolidate all F&A processes onto a single ERP instance for both UK and Dubai operations. F&A Platform Solutions helped customer meet the critical deadline of 6 months to disengage its systems from the parent organization, process standardization and saving ~ 40%. Leveraging the IT/IS strengths of TCS coupled with the Utility model, BPO provides bundled IT and BPO offering a Full Service Play, which is its key value differentiator.
TCS BPO Wins Great Place to Work (GPTW) Award
TCS BPO was ranked fifth in the ITES sector of the ‘Great The organization is mapped across 6 locations in India i.e. Place to Work® Survey’ (GPTW) 2009 – and also ranked Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Baroda, New Delhi and Kolamongst the top 50 companies in the list. This employee kata with specialized services offered from each centre. TCS survey study in India is a part of the largest global study of BPO offers end-to-end BPO services with multiple offerings. its kind with more than 3000 organizations and 1 million Built on TCS’s deep domain expertise and unmatched employees who participate in this extensive survey that technology, it has a two-pronged strategy to provide votes. GPTW assessed the participating organizations service offerings through two key inTCS BPO Service Offerings to its customstruments - Trust (the • Consumer Finance ers. Within each degree of employees’ • Cards • Policy Servicing • Cash Management • Claims Administration of the industry trust in the company • Capital Markets • Closed book Adminstration • Merchandise Banking • Retail Banking verticals, TCS BPO they work for encom• New Business Servicing • Trade Services has identified key passing credibility, • Clinical Data Management BFS Insurance • Retail Marketing Services transactional activirespect, fairness, pride • Statistical Analysis • Merchandising Services Life Sc & • Medical Writing • Replenishment Models Retail ties within its areas and camaraderie), Health Care • Pharmacovigilance • Retail Store Operations • Online Retailing of expertise and Culture Audit (best Industry Specific created a model to practices and policies Manufacturing Telecom • Sales & Order Management • Customer Management • Sourcing & Logistics outsource them. at the workplace. • Service Management • Spare Parts & Management • Billing & Telecom Assistance M&IS TT&H Our key customTCS BPO, a global • Supplier Management ers are Nielsen Co, leader and pioneer in • Information Services • Information Services • Media Production • Media Production Home Depot, Dow managing business • Pricing & Publishing • Pricing & Publishing • Online Portal Services • Online Portal Services Chemicals, Safeco processes for compaHorizontal Services and Deutsche nies around the world Finance & Accounting Supply Chain Human Resources Research & Analysis Customer Interaction Bank. - won this honor for Platform BPO TCS BPO acts what the panel called TCS BaNCS Oracle EBS SAP SAP +as an extended “a company with high arm of customer’s standards of ethics *The offering matrix above includes banking and financial offerings. business organizacoupled with special tion, not just a focus on keeping service provider. TCS BPO has been also delivering services Gen Y engaged through a foreseeable career path and develto its customers using its GNDM™ (Global Network Delivery opment.” TCS BPO was also honored for the “amazing degree Model) across multiple countries. Our key delivery enablers of collaboration between management and associates”. being Enterprise P2B, Certifications: ISO 9000, SEI CMM Level 5 best of the breed delivery solutions. Another initiative Awards and Recognition of TCS BPO is SPS (Structured Program Solving). It facilitates TCS BPO is recognized by customers and the media for our usage of analytical and problem solving tools that can be industry leadership in many areas. The rankings listed beused to address operational problems and deliver customer low are from a variety of assessing bodies that take annual delight. Analytical capability enhancement is the core look at the most successful companies. focus of SPS. Within a short span, we had SPS implemented • Ranked 3rd among the Top Indian BPO Players (Dataquest across 300 + projects with 800 + people trained resulting in – 2008) dramatic cost savings per project. • Ranked 15th in ‘The 2008 Black Book Top 50’ (Black Book TCS has created differentiated offerings by bundling of Outsourcing – 2008) it with TCS IP into one utility business model. This utility • Ranked among top IT/ITeS companies in India for 2008 by based business model is called Platform based BPO. TCS Dun & Bradstreet. BPO currently provides this service for HRO and Payroll TCS BPO clients consistently ‘Experience certainty’, a fact Insurance, Telecom and Revenue Assurance. demonstrated in various aspects of our delivery capabilities Another feather in our already adorned cap is that TCS’ and commitment. Compiled by Smita Varadarajan
Unit Insights
Check out what’s happening behind the scenes within the organization in Unit Insights.
CBNA Unsecured Lending Ops: Growth story
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BNA Unsecured Lending Operations services unsecured banking products (products without a collateral) across three distinct product categories, viz: Personal Loans, Credit Lines and Credit Cards. The unit is the only offshore partner for CBNA’s Unsecured Lending business servicing the NAM region. The unit has its round-the-clock operations supporting six processes across voice and back office operations.
• Five completed green belt projects covering varied metrics like AHT, Productivity, FSS, Unscheduled Absenteeism, etc. • Soft skills training module developed in-house and sent to client training team for onshore use.
Performance:
Origin: CBNA Unsecured Lending Operations originated from Citi Home Equity in February 2003 with 4 FTEs. After almost three years, the business was moved as a separate entity under Citibank N.A. Unsecured Lending Operations in October 2005 and within the next few months, the unit ramped up and additional processes on the back office operations side were migrated in February 2006.
What the unit does: The unit services 39 Unsecured Lending products via its voice and back office operations. The customer support team (inbound and outbound) relays status, schedules closings and completes verifications for loan applications. The transaction processing team inputs applications, indexes all incoming
documents for unsecured loan products and is involved in funding accounts once applications are approved.
Achievements: • CBNA ULO is one of the most frequently audited units within Global Loan Operations primarily because of the firm risk and compliance control structure of the Citibank N.A. world. • The unit has not missed a single SLA since May 2007 across both voice and back office operations. • The unit was audited eight times last year by client vendor management team, CBNA Audit and Control, COPC, OPO and other internal entities. It has successfully come out with nil audit findings in all audits. • The unit has completed 3 COPC certifications. • VOC scores of 100% in the last 2 years.
The growth story is a result of highly satisfied clients (100% scores on VOC), 100% SLA conformance since the last two years, process improvement initiatives like: • Improving Right Party Connect rate through shift changes, • Outbound calling on queues to improve booking rate and reduce loan cycle time, • Effective FSS model implementation to improve and sustain service level metrics. The unit is headed by Sanjay Sharma and supported by Arindam Chaudhuri.
Client’s Speak: “Over time TCS e-Serve’s role, has to this day, not stopped expanding and is now a much more prominent part of ULO operations. The initial transition/expansion goal was to add a modest amount of phone support in TCS e-Serve & have these same associates cross trained to handle more varied production skills knowledge. When this all started in late 2005
TCS e-Serve serviced a small niche for ULO. Today TCS e-Serve handles a solid 80% of our transactions in both servicing and funding. The quality of the work has been exceptional throughout. I have and still appreciate the ongoing commitment to our success.” - David Leonards, AVP Citibank N.A. Unsecured Lending Operations. “I became involved with ULO in July 2005. Since that time I have had numerous interactions with the CBNA ULO management team of Arun Batra, Sanjay Sharma and Arindam Chaudhuri and each interaction has been a positive experience. Through the years, our business relationship has grown into a sincere friendship on both sides of the pond. Our relationship is an example of true teamwork which has resulted in many saves and innovations within the processes. The TCS management team in ULO works like a well-oiled machine in all kinds of circumstances. Their innovative skills and dedication to the client has instilled trust not only in myself but within all stateside employees working with these fine men. I have managed many other functions for Citi with other offshore BPOs and none of them have come close in matching the dedication, loyalty and expertise of the TCS management team. “ – Richard L Guida, Vice President, Client Services Operations, Citibank, N.A. Compiled by Vivek Bose
Securitization & Microfinance Ops: Partner for every need
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his unit is part of TCS BFS BPO’s domestic operations supporting Citibank and Citifinancial Consumer Finance India Ltd (CCFIL)’s Securitization & Microfinance products. This is one of the oldest units in our organization at Chennai and has been in existence since 1999.
Did You Know: Securitization is a structured finance process that involves pooling and repackaging of cash-flowproducing financial assets into securities, which are then sold to investors. Citibank was one of the pioneers in the Indian Securitization market as well as the whole loan sale market and was the first to do Securitization transaction in the Indian way back in 1991. Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. TCS BFS BPO is one of the very few BPOs in India, which has Securitization operations offering and the capability to manage operations for variety of securitization structures.
What the unit does: The unit supports the entire life cycle of secu-
ritization and microfinance deals and currently manages 24 securitization deals, on buy side and sell side, worth INR 42000MM and a microfinance portfolio of INR 3000MM. The core functions of the unit are as below: • Pool generation for securitization: Identifying loans, which meet the investor and client specifications in terms of portfolio size, seasoning, portfolio yield, interest spread etc. • Payout computation and reconciliation: The payout amount is computed based on collection details and the investors are repaid on a monthly basis. In case of whole loan sale, the collection reconciliation is shared with the investors at regular intervals. • Mark-to-market and IOSR amortization: The unit handles computation and gives effect for MTM of Interest Only Strip Receivable (IOSR) and Cash
collateral on a monthly basis. The unit also supports the quarterly impairment process. • Booking and disbursal of microfinance loans: The booking files are reviewed for completeness and the amount is disbursed to the Microfinance Institution for further lending to their end clients. • MIS and Regulatory Reporting: The unit prepares various MISs like FIN VIE 46, QSPE, SPE validations, CG sponsored securitization details, PSL, CIR for internal and regulatory reporting. • Accounts proofing: The unit handles accounts proofing for all GL accounts pertaining to domestic retail lending operations units.
Achievements: • One of the oldest ISO 9001:2000 Certified units in FIPD Chennai • Major technological enhancement initiatives like o Mortgage loans securitisation module o Module for asset assignment nature micro finance o Whole loan securitisation module for personal and auto loans • 100% SLA conformance on timeliness, accuracy • Excellent track record in internal & external audits
Road Ahead: • COPC certification in year 2009. • Continuous process enhancement and support to client to help them achieve their business goals and experience certainty. • Process implementation for Microfinance Securitisation.
Client’s Speak: You guys have always been there to provide full support at any point in time, be it, treasury related activities or Securitization related activities. – Ramakrishnan V, Vice President-Citibank Thanks for your support and timely execution. Badri Nivas, Treasurer-Citibank GCB Over 63,000 individual micro loan files of a value of close to USD 10 MM uploaded in 36 hours is such a fabulous effort. Thanks! On behalf of the Microfinance Group, once again my thanks to the Ops and credit teams for the support extended to us. Alok Prasad, Business Manager – Microfinance. Compiled by Shyam Sridhar Herald June 2009 3
Cover Story
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Experience
certainty See it…feel it…Live it!
When limitations don’t hold you back, when you break free from the shackles, when you go beyond boundaries, you Experience certainty! The state of being sure, absolutely sure.
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xperience certainty is a crisp articulation of what TCS offers the world. It represents our capacity to deliver and our capability to meet the commitments that we make to others. It represents what TCS stands for in the way it conducts its business. Experience certainty, the TCS tagline represents the commitment and assurance that it gives to all its stakeholders. Each and every TCSer breathes the brand promise and competency line ‘IT Services*Business Solutions* Outsourcing’ which describes our broad, global capabilities. In a knowledge and people-intensive business such as ours, it will be the collective output of talent, competencies and behaviours exhibited by all
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Herald JUNE 2009
TCSers around the world, supported by technology, innovation and our value systems, that will make ‘certainty’ real and believable. As TCS brand ambassadors, we must keep in mind that we would be ‘held to our promise’ wherever we go, irrespective of our function or role. Experience certainty extends to all the functions that exist to help TCS meet its business objectives and delivery obligations. Let us know how each of us at TCS BPO Services lives up to this brand promise which is reflected in our dayto-day activities, irrespective of our varied roles. Let Experience certainty grow on you, in your mind, in your heart and in your daily actions and behavior, and become an inseparable part of your life in TCS BPO Services.
Experience certainty @ TCS BPO Services
We bring to you some of the exceptional achievements at TCS BPO Services demonstrated in various aspects of our delivery capabilities and commitment both externally and internally to all our stakeholders.
Experience Excellence! Transportation is the backbone of the BPO. It caters to clients in multiple time zones seamlessly across 50 countries 24x7 with an employee base of 13,000 people and employees spread across various cities. This vision led to the industry’s first, iTMS (Integrated Transport Management System), an innovative Transport Management System that utilizes the latest available technologies like GPRS (General Pocket Radio Service) and SMS technology blended with a contemporary transport management system. TMS has online rostering software directly in hands
of unit managers, a vehicle routing software, mapping and tracking of vehicles, integrated with GPRS network and employee identification using access control system based on proximity swipe cards. TMS has indeed set standards for others to follow.
Experience Innovation! For a leading Global Market Research organization Nielsen, TCS BPO Services implemented a great computing solution which resulted in faster turnaround time for processing and succeeded in reducing manual intervention to a great extent without compromising on the accuracy levels. TCS used the Grid Computing technology which resulted in automatic generation and quality checking of reports. With this TCS provided a significant competitive advantage to the client with a reduction in TAT by 60%, in addition to a reduction in manual and procedural errors. It further resulted in 100% conformance to service levels (timeliness).
Cover Story Experience Transformation! For the Bank of Pichincha, TCS BPO Services provided consultancy for organizational restructuring followed by implementation of TCS leading bank product, TCS BaNCS and then provided BPO Services on this platform. All in all this helped to get efficiency ratio down from 82% to 58% while the asset base for the bank has doubled. The bank has expanded from Equador to Global base Bank.
Experience Optimization! For Home Depot, a US based leading retailer, TCS BPO Services designed a priority based chargeback reversal algorithm. This was a Six Sigma driven Business Process Re-engineering initiative to increase the chargeback reversal rate and reduce the unrecoverable chargeback amount. This initiative resulted in annual savings of over USD 15million.
fications like BS 7799-2:2005 and ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Infosec has won the innovation award for developin g a film on physical security for security guards and information security awareness for employees – first in the ITES industry. The films are now being rolled out across TCS as part of the best practice sharing exercise.
Experience Continuity!
Experience Empathy!
Continuity of Business unit delivers a certainty to the clients that their business will run seamlessly, to employees that their safety and security would be given utmost importance and for the organization (TCS BPO Services) that our differentiation from the rest of the market will continue incessantly. COB unit received BS 25999 certification making us the second organization in India to achieve this and fifth in the world. Nov 2008 – Terrorist attacks in Mumbai and heavy rains in Chennai – with continued support from various teams, we continued to deliver services to the clients. We were able to achieve a conformance of 99.68% for all our processes and above all client satisfaction.
Experience Information Security! For an organization handling more than 800 mn financial transactions each year, it is vital to implement a sound Information Security program to provide reasonable assurance regarding confidential information entrusted to us by our clients and develop a security culture in the organization. The annual security awareness week organized by Infosec was later adopted by its largest client ‘Citi’ and implemented globally in more than 75 countries. With global certi-
During the Mumbai terror attacks, TCS BPO team played a supportive role to many relatives and families as terror struck Taj. The BPO group that usually caters to tele-call /advisory needs such as bookings and check-ins for the Taj group faced a very different kind of situation. They were now responding to calls that enquired about the well-being of Taj occupants. The Taj team, split between Mumbai and Chennai attended over 60,000 calls during the peak period (October to March) and around 12,000 emails per month. In the words of S. Ramadorai (TCS CEO and MD), “Being of service to somebody and then taking it, not as a paid job, but as a contribution to a fellow human being is one of the most important lessons I have learnt in my working life. The people you have touched are those who have been affected one way or the other and these could be among the most satisfying moments in your career.”
weekend we decided to go for a local safari. The moment we started, a belief evolved within me – “If I witness a lion today, the project will be a success.” There were giraffes, elephants, and rhinos … but I was looking only for the ‘King’! Soon the sun started hiding behind the trees, and our guide signaled the return. All were disappointed for not spotting the lion but my disappointment was far more. To everybody’s surprise, minutes before the exit the driver got information that few lions were spotted in nearby area. Finally we saw the giant beast standing right in the middle of the road and there came some 14-15 lions, lioness and cubs. That was a scene of my life… and is still fresh in my memories. The safari was complete and so was my confidence to take the project towards its destination. It helped me to clear all odds and the process got migrated successfully, since then there is no looking back and today we stand tall as a team of 700+ FTEs. Sometimes small things in life can do wonders for you, says Sanjay Bohra (Business Head – Int’l Cash Management and Wealth Management- BFS BPO).
Experience Delivery! Amita Agarwal (BFS BPO ICG Analytics) was assigned to conduct a detailed analysis on a payment stream called SEPA for a senior management review in 24 hours. The data sought by the client was not readily avail-
Paint your Canvas Is your team up to the challenge? Tell us how you have made the TCS brand promise work for you and your customer. You can also design an Experience certainty Poster for your business unit. The shortlisted themes/stories will win exciting prizes and a chance to get their entries published in the upcoming issues of Herald. Do look out for Experience certainty section in the next issue for interesting stories, anecdotes and Experience certainty quotes. Hurry! Write to us at BPO.herald@tcs.com.
I have had many interactions with clients in the past 6 months, and feel that one of the key selling points that we have is our “experience certainty” tag line. To me it is a promise, a guarantee... It indicates our commitment to deliver what we say we will. Even when we interact within the organisation, each one of us has a service provider - customer relationship. Just imagine how easy it would be if we get this “certainty” promise from our colleagues and peers and everyone else we interact with. – Rahul Singh, Head BFS BPO. u
u For me certainty is the organizational cul-
ture, which supports predictive sustainability towards “unlimited growth with limited resources” – allied mindset. It also symbolizes all stakeholders feeling empowered and belonging to the system – Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Head, Global HR, BPO Services. Sustained quality, no surprise approach, assurance and predictability of favorable outcome. – Rajib Dutta, Cluster Head: ICG, Wealth Mgmt, Cap Mkt, BFS BPO.
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Fulfilling commitments to the expectations that I have set and demonstrating an experience that is valued by each other. P V Hariharan – Delivery Center Head, Bangalore, BPO Services. u
Experience…conviction, excellence respect for individual, to provide environment of learning and sharing, assure best solutions, integrity, national interest, to help customers achieve their business objective. You lead change with TCS. – Divya Nambiar, Human Resources BFS BPO.
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Being able to commit to customer SLAs & KPIs with confidence and then being able to deliver that in sustainable, predictable manner! – Ramesh Sreedharan – Head, Delivery & Transition, TCS BPO.
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u Converting predictability to inevitabil-
Experience Faith! Year 2001- we got an opportunity to migrate South Africa process. It was our biggest global project (in those years) in terms of FTEs (40) & complexities and had all the attention. With responsibilities arose many apprehensions. It was in Joburg, on a
What Experience certainty means to me
ity. – Porash Borah, MAS, PRG, BFS BPO.
able and had to be derived and compiled from various sources. Amita set about her task by co-ordinating with various teams and stretched beyond her prescribed working hours to turn around with the analysis before the deadline. The client was extremely appreciative of the quality of the analysis and the TAT of the delivery as the analysis was well received by the management.
Experience Ideas! Small ideas lead to big differences. BFS BPO UK Service Operations team suggested a revenue generation idea to charge customers who request for a balance confirmation letter. This was approved by product and was successfully implemented, which resulted in realized additional revenue of GBP 380 to the business. (Annualized expected revenue: £7200) with several client appreciations.
A pledge to excel, a commitment to deliver and an assurance to perform! – Khyati Singh, BFS BPO. u
This truly depicts how each of us at TCS BPO Services lives up to our brand promise which is reflected in our day-to-day activities, irrespective of our varied roles. Experience certainty...Live it.
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Snapshots Progressions – Business of training
Typhoon wins TCS Baroda Super Eights cricket championship
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rogression is a 24-month comprehensive, competency based training program for Band - 4. The content is continuously revised every time to build and enhance the managerial skills for the employees. Assignments and real time case studies are also a part of the 24-month Progressions training. One of the trademark events in the first five days of this program of Progressions is ‘Business Fair’ and ‘Site Visit’. In a Business Fair, units set up stalls and present their unit operations with innovative props. The participants themselves judge the winner of the Business Fair according to their presentation, creativity etc. In a site visit event, the employees would be going to a particular site and would be getting a bigger picture about the units operations. Graduation ceremony for Progressions 2006-2008 batch was held on May 22, 2009. The event was addressed by Akhil Maria, R Sudharshan and Rama Siva. Compiled by Jayant Kulkarni
T20 Fever @ Spencers
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Compiled by Danish Haseeb Khan
ICG Analytics: From strength to strength!
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he number of clients serviced by Analytics has now touched 28 SLAs/SOWs with Citi leaders across the globe, the highest for any individual business in ICG. Also, our employee strength crossed 88 (across Mumbai and Chennai). With the TCS divestiture, Analytics is now being actively offered
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process primarily deals with finding the right party contact of the missing card holders or debtors. It went live on September 15, 2008, with the calls of its first sub-process Macy’s. There are four different shops that work under the umbrella of Skip Trace; they are Macy’s, Mortgage, SLC (diligence and extra diligence) and UCP.
he Fun@work committee of Team Utilities organized carom competition. The event lasted for a week where more than 50 matches were played in different categories: Men’s Singles, Women’s Single’s and Mixed Doubles. It was indeed a nail biting finish. The hidden talents of many team members were discovered in this tournament. After a hectic work schedule such sports really help the team to rebuild their energy to work better and keep the sportsman spirit in them alive. The Fun@work committee organizes such exciting events round the year to ensure that the team members have a good time at their office too along with their routine work. The winner’s were: Men’s Singles – Rohan Anant Sawant, Women’s Singles – Varsha Bhosle, Mixed Doubles – Reshma Satish and Parag Gore.
Compiled by Benno Fernandes
Compiled by Parshva Bhatt
to various third parties either bundled with our core Ops functions or under separate Analytics centric proposals. We are also foremost on flexibility front, offering a variety of billing mechanisms to suit our business partners needs, ranging from FTE based to UPC and project based billing.
Skip Trace, Gurgaon: So far So Good
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leader is one who does not accept, but faces challenges and moves on.” ICSD, Skip Trace in Gurgaon has had a similar story. It was in April 2008 that the process owners thought of widening their horizon and setting up the Gurgaon SEZ office. Process owned and managed by Ajay Gupta, the team has since its inception grown full swing. The
Carom tournament: Thrills galore!
Here the training team brings you some background knowledge about one of their training programs or some useful training tips.
Leader’s Conclave for senior management
reat minds never stop learning! Furthermore learning forms an essential ingredient of any successful leader. It paves the way for greater opportunities that lie waiting to be clutched. Given that Team L&D, TCS BPO rolled out a key initiative namely Leader’s Conclave, which caters to the learning requirement of the senior management. This well-charted program provides incisive knowledge nuggets delivered by eminent industry leaders such as Professor Neelakantan, Director of SIES – CEMRD (Centre for Excellence in Management Research and Development), P. S. Viswanathan, Chief Transformation Officer TCS, and many others. ‘The Communication Juggernaut’, was a recent session conducted for the leader fraternity at Mumbai. The trainer, George Koshy, highlighted the need for communication on
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ers. There was huge participation at the tournament. It was a nail biting finale played between the last time champions team Typhoon and team Josh-11. Team Typhoon won the championship by seven wickets.
Compiled by Karan Kanchan
o blend with the Twenty 20 World cup season a quiz was held in Spencer premises for five days with a question each day. In round one, we had a total of 222 entries and four winners. In round two, we had a total of 101 entries and four winners. And all these eight employees have given the correct answers for all the questions and won exciting prizes. Compiled by G. Sundararajan
Trainer Talk
he Super Eights tournament was organized in the month of MayJune comprised of eight teams and matches were of eight overs, a side where two bowlers could bowl two overs and other four overs were to be bowled by four other different bowl-
how successful communication is imperative for effectiveness in any organization. The speaker also discussed ‘Communication’ – the easiest of tasks; tedious yet never adequate. The session also covered key points including communication of complex matter, communication of sensational piece of information and ingredients and strategies to be adopted that form the hallmark of effective communication. Other topics of discussion included managing grapevine and communication barriers, navigating and halting incorrect information flow. The session underscored the best practices followed by CNN IBN, which has helped maintain its leadership position as a credible news entity.
- Principal Correspondent, CNN IBN. George Koshy is an MBA from Salford, Manchester, UK, and has pursued his journalism from Symbiosis, Pune. He started out as a senior journalist with The Asian Age and was soon one of the select journalists to be hand picked by veteran Rajdeep Sardesai to join CNN IBN’s core team. He has several articles to his credit and has covered several important stories including the 26/11 and the recent elections. He has also authored one of the chapters titled “Carnage at CST” in the book 26/11Mumbai Attacked. He has the honor of having interviewed Sir Richard Branson as well as many other international senior personalities across the world.
About the Speaker - George Koshy
Feedback
The faculty for the session was George Koshy
It was an edifying session with huge partici-
pant applause. Read on for participant feedback about the session.
• ”Referring to real time examples from the industry gave us better insight into functioning of other industries. The examples from the media perspective were good and gave more clarity into their processes.” • “The concepts spoken about were things that we all know but may be take for granted. The examples shared helped in reinforcing these concepts.”
• “As suggested by the faculty, a follow up with a site visit to the studio will help in relating to the challenges faced by the media personnel.” Write your feedback to Samantha Noronha on samantha.noronha@tcs.com and tell us how we can make this section more meaningful to you.
Unplugged
Unplugged is your space to destress or just chill with.
Famous women in history
1. In her struggles to win the crown and keep her country free, she sought the support of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. A lesser known fact is that this person was highly educated and possessed an impressive intellect, being a student of philosophy and international relations. Who is she? 2. Which first British woman prime minister was also the first prime minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms? She also earned the nickname “The Iron Lady”.
3. When the Indian National Army created its first female unit, it was named after her. Was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and a symbol of resistance to British rule in India. Who are we talking about?
4. Recepient of the Green Ribbon Award for Best International Political Campaigner by BBC and the Human Rights Defender’s Award from Amnesty International, she plays a key role in the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM). Identify her? 5. This is a sitter. Who is the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal? 6. Her prison reforms policies lead to her winning the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award. She is one of the most admired and widely known police officers who ever served the Indian Police Force. Who is she?
8. Who owns the television production company, Harpo Productions, Inc.? She is also one of the richest and most influential woman ever. 9. This Polish-born physicist and pioneer in the field of radioactivity discovered radium and, in 1903, became the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Who is she? 10. Whose real name was Norma Jean Baker who went to become one of the most iconic film legends?
7. Which very famous author is credited with titles like Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find
d
arketing
Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard apart from her popular series?
Compiled by Glory Austin
Artwork provided. Please do not recreate.
Answers to last month’s SPORTS QUIZ are: Tata Consultancy Services Identity Guidelines I Jan 2007
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
NIKE Ajay Jadeja Sabatini David Bechkham Budwieser
6) SAIL 7) a) Mahendra Singh Dhoni b) Yuvraj Singh c) Brendon Mccullum d) Shane Warne
Winner!
e) Adam Gilchrist f) Anil Kumble g) Sachin Tendulkar h) Virendra Sehwag
Take 10 brings you soundbites from our colleagues/ seniors without getting too personal.
A day in the life of ... Sonia Dilip Kohli, Skip Trace-THD, NA Collections
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What are you most afraid of? Hurting someone’s feelings and telling a lie.
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Which is your favorite day of the week? (Why?) Sunday – Time to relax, enjoy and go shopping.
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Which is your favorite sport to watch? Favorite Actor? Actress? Movie? Sport – Ice Skating Actor – Kamal Hassan Actress – Madhubala (She was a beauty queen) Movies – Kaash What kind of music do you like? All type of music, especially soft and romantic.
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Congratulations to Preetha Malviya
To participate: Send in your entries at roma.ramanathan@tcs.com Hurry... you need to be among the first all correct entries to pick up your prize!
Take 10
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What would you like to accomplish in life? Want to be an honest and lighthearted person like my father.
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Your idol? My God!
Must do in life? Leave a good impression on others hearts by doing good to them so that they would remember me all the time and always miss me when I am not around.
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What do you really really hate? Talking behind the back (back stabbers) and dishonesty.
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Something that you cannot live without? My family, especially my children.
Best thing that happened to you. My two children. Compiled by Benno Fernandes
fun with LOGOS
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A day in the life of ... Rustom Beheram Siganporia,
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Talent Acquisition & RMG, HR
1 The now ubiquitous blue-colored Tata logo was designed by the Wolff Olins Consultancy. The logo was meant to signify fluidity, it may also be seen as a fountain of knowledge, also as a tree of trust under which people can take refuge.
Try and notice a hidden symbol in the Federal Express logo. You can see an ‘arrow’ in between the letters E and X. The arrow was introduced to underscore speed and precision, which are part of the positioning of the company.
You might think the arrow does nothing here. But it says that amazon.com has everything from a to z and it also represents the smile it brings to the customer’s face.
A - Excellent B - Very Good C - Good D - Average E - Could be better
E-11%
Which is your favorite sport to watch? Favorite Actor? Actress? Movie? Sport: Cricket and WWE Actor: Amitabh Bachchan, Tom Hanks Actress: Rani Mukeerjee and Julia Roberts Movie: Sholay & The Good The Bad & The Ugly.
A -13%
D-10% B-26%
Date : 31 I 01 I 2007 Title : Tata and TCS Marks - Stacked Design Magger : Gargi Sharma Project Co- ordinator : Vishal Jhunjhunwala Colour : Pantone 2427 C Software Formats : CorelDraw 11, Adobe Illustrator CS2
C-40%
IMPORTANT : COLOURS USED TO CREATE THIS MECHANICAL ARE FOR VISUAL SUGGESTION ONLY. USE PANTONE COLOUR SWATCHES TO MATCH FOR CORRECT COLOURS. EVEN THOUGH THIS MECHANICAL HAS BEEN CHECKED FOR ACCURACY, PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK PRIOR TO RELEASE TO THE VENDOR. IF INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOUND DEFICIENT, PLEASE CONTACT corporate.office@tcs.com
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!!Which is your favorite day of the week? (Pls advise why its favorite as well) Thursday associated to the planet Jupiter, stands for order, discipline and leadership.
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POLL – Herald Sports Issue How would you rate the design and content of May 2009 - Sports edition of Herald?
What are you most afraid of? Reptiles: all species, lizards, snakes.
Total respondents 922
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What kind of music do you like? Retro, instrumental music classics, in Hindi and English. Something that you cannot live without? My cell phone, friends, food...
aloo parathas, paneer pasanda, dal makhani... the list goes on!!
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Your idol? The Masters of Wisdom!!
What would you like to accomplish in life? They say, “When the student is ready the Master comes”. Indeed aspire to be a good student before I part from this world.
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Must do in life? Don’t take life too seriously; no one will come out of it alive!
What do you really, really hate? Myself... when I cannot control my temper.
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Best thing that happened to you. My experiments with life, my parents and my friends Burgese, Siraj and Riya. Compiled by Smita Varadarajan Herald June 2009 7
Kudos Chennai BPO HR Team Awarded!
H
ere’s a proud HR team who had won the R&R at BPO. The Chennai BPO Deployment HR team has won the “Champions League Award” for Q1 (Jan–Mar 2009.) This is indeed a big achievement. The team has made it and is
T
the first HR team to achieve this victory. The team bagged the award the H2 compliance for Chennai last year. The team has been the driving force for the same. The team achieved 99.3% compliance and had an awesome project plan in place for H2 last year. This is just a beginning for the team. Compiled by Archana Jagannathan
Performance Par Excellence – Bucket 3, Australia Collections
he Australia collections Bucket 3 team recently accomplished a feat that brought the unit in reckoning across Australia. The Australian Risk Managers Round Table, which is the association of 11 VISA issuing banks in Australia, ranked the performance of the Bucket 3 unit of Australia Collections as NUMERO UNO.
Customer ‘Wows’ TO: Varun Tayal, AMS SFS Ops, Principal Global Investors - May ‘09 Varun’s emails are informative, timely, detail oriented and he seems to have a grasp on all things PGI. This is what we need to see in order to successfully service this relationship. If we all continue on this path, we can move to the next level sooner rather than later. From: Rudmore Duncan II IAS - Open SMA Operations Citi Global Transaction Services
TO: India Banking Operations - Insurance Operations Unit - May ’09 Special thanks to Manoj, Melvin, Saranya and Kannan for getting all GI cases processed today. For the first time we have crossed 12 lacs of remittance through branches. Thanks a ton. From: Nishtha Navandar - General Insurance Product Manager - Citibank India TO: New Biz Inititatives - Easypay and Bulk Team, Service ReEnginerring (One Citi) – May ’09 Your support reflecting the One Citi spirit is critical to our “Customer at Centre” approach. Well done and look forward to ongoing improvements and gains! From: N Rajasekharan, Citibank GCG, Business Head
TO: Sushil Pandhirkar - CMI - QC Underwriting Global Consumer Loan Ops, for detecting a fraud on a loan of $ 417,000 that saved the clients from a sizeable potential loss - April ’09 Thank you for your good work Sushil. We are very pleased with the work you did on this file. From: Erin Gertiser - Vice President - Quality Control - Citimortgage
USAA Consultancy Assignment
T
he GLO Team at Nesco, Mumbai, completed our first few live production files for USAA out of the Siruseri facility of TCS on June 1, 2009. Our colleagues from the team, Sandy and Jadgish Basrur, were in Chennai for hand holding and setting up the shop and did this volume themselves. “Congrats folks. With this we have now started production for another new third party (Avis being the other).” Rahul Singh, CEO & MD, TCS BFS BPO.
Fraud fighter lauded
N
itin Poojari from the QC underwriting team from the Global Consumer Loans at TCS BFS BPO has been recognized as a Fraud Fighter for the month of June 2009 by Fraud Prevention & Investigation Agency (FPI) for Citimortgage in the US. He has also been featured as the Fraud Fighter of the Month in FPI newsletter. Nitin picked up on some facts
Compiled by Benno Fernandes
Compiled by Vivek Bose
TO: Nilesh Menon, Payment Quality, For consistent delivery above the expected levels - May ’09 Thanks for all your support. You are such a kind and caring person. No matter what I ask of you is done with accuracy and speed. You are a rare jewel and it is always pleasure working with you and your team. From: Danille Kolrep, Offshore Manager - Canada SVC
TO: NA Trade Analytics Team, ICG Analytics - March ’09 The TAT for yesterday’s txn was particularly worth mentioning. This is a big boost for us in these times specially when we have pressure on putting incremental credit lines. From: Charnell Williams, Director, Global Standby/Guarantee Advisory and Product Manager
TO: IPB UAT team, Savings Account Implementation in Orbit Bhavik, Vinod and Dinesh were the key ingredients for the success. They had the right test strategy and highlighted critical issues. Bhavik was instrumental in having the process notes drafted. From: Madan Mohan Project Manager, IPB
TO: Data Validation (Process - Data Management) - TCS BPO, Eli Lilly Data Sciences and Solution, NOIDA - 2 I enjoyed working with TCS and thought your group did a great job in helping with the DBL. TCS was by far the best experience I have had working with a Third Party Organization on a study. I think the relationship will only get better as our experience grows. From: D.Christian Fenske
that didn’t “float to the surface” for the loan originating underwriter. Nitin on noticing these misrepresentations raised the appropriate red flags which led to a further investigation by the CitiMortgage clients and revealed that not only was the borrower participating in a fraud but also that the loan officer responsible was involved in blatant misrepresentation.
TO: NA Collection Utilities, Mumbai, Bankcards - May ’09 The volume of 14,426 processed over the weekend is outstanding. I appreciate the hard work over the weekend and commitment towards resolving the backlog. From: Christa Thorsen-VP Collections - Texas Credit Card Operations Irving, Texas
TO: India Issuing Chargeback , AR Reduction - March ’09 This is commendable. We have made great strides and come a long way from where we were. Thanks to the leadership and focus from both of you. From: Mahavir Jindal, Head - Card Operations, CHR, Chennai.
TO: David, US F&A - April ’09 You are a wonder. I really don’t know what we’d do without you. You have helped us so many times and I want you to know that we truly appreciate all your assistance. From: Roberta Mccreary (Lynn) Operations team
TO: Jeeth Nadar- NA Collections Foreclosure - Global Consumer Loan Ops, Desk Wise Model - CMI Strat 1 Foreclosure - April ’09 Jeeth’s performance makes me very proud and pleased to have TCS as a critical partner, directly impacting our success!! Absolutely outstanding! From: Donna Reiss - Assistant Vice President Citimortgage Foreclosure Ops Customer Wows compiled by Persis Dubash
Send all contributions to roma.ramanathan@tcs.com Deadline for July issue – July 15, 2009.
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Herald June 2009
Editor: Sangeeta Chandran Editorial Board: Akhil Maria, R. Sudarshan and Ranjan Bandopadhyay Editorial Coordinators: Shikha Jain and Smita Varadarajan Herald Working Team: BPO.herald@tcs.com Designed by: HB Design Private Limited