Small Fee

October 10, 2006 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, the island's biggest cellular phone operator, has jumped into the lucrative business process outsourcing industry by extending its customer support channels to local and overseas clients. A unit of Telekom Malaysia, Dialog says their dedicated BPO unit employs over 500 skilled professionals offering customer support services in three languages English, Sinhala and Tamil handling over a million customers each month.

The 250 seater call centre, operates off two locations, around the clock, interacting with customers through voice, web chats, email, fax and short message services (SMS).

"Plans are underway to double this capacity in early 2007," the firm said Tuesday.

Sri Lanka's BPO industry is about 13 million dollars, with 25 companies involved in the sector, employing about 4000 workers at an average monthly salary of 270 dollars.

The industry has been on an upward growth trend since 2002, with eight BPO projects signed up last year. This year, however, only one project has been signed up to date.