JPS hires Hinduja to handle customer calls
Published:Sunday | April 3, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Mark Titus, Business Reporter
The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) will begin transferring the operations of its call centre to a United States-based company, a process the utility company expects to take four months.
The power company, which began publicising the change internally on Thursday, currently employs about 100 customer representatives, who, sources say, will be cut from its payroll.
The JPS is advising the 'displaced' staff to seek employment with its outsourcing partner, Hinduja Global Solutions Incorporated (HGSI), which it said would be recruiting aggressively.
The JPS also said it would redeploy staff inside the organisation "where possible".
JAMPRO has been negotiating Hinduja's entry into the Jamaican market for 18 months after the outsourcing firm approached the investment agency.
Sunday Business understands that Hinduja, a Fortune 500 company, has signalled plans to grow its operations here to about 600 workers in three years.
The JPS contract is Hinduja's foothold, a JAMPRO insider said, after years of looking for a base of operations in Jamaica.
HGSI is headquartered in Warrenville, Illinois, but its parent, Hinduja Group, is based in London, United Kingdom.
An internal document to advise affected staff members of the impending changes, obtained by Sunday Business, says the transfer of the inbound call-handling activities starts April 4, and will be finalised by the end of July.
The decision to outsource comes as the JPS continues to record annual increases in call volumes from customers.
Calls to the JPS customer centre have more than doubled in five years - increasing by 107 per cent between 2005 and 2010 - requiring investment in expansion of the facility and new staff.
"In one year only - between 2009 and 2010 - call volume grew 31 per cent," the JPS circular said.
The company now has more than 100 agents dedicated to call handling in the customer-care centre, but is faced with space constraints, despite renovations in 2007 to increase the number of workstations.
HGSI was selected from two potential vendors, and will set up shop in Portmore, St Catherine, with the power provider as its first local client.
"This company is a new investor in Jamaica, and is likely to be providing hundreds of jobs for Jamaicans, not just to serve JPS but other clients they intend to attract both locally and overseas," said Winsome Callum, corporate communications manager at the JPS, confirming the arrangement with Hinduja.
Asked about the terms and value of the deal, Callum said via email: "We will not be disclosing to the media details of the contract at this time."
HSGI has 37 years of experience in the call-centre business, employing 17,800 persons worldwide who serve 110 clients from 30 centres in six countries. Its clients include companies such as Sony, AT&T, American Express, Colgate, and McDonalds.
The JPS will only be outsourcing the handling of incoming calls, with related activities such as response to customer letters and billing-related queries to be retained inhouse, the circular said.