BPO clients, who were in cost conservation mode during downturn, have in the last couple of months moved to a growth mode. This has seen them asking their Indian vendors for faster implementation of projects, even as the sales cycle remains the same or has become longer.

According to D Swaminathan, chief executive officer of Infosys BPO, “Clients want us to deliver faster. In fact, we have done some projects in 3 months, which earlier used to take 6-9 months.”

The cash conservation and efficiency-focused BPO processes are now being reduced with the economy bouncing back. Going into the growth mode, companies want speed, agility and rapid expansion, said Ashutosh Vaidya, senior vice-president and head, Wipro BPO.

The ability to train people and use technology to make processing teams move to servicing in growth mode is key in the current scenario, he added.

Infosys BPO is developing frameworks and standard packages to aid the company in shortening implementation cycle. Transition time in projects has also been cut by 40-50 per cent. “We have to be more dynamic and agile. The winners in this game will be the ones who, depending on deals and complexity, can adapt to this,” Swaminathan said.

Customer lifecycle management (CLM) services player 24/7 Customer has been receiving calls from clients in this regard too. Co-founder of the company S Nagarajan gave an example, saying that recently a client asked them to ramp up for a project by hiring about 250 people in just 3 weeks. “It is a challenge but we used methods like upping referrals for recruitment and using reusable tools developed by our innovation lab,” he said.