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HCL eServe, the business process outsourcing arm of the Shiv Nadar-promoted HCL Technologies, has bagged a project to undertake a fund-raising campaign for the US Republican Party over the telephone. This is the first time such a project has been handed out to a company outside the US. The market research and public relations companies engaged by the party usually undertake such projects. HCL eServe has put in place a team of 75 people to work on the project out of its call centres in Noida and Gurgaon. According to industry sources, the number of seats could be ramped up depending on the success of the campaign. These operators are required to call up people in the US seeking their support for President George W Bush and a donation for the Republican cause.
According to the sources, the calling process involves high degree of automation in order to limit human intervention. The process is designed in such a way as to limit human intervention. The company wants to complete the process using the integrated voice recording technology, which allows navigation using voice responses, said the source. The Republican contract comes on the heels of a successful anti-abortion campaign run by HCL eServe for a US politician. This isnt a story thats been widely covered, however, despite the potential it carries for creating a great deal of outrage. Ive only managed to find 4 other sources for it, two of which carry denials from the Republican National Committee that theyve done any such thing. The initial tip-off I got was in Newsweeks Letters to the Editor column a week or so ago, when a reader wrote in, responding to an article Newsweek had carried a week or two before that. The Newsweek article is available only if you pay for an archived copy which I did, so I could read it for myself, and is focused more on the general phenomenon of companies hiring Indian IT firms to handle their telemarketing, customer service and help desk operations. It refers to the Republican Partys hiring of an Indian firm do to fund-raising for them only in a single line Indian citizens have even started handling phone-based fund-raising for the Republican Party. The story was also carried by Buzzflash with a link back to the Business Standard article. Personally, I dont find Buzzflash to always be the most reliable source, which is why you dont find them referenced very often in this blog.
They are saying they are fund raising for Republicans, but we the RNC dont know who these Republicans are. Like Newsweek, this story is only available via an archival purchase, which I did, so I could read their story first-hand also. The story itself referrs to the Republican Party, which many will probably assume means the Republican National Committee. Ive found no retraction, however, of the entire story, nor have I found any stories claiming to debunk the entire situation. So it appears that someone, representing a group of Republicans - though apparently not the RNC itself - has contracted with an Indian company to do telemarketing. This, in spite of the poor economy - due largely to Republican economic policy - and the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who are in need of a job. Yes, a lot of American firms are hiring people overseas to do basic phone work for them. As with other jobs that have been outsourced overseas, its cheaper. I dont like it, but in a capitalistic system, its bound to happen - companies will find the cheapest way they can to obtain labour so they can make the most money possible. For a politically-oriented group, however, that is having people call American citizens to give them a pitch on donating money to a Presidential campaign, to hire overseas workers to make those calls just rubs me the wrong way. Even if its not a group representing the RNC, it reflects the Republican attitude that making money is more important than employing Americans. Posted by thorswitch at June 14, 2003 08:17 PM TrackBack Comments So, lets see if I have this straight. If somebody calls me who speaks English like a Vancouver cab driver and asks for money, dont give him any. BTW, your comments wont remember my personal info no matter how many times I ask it to. Posted by: Christopher Key at June 14, 2003 10:43 PM Well, I would hope that if anyone called you asking for money for the Republicans youd say no, regardless of what they sound like, but yeah, thats a fair summary : As for the comments not remembering you, no, its not just you! If you click on the time stamp, which takes you to the individual entry page, though, the comment box on those pages doesnt have the same problem. I have NO idea what the difference is, and am trying to figure it out. I know it has something to do with the way it writes and reads cookies, but I have to do some more research to figure those out. Posted by: kriselda jarnsaxa at June 14, 2003 10:58 PM March 2004 Sun .
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