Recalling BPO jobs to cost more -US some of the contractors are now forced to terminate outsourcing contracts

ECONOMICTIMES
APRIL 24, 2004

Following the strong anti-outsourcing wave in the US some of the contractors are now forced to terminate outsourcing contracts making a big dent in their budgets.

In one such case, eFunds is planning to recall jobs from one call centre in India taking calls for the Utah Department of Workforce Services. eFunds’ Indian centre handles calls about the department's electronic Horizons welfare benefits cards.

The contractor however, warned that moving back would come at a price.

Moving the call centre work back to the United States would cost Utah $63,000 more per year, the Department's Director of Finance John Nixon said during a Utah Technology Commission discussion of the Workforce Services contract with eFunds.

Another option is having the state handle the work, but implementing a 24 hours, seven days a week operation could cost up to one million dollar, he said.

The work now is handled by the equivalent of four full-time workers, but it would take more than that for the state to operate a similar around-the-clock setup, he said.

Outsourcing of the contract made sense because the state lacks expertise on electronic benefits transfers, and the full-service package offered by eFunds is saving the state $420,000 annually, compared to the previous contract, Nixon said.

Offshoring has led State lawmakers proposing bills and governors issuing orders aimed at keeping jobs tied to state government at home.

So far there is little progress, even though 35 states are considering measures that would sharply restrict or ban out-of-state and overseas outsourcing, several newspapers reported.