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Numbers. Virtually all software development and testing for FTSE100 companies is largely done using Indian outsourcing companies. Call centres are a very small part of how these organisations utilise India.
FTSE100 companies don’t run on call centres.
Without constant software development, upgrades, bug fixes, enhancements etc etc on a vast array of applications the companies would soon fall apart at the seams. This requires extensive dev and test strategies to be developed and run. I’ve worked with plenty of these offshore setups.
Anyway as I said we’ll see.
R1yam: "India is hopelessly positioned to fight off Covid-19 so....
When the virus knocks out the Indian workforce - and it surely will - don’t expect your WiFi and phones to keep on working. Having lost a fortune I’m looking to buy back in at .70 pence. This isn’t sour grapes folks his is reality. Until we have a cure we’re all knackered. Best of luck to all."
As fleccy says the Indian people typically look after the call centres and the NOC. The call centre provides 1st line support and the people in the NOC are constantly monitoring the state of the network for alarms. The 1st line support people deal with the simple faults (asking customers if it their MODEM plugged in and what the state of the LEDs flashing on the CPE). Any problems that aren't resolved by rebooting the CPE are escalated to 2nd line support who are UK based. The state of the network can also be checked by UK engineers who can connect to the NOC via a VPN. All the data paths of a telecommunications network have diversely routed resilient paths - if a fault is detected in the primary path the traffic is automatically switched to the secondary path (switching time under 50ms). An alarm is then sent to the NOC to warn of a LOS on the primary path. The UK field engineers can logon to the NE that generated the alarm to investigate the problem and replace any faulty hardware as necessary. Telecommunications networks are designed to support 5 9s reliability - ie being up a minimum of 99.999% of the time. There will be isolated network faults during COVID-19 but most will be hitless and won't disrupt customer traffic.
I worked in UK telecommunications (not for Vodafone) between 2000 and 2008. I worked on DWDM optical as well as copper and fibre MSANs. I haven't worked on any wireless equipment, but the OAM procedures should be the same. Part of my job was to train up the Indian NOC staff on what each alarm meant and how to diagnose faults. Even though the majority of the network monitoring was to be done in India, there was still a small UK NOC in the UK and this is probably also the case for Vodafone. The Indian people were okay with following performing database back-ups and following written upgrade procedures. As soon as something unexpected happened or there was a network problem the majority were lost and required us to show them how to fault-find and fix any errors.
fleccy. On the contrary I have little respect for Indian software engineers and any U.K. IT Consultant worth his salt would say the same.
You’re off topic.
My point is India is about to be hit big time by Covid-19 and unfortunately they don’t stand a chance. The FSTE100 companies have all sold out to cheap offshore (and onshore/offshore) workers and they will find it very difficult to have a strong contingency plan. We will see.
Sometimes it is just hard for long term holders to let go. Not realising the loss makes it not quite real. Been there done that.
I worry now about VOD's debt in the tough period coming. They also seem to make no money these days, so would just need more debt to pay any divi, which is what they have been doing the last few years.
Not a sustainable plan.
"I have held many senior positions in software development and testing and watched with some disgruntlement how a lot of this work has been sent offshore. Offshore? Ok let’s be specific - India."
R1yam, i think you're making too much of the abilities of Indian Engineers. I've worked as a Field Engineer and worked in fault finding and provisioning roles with Network Operations, so have many years experience working on the phone with Indian Network operations Engineers. In my experience I've found them OK at day to day tasks, but as soon as things go off script they seize up, usually repeating the same failed fix attempts multiple times like they're stuck in a loop. I've also noticed that they're more stats driven than motivated to resolve the issue, which may also account for their multiple attempts at the same failed fix.
Eventually they escalate difficult faults to the second or third line teams which are UK based. All that said, i have worked with a few Indians who knew their stuff, but the majority were incapable of fixing difficult faults.
Not sure what you’re on about Ben. To put it bluntly, don’t hang around sitting on your losses hoping for a rebound anytime soon - it’s just not going to happen.
Get out while you can and look to buy back when the SP better reflects the true situation. This SP will hit .70p within two weeks by which time the U.K. government will have enforced much more stringent lockdown measures.
India will play a major role in the success of any stock market turnaround but unfortunately they are perhaps the worst placed country in the world to resolve this complex (for them) problem.
In recent times we have all read about cash machines not working or phone systems not working. Ever wondered why? All UK IT Consultants know why and I don’t need to say more.
Enlightening.
Perhaps, and one can only hope, lessons are being learnt high up. Communications being a matter of national importance, I hope Government will be looking to ensure security of coms networks. Not Huawei evesdropping, but just making sure the thing can work if cross border becomes an issue.
I expect letting the Chinese build and run a nuclear power station is off the table now. Small blessings.
More fun tomorrow. Dow futures hit the down limit pretty quick.
Further disruption ahead for any company. But I would say communication is a key worker territory. There are already concerns about the health, mental and physical to these lock downs. Take away people's ability to communicate and your going to compound that significantly.
Ok ok I’ve seen enough. Like a lot of you guys who regularly post on here I’m not pleased to confess that I too have big losses by investing in Vodafone.
I’ve been coming here years to share your grief and also to see if anyone had a glimmer of hope for so recovery. It was looking reasonable (sic) until the virus hit us and now you really ought to listen.
As an accomplished IT Consultant who has inside knowledge of a lot of FSTE100 companies I can say with some certainty that you haven’t seen anything yet. Why? Simple.
I have held many senior positions in software development and testing and watched with some disgruntlement how a lot of this work has been sent offshore. Offshore? Ok let’s be specific - India.
Unfortunately every and I mean EVERY FSTE100 company so totally dependant on the Indian companies such as Cognisant, Tarta, Wipro, and many tax fiddle offshore offshoots of their own companies based in India to run their organisations IT infrastructure. Telecoms is all IT. The call centre elements are merely a drop in the ocean compared to what really goes on in India.
It’s interesting that the banks have today been basically told to not pay dividends. Why?
India is hopelessly positioned to fight off Covid-19 so....
When the virus knocks out the Indian workforce - and it surely will - don’t expect your WiFi and phones to keep on working. Having lost a fortune I’m looking to buy back in at .70 pence. This isn’t sour grapes folks his is reality. Until we have a cure we’re all knackered. Best of luck to all.