At first glance, Ziaus Sobhan is your average businessman in his late 30s. He was a top executive in a private land phone company in Chitagong. Sobhan moved to the capital to discover new prosects for business. Things didn't get any easier. He went to the office at dawn and came back late at night; the result of Bangladesh's demanding garments industry. However Sobhan was not content. He knew that although this sector had contributed greatly to the national exchequer, there must be a technology-centric business that would take the country to greater heights. One fine day, Sobhan was sipping his usual dose of coffee and browsing through the daily newspapers when a catchy headline caught his eye. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission was inviting applications for call centre licenses. Sobhan knew this was it!

WHAT ARE CALL CENTRES

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the issue, let us cover the basics of call centres. By definition, a call centre is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. For the average person this simply means that by calling certain numbers you can get information on everything imaginable, starting from the price of fashion items to stock market rates.

Call centres are again of two types: Captive and Outsourced. The former refers to those organisations which do not use a third-party for providing content to their customers (for example, customer care services of the mobile operators in Bangladesh) while the latter (such as multinationals like HP and Emirates) do so.

WHAT THE ENTREPRENEURS NEED TO KNOW

Outsourced call centres have great potential for not only the international market, but for the domestic consumers as well.

That being said, how exactly does one start off? The present application process of acquiring call centres licenses is relatively easy and hassle-free. You begin by picking up the application form from your nearest BTRC office or downloading it from the BTRC website. In both cases it is free of charge. Then you need to complete the form and attach the necessary documents. If all your paperwork is in place, submit the application by depositing a pay order amounting Tk. 5000 only. These papers are then processed and checked for legitimacy. Walla! If you are a bonafide entrepreneur, your call centre license is just four very easy steps away.

The current policy of the regulator gives three kinds of licenses (all them have the same price) with 5-year validity. The three types of call centres are 'Hosted Call Centre Service Provider' (HCSSP), 'Hosted Call Centre' (HCC) and just 'Call Centre' (CC). HCSSP firms provide the necessary infrastructure (hardware and software), but leave the job of operating the centre to a Hosted Call Centre........

For full content click to Subscribe