How is the Microsoft Global Technical Support Center (GTSC) different from any other call center or BPO outfit?
In the ITES industry, at one spectrum, there is customer service that most calls centers provide such as airline tickets or bank balance inquiries. Typically, such calls last one to two minutes. In the second category, the BPO, most processes entail back end operations. The third one comprises technical support providers for companies. This has various tiers, one of which has professionals who use computers for a living and whose level of technical expertise is higher, enabling them to deal with more complex [problems. At this layer, there are 2, 000 enterprise – level companies worldwide. Usually, their work environment is multicomputer, multinetwork and multivendor. In that scenario, the degree of complexity and criticality is very high. For example, if there is a large shopping store whose website is down, they will lose X million dollars every hour. GTSC offers solutions in such situations.

What’s the average time span take to resolve a problem?
The average time taken from taking a call to returning to the client with a solution is 400 minutes.

What kind of qualifications do you look for in potential hires?
We employ people who have a computer engineering background. An individual should be B.E, B. tech or an MCA with three to five years work experience in a large enterprise because unless he has worked such a place, he can’t understand what criticality is. We also take in DBA (Database Analyst) and developers. For middle to senior management levels, we want people with about 10 year’s experience.

It is tough for you to find right talent?
It is difficult to get people with the requisite credentials. We receive thousands of resumes but applicants do not have the profiles we require. If we put out an advertisement for a tech support job in Australia, there will be applications from those barely qualified to slightly over qualify. Bit in India, everybody who has the word computer on his bio data will apply. It’s about education. Infact, we are working with NASSCOM to have a differentiation (in the description) between BPO, ITES and IT industries. Short listed candidates undergo a spoken English test, a technical and seven to eight one on ones with existing team members.

Since employees are engaged in high end work at GTSC, does it mean they hit the ceiling in their careers soon?
That’s another myth people have. In our organization, the rate of attrition is less than 10%.

How do you make that happen?
The reason behind the low turnover is that people come and work on hard core technology. (As for career advancement) you can move from being a support engineer, an escalation engineer, a critical problem resolution to a development professional and finally move up to become the CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Another path is to become a team manager, a group manager, a director and then a GM.

Microsoft has five offices and you can move from one to the other. In my 11 years in Microsoft, I have done seven jobs in five countries. Tats the kind of career opportunity the company offers.

What is the compensation package you offer?
It’s competitive and comparable to that given by other hi tech organizations. All means are paid for and transport is also provided.

Do you organize any training program for new employees?
New recruits undergo a three month training module, most of which is practical.

Vital Stats:
Microsoft GTSC India is based in Bangalore and is a part of the Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) organization which has locations throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific and Greater China. Microsoft’s CSS organization supports over 170 Microsoft products which range from the consumer to enterprise customer segment. Established in October 2003, Microsoft GTSC in Bangalore focuses on providing high level technical resolution services to English speaking consumers and partners across the globe.