Dell To Set Up Manufacturing Center in India
Dell says India is a viable manufacturing hub; India says it's just as good as China.
Michael Dell traveled to India recently to meet with India's commerce minister, Kamal Nath. After the meeting, Mr. Nath disclosed that Dell has agreed to launch a new manufacturing facility in India. Currently, India is known for engineering process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing, commonly referred to as EPO and KPO respectively. Dell's customers know all too well that support calls of all types are often routed directly to Dell's support base located in India.
We just recently ordered from Dell and when we called in to speak to its support department, we were told that we will be unable to speak to sales support because the department worked in a different time zone. When asked to clarify, the Dell phone representative told us that the department only starts work in the morning, India-time. Although Dell's aggressive pricing is the number 1 factor that wins customers, it is largely due to outsourcing and Dell's own buying power. At times however, we wished we had someone to speak to. Dell's Canadian customers who call in for support are able to speak to representatives located inside of Canada.
India is hoping that foreign companies will begin to see India as a viable base to outsource manufacturing to. India currently employs 41 million people in the manufacturing and tech industry and Mr. Nath feels there are a lot of resources just waiting to be tapped. However, India knows that it is competing with an already well established China and will have to offer equal or better opportunities for investing companies. Currently, China has a population of 1.31 billion people and India has 1.08 billion people.
