Outsourcers Infosys and Wipro are among the companies affected
UK firms that have outsourced IT or business process functions to the Indian city of Bangalore experienced disruption yesterday after the death of a local film star, Rajkumar, sparked "civil unrest".
Software and services firms based in the city, including Infosys and Wipro, joined the local government in shutting up shop to avoid the riots and have also declared a holiday for today. Meanwhile, reports claimed windows were broken at a Microsoft office near the actor's home.
Bloomberg newswires reported that fans burned tires and overturned vehicles as they demanded that Rajkumar be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor.
The disruption forced at least one UK ISP, Be, to email customers yesterday informing them that their call centre service would be affected.
In the email, Brett Coles, head of member services at the company, said: "We have just been informed that there is a 24-hour government enforced curfew in Bangalore due to local civil unrest and, as a result, we are unable to handle any calls or tickets from there as of 5.30pm today. Unfortunately this unrest has affected not only our main call centre, but also our backup sites.
"We are doing everything we can to make alternative arrangements and will keep you updated on the situation. Please raise tickets in the member centre if you have anything you would like to discuss and we will get back to you as soon as possible."
The unrest will add to some firms’ concerns about the wisdom of outsourcing critical services to the subcontinent.
While India-based service providers have continued to grow in recent years as more and more firms seek to take advantage of the lower labour costs on offer, a series of high-profile problems have knocked some of the gloss off of the popular business model.
The Sun newspaper reported last year that it had been able to buy UK customer details from corrupt call centre staff, and a recent terrorist shooting at a Bangalore university campus added to fears about the security of offshore sites.
Meanwhile, some experts have warned that high staff turnover and steady salary inflation are beginning to erode some of India's cost advantages, particularly as rival locations such as China, Egypt and Eastern Europe become more competitive.
UK firms that have outsourced IT or business process functions to the Indian city of Bangalore experienced disruption yesterday after the death of a local film star, Rajkumar, sparked "civil unrest".
Software and services firms based in the city, including Infosys and Wipro, joined the local government in shutting up shop to avoid the riots and have also declared a holiday for today. Meanwhile, reports claimed windows were broken at a Microsoft office near the actor's home.
Bloomberg newswires reported that fans burned tires and overturned vehicles as they demanded that Rajkumar be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor.
The disruption forced at least one UK ISP, Be, to email customers yesterday informing them that their call centre service would be affected.
In the email, Brett Coles, head of member services at the company, said: "We have just been informed that there is a 24-hour government enforced curfew in Bangalore due to local civil unrest and, as a result, we are unable to handle any calls or tickets from there as of 5.30pm today. Unfortunately this unrest has affected not only our main call centre, but also our backup sites.
"We are doing everything we can to make alternative arrangements and will keep you updated on the situation. Please raise tickets in the member centre if you have anything you would like to discuss and we will get back to you as soon as possible."
The unrest will add to some firms’ concerns about the wisdom of outsourcing critical services to the subcontinent.
While India-based service providers have continued to grow in recent years as more and more firms seek to take advantage of the lower labour costs on offer, a series of high-profile problems have knocked some of the gloss off of the popular business model.
The Sun newspaper reported last year that it had been able to buy UK customer details from corrupt call centre staff, and a recent terrorist shooting at a Bangalore university campus added to fears about the security of offshore sites.
Meanwhile, some experts have warned that high staff turnover and steady salary inflation are beginning to erode some of India's cost advantages, particularly as rival locations such as China, Egypt and Eastern Europe become more competitive.
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