The Hindu : AOL India announces expansion plans

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

AOL India announces expansion plans

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore July 16. Many of the 35 million worldwide subscribers of America Online (AOL) may not know that some of the services they get online are facilitated from Bangalore by the staff, many of them fresh out of college, who are getting to become world class.

America Online Member Services India, the Bangalore-based subsidiary of AOL, the global leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services, has announced its expansion plans. These include more recruitments and employee development.

Neil Smit, Executive Vice-President, AOL, and Maneesh Dheer, Country Head-India Operations, were here on Tuesday to celebrate the expansion of the employee base of the centre to 1,500 in a year. "Our positioning in India is unique,'' Mr. Dheer said. "We are not only the leading Internet brand globally, but are also part of the AOL-Time Warner Group, the world's largest entertainment and media company. Being an in-bound member services centre, we also meet the needs of 25 million subscribers of AOL. This gives our employees, most of them fresh graduates, an excellent opportunity to work for an MNC governed by global practices, and thereby get a head-start in their career development.''

The Bangalore facility of AOL, located at the International Tech Park near Whitefield, is said to be offering several opportunities for its employees. The expansion plan includes campaigns to attract and retain the best talent in the industry, adapting best practices to ensure strategic and focused career growth for each employee, and training and development to position the Bangalore centre as one of the leading customer service centres in the world. The scope of the work done here will also be expanded to include other product- and technology-related projects.

Congratulating the Indian team on its performance, Mr. Smit said: "Because of our facilities in India and the Philippines, we are able to provide round-the-clock customer support to our members in every time zone. The quality, education level, and energy of the talent here is emerging as the driving force in our efforts to enhance our members' experience of the AOL service.''

The AOL top executives visit overseas centres to get firsthand experience of the cultural dynamics unique to each of them. "We view employee satisfaction and retention in alignment with our goal of member satisfaction because both go together,'' they said.

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