Buffalo Learning the Positive Side of Collections Outsourcing

With his easy manner and quick smile, Ananda Mukerji was making friends in Buffalo last week. The chief executive of ICICI OneSource Ltd. flew in from Bombay to visit his newest and biggest American acquisition, a 500-job debt collector in Amherst, NY called Account Solutions Group.

But the trip wasn’t all business. Mukerji was also shaking hands with community leaders at the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.

His message: The Indian outsourcing company is here to participate in Western New York’s economy, not to hollow it out.

“This whole industry has unfortunately got a taint that it’s taking jobs away,” he said. “It’s also creating jobs.”

You may say that you’ll believe it when you see it. Indian business-process outsourcing firms have taken a chunk of office tasks formerly done in the United States – including in Western New York – and analysts predict more to come. Conservative estimates for job “offshoring” in the next decade are about 3 million.

But lately the offshoring wave has slowed somewhat, as Indian companies invest in operations here, and Buffalo has been a beneficiary of the trend. In addition to Mukerji’s company, Tata Consultancy Services of Bombay is also investing here, having opened a training center and software development office in downtown Buffalo. Tata’s chief executive, Subramaniam Ramadorai, recently reaffirmed plans to hire 600 people in North America, including Buffalo.

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