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Chennaibest.com speaks to Leo Fernandez, Assistant Vice
President, India Life; the first company to bring IT-enabled,
web-based pension and payroll outsourcing solutions to Chennai.
Could you explain the concept of outsourcing
pension and payroll administration?
 Most
companies have either the government, in the form of the Regional
Provident Fund Commissioner (RPFC) and Life Insurance Corporation
(LIC), or an internal department as options for managing their
retiral benefits of Provident Fund, Gratuity and Superannuation.
India Life offers them a third option. We can either take on the
complete interface with the RPFC and LIC, or completely administer
the company's internal retiral trusts. We would take care of the
benefits administration, regulatory compliance and investment advisory
services. Our remote access options allow the company to outsource
a critical, but non-core area, without compromising on the intimacy
of an in-house operation.
What kind of companies go in for this kind
of a concept?
Our current client list should give you some idea on that. From
MNCs like Siemens, Pfizer, BASF, Cadbury's, Volvo to IT companies
like IBM, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Changepond Technologies, Mindtree,
Novell, SAP to Indian group companies like Cholamandalam
(from the Murugappa group), RPG Cellular, Dr Reddy's Laboratories,
Tata Telecommunications, right up to dotcoms like indya.com,
customerasset.com, Dsqworld.com - spanning a range of industries
and sizes. Today, we administer over Rs 750 crore of trust corpus
and more than 1,80,000 employee records, across our offices in Bangalore,
Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Pune.
How much does outsourcing of pension and payroll
processing help specifically in terms of cost savings to the company?
 Companies
are generally accurate in costing products, but rarely so in costing
of processes. Managing these activities internally involves personnel
cost, senior management cost, overheads and infrastructure blockage,
which can actually cost a company quite a packet. Also, the recurring
costs of maintaining internal software or payroll packages can really
add up. Companies find that they are bound to the technology treadmill.
An outsourced solution frees up resources, converts fixed costs
to variable costs and e-enables a core business process from the
outside. Of course in a situation where a company is moving from
a government-administered PF to an internal trust, savings can be
even more substantial.
But, how does the individual employee benefit?
Lets take an example. If an employee wishes to find out his PF
balance or find out his eligibility to apply for a PF loan, he would
normally have to go through the lengthy and tortuous process of
chasing either the PF department or an internal department in the
company. When we handle the company's account, all an employee has
to do is log in to www.india-life.com, punch in his unique ten-digit
PIN number and password and he can access a whole host of information.
Check his PF balance, run through loan eligibility conditions, check
the status of his loan application and so on. In fact, in April
2001, when our payroll solution goes live on the web, he can even
check things like his leave balance, tax calculations, medical reimbursement
details and the like. For employees who are unable to access the
web, our Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) enables
them to dial a local toll-free number, get locked in to the database
and again get a whole set of queries answered. They could even escalate
this to our Call Centre option. This is currently available at Bangalore,
Hyderabad and the metros (except Calcutta).
How receptive are Chennai business houses
to this concept?
We've been overwhelmed with requests for presentations and details.
Its been a pleasant surprise to see even some of the older, apparently
more traditional business houses eager to walk the outsourcing path.
IT companies and MNCs embrace the concept fairly quickly, but mark
my words - the Indian business houses will soon be outpacing them
on outsourcing non-core areas.
As compared to other major cities in India,
what is the potential of the Chennai market?
 I
see immense potential for the Chennai market. Its certainly more
challenging, in the sense that 'housekeeping' is relatively good
here, as compared to companies in other cities. But an increasingly
competitive environment will see companies constantly seeking ways
to re-deploy resources to their core activity and thereby add value
to their customer. India Life presents them an attractive option
for doing this in the areas of their retiral benefits and payroll
processing.
With most of the data being highly confidential,
what is the assurance of security to employee and employer?
We have all the necessary firewalls, network address translators,
besides other security features built in. A disaster recovery plan
has already been implemented, whereby a mirror server sits off premises.
We also hope our current client base, which includes some of the
best known IT names, will give a measure of comfort in this area.
Where do you see India Life going from here?
Our current emphasis is on consolidating services to our existing
customers. To fully implement our suite of self-service access options
in our payroll offering. We have also just set up our Boston operation
and look forward to our overseas outsourcing taking off. A major
global name has just selected us to manage their entire Asia-Pacific
payroll. The potential is fantastic and we look forward to growing
our base, both domestically and overseas.
Address: India Life Pension Services Limited, Riaz Garden,
12, Kodambakkam High Road, Chennai - 600 034.
Phone: 2825 4239 / 7094
Fax: 2825 6825
Email: info@india-life.com
| Photographs : Leslee Lazar |
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