An American author, speaker and pastor, John C. Maxwell once quoted, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” This quote mirrors the entrepreneurial life of Rajesh (Raj) Thankappan, CEO of Epicenter Technologies, which provides outsourced business process management service to its clients at competitive costs across financial, retail, utilities, telecommunication, healthcare, education, e-Commerce and many more industries. Backed with more than 20 years of experience in managing people, projects and operations in Asia, Europe and North America, Raj transformed Epicenter to be a significant player in BPO space. The company, which was founded in 2000 as an accounts receivable management company, is growing leaps and bounds today under his leadership, offering back office, customer acquisition, customer life cycle management, market research, IT and application services.

To stay ahead of the pack, Epicenter pursues constant innovation and benchmarking with world-class standards. “Though it started as a call center company, we have taken it to a platform-based company where we have built our own proprietary dialer technology, quality and performance management systems and customized CRMs. We have also developed processes and teams that can leverage the capabilities of best-in-breed hardware technology such as CISCO and AVAYA through developing customized software interfaces. In addition to technology infrastructure services and application development services, we also provide technical support and consulting services to provide an end-to-end experience for the client,” says Raj.

In order to best serve its partners, Epicenter aims to achieve the highest level of agent utilization, performance metrics and customer satisfaction through its strong quality framework. The company follows the ‘Six Sigma’ model – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control – for continuous improvement in operations.

“We were one of the first BPO companies to get the payment card industry certification. We are an ISO certified company and we live the spirit of that document,” says Raj. The company stands out from its competitors by going the extra mile by exploring every technology to develop unique solutions to solve its customer’s real problems and help them attain their end objective.

“For instance, a premier global electronics manufacturer was struggling with its prior vendor with SLA and customer services for 2+ years. When they became Epicenter’s clients, the company met their SLA requirements within just 45 days.”

Epicenter enjoys an outstanding Board of Directors with representation from the Kalyani Group, a global conglomerate, Ken Eldred, one of the founders of Ariba Technologies, and Pravin Gandhi, a pioneer and an active private equity investor in the technology sector in India. “While this industry is plagued with attrition of customers, employees and investors, these three groups have stood by me and helped me grow the company for more than 10 years,” affirms Raj.

Epicenter is thus poised to continue to provide solutions that allow scalability without comprising quality through the collaboration of its customers, management and investors. With a hub in America, the Mumbai-based company is looking forward to establish its footprints in multiple locations across India. In years to come, Epicenter Technologies is also planning to bring up its Spanish capabilities in Central America along with a delivery center in the U.S.