1.
ODEON GLOBAL CORPORATION
PRESENTS
Offshore Team

2. Survival Strategies – Captive Units in India
Case Study: Learnings from Mortgage Domain
The US mortgage industry is going through the correction phase and
finding new survival strategies is utmost need of this hour. Falling home
values, increasing foreclosures and ever‐rising interest rates are really
causing sleepless nights for consumers as well as Industry
professionals.
Who is to be blamed for this industry led recession? During the
mortgage boom shortsighted lenders failed to prepare themselves for
the bad times. Most of them never cared to innovate or change with the
business environment. Today, loss of jobs and shrinking industry size is
causing frequent panic attacks all across the supply chain. More‐and‐
more brokerages and lenders are closing their shops due to high
volumes of bad loans piled on their warelines as they fail to cope with
the current downturn. Large lenders still manage to survive through the
slowdown but due to major dependencies on brokerage channels the
small and medium sized lenders are the worst hit as they lack the core
infrastructure and much needed control to manage cost effective loan
production.
Industry is not going to recover any sooner and survival of the fittest
depends largely on the strategic initiates adopted by them well in time.
Today, most of the top lenders have already relocated some of their core
business processes offshore via engaging in outsourcing or setting‐up
their own captive units. Outsourcing is not a easy business decision and
often service providers lack capabilities to serve their contractual
obligations producing results way below anticipated levels. Few
industry experts also question viability of offshoring arrangements due
to barriers of language and cultural differences as the success of such
delegating arrangements vary due to various obvious reasons as half
hearted efforts often lead to disaster.
However, recently more‐and‐more companies are starting‐up their own
captive offshore units to serve as a centralized global delivery platform
catering to their wider business goals. This ownership brings direct
control and clarity on the servicing capabilities to be developed over

3. time and this trend is growing at the rate of over 30%. However, for
now only large lenders are involved in this race as likes of HSBC, ABN
AMRO, AHMSI etc.
Setting‐up captive units is considered to be a costly exercise and most of
the medium and smaller lenders fear if they can afford the related costs.
This notion is sure reality but the acquisition of any already operational
medium sized offshore service provider can become an easy entry
method without paying huge premiums. Starting captive units via
acquisition also enables access to experienced management team and
faster break‐evens as less time is wasted over setting‐up infrastructure
or struggling with red‐tape.
Acquisition of already operational unit brings already existing
capabilities and a track‐record of operations that can be very well used
to re‐structure the venture for a few years and the raise more funds for
expansion by going IPO route. For example: In India an offshore captive
unit to support loan origination's for around 500 loans per month can
be acquired and re‐structured within 3 months for as low as $2.5
Millions; once operational this facility will easily result in immediate
cost savings of 50‐60% that helps to realize the break‐even on this
investment within 9‐10 months. Again, within a couple of years the
business can easily be listed in local stock markets and it serves as a
high return exit strategy (minimum 10‐20 times of the annual cash‐
flow) while still keeping the control of facility for captive use. Whereas,
opting for plain outsourcing will still result in savings up to 25‐30% but
outsourcer lacks control and arrangement often fails to produce
anticipated results.
Captive units are futuristic as they also open doors to help expand
horizons beyond existing business geography to leverage on the
globalized economy. Mortgage market in Mexico is already picking up
and already a few US mortgage bankers are actively exploring their
options. Similarly, the large middle class population in India will soon
demand more structured mortgage banking approach too. ABN AMRO,
CitiBank and HSBC are already leading the path for others to follow and
being leaders they are always going to making most of the growing local
economy while currently leveraging on these captive units for
preserving their market presence in US.

4.
Today, India has one of the largest English speaking population in world
and the quality of education is just getting better with world class
infrastructure being erected all over. India is also ranked 4th largest
country in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) just behind, US,
China and Japan. The knowledge economy is on boom with equity
markets growing at the rate of over 70% per annum and median age of
population between 24‐25 years that translates a large young work
force. Also, Indian government has relaxed norms for foreign direct
investments into businesses offering information technology enabled
services (ITES), free tax holidays and duty free imports on all capital
goods. Due to sheer size of quality manpower, substantial cost
advantages and added incentives really make India one of the most
attractive destinations in world for captive investments.
Is offshoring OR outsourcing an ANSWER?
Cost Savings Service Quality
What all functions can I offshore/outsource? Sales & Marketing? IT
support? Customer Service?
How to enforce compliance and ensure service quality? Will I lose
control of my business processes?
Are there any qualified offshore vendors? How can I find the right
partner?
What are the possible cost savings VS. Onshore? Is it worth the
exercise?

5.
Offshore Team – An extension of your own enterprise
Advantages:
1. You enjoy full control of selecting and training your team while
we serve as a management service provider offering quality real
estate, day‐to‐day assistance and support to serve as a dedicated
captive unit operating as an extension of your own enterprise. All,
without any capital investment or long term commitments.
2. Provisioning multiple locations in India and USA: New Delhi,
Bangalore, Hyderabad ++ (Sooner opening in Columbia). Name a
location and we will get you established.
3. Access to quality manpower and managers. New Delhi is a
financial services back office hub for leading global multinationals
as likes of American Express, GE, Bank Of America etc. Whereas,
HSBC has some of its largest global delivery centers in Bangalore
and Hyderabad with focus on IT and related services.
4. Minimum 40‐50% cost savings via labor arbitrage. If you are
ready to pay little higher for voice related services then even
accents are not a major problem for a smaller team (We ideally
recommend to maintain a 1:10 ratio between onshore and
offshore teams)
5. Flat rate billing for the actual number of team members hired. We
provide quality real estate, computing resources and telephony
for FREE. No setup fees, no hiring fees or any hidden charges.

6. Job Function Onshore Costs Offshore Costs
IT ­ Programming $5500‐$7500 $1150‐$1500
IT – SEO/Data Entry/Web $3500‐$5500 $850‐$1150
Customer Service $3500‐$4500 $950‐$1250
* Offshore costs are based on the assumption of minimum TEN members in
any team, total 200 hours per month. Transaction based pricing is also
possible.
Our Recommendation:
 Never offshore / outsource your core customer service.
When people pay high they expect the best service and
timely response when they call‐in for updates. You must use
the best‐trained onshore team to ensure 100% customer
satisfaction. Also use best of breed technology for automatic
updates via emails/voice prompts; IVR with automatic voice
recognition is also effective for routine queries.
 IT support, web design, data entry, SEO is the easiest of all
functions to offshore/outsource if you can setup a good
training program and dedicate qualified mentors to guide
and lead the team. With advancement of technology web
meetings and online training sessions make life easy while
shared telephony platform offers access to call recordings
that can be archived for quality control and audits.
Our experience:
Over 10 years into IT services domain (web designing & development,
SEO, online marketing, CRM, IVR and VOIP deployment, high‐end
applications programming), mortgage BPO (processing, underwriting
support and servicing), debt restructuring (modifications, settlement
and collections), telesales and technical/customer support.

7. The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High­Performance Organization
by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith discusses the team
performance curve. At the top of the curve is the "high‐performance
team" followed by "real teams." Real teams are defined as "a small
number of people with complimentary skills who are equally committed
to a common purpose, goals, and working approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable." High performing teams are those
that meet all conditions of real teams and "have members who are also
deeply committed to one another's personal growth and success." It is
probably not possible to get a global team to function as seamlessly as a
co‐located team – but you can definitely take the spirit of the team
definition and scale it up to a globally dispersed group to create a
winning team.
The following top‐10 list for the project manager provides a guideline
for reaching this goal.
­#1. Make sure that offshore and onsite groups work as a single
delivery team.
In most offshore delivery models, the delivery team has an "onsite" and
an "offshore" component. In many cases there's even a vendor‐customer
contract between the local and offshore organizations – be it with an
offshore vendor or even with the offshore part of the same company.
But as an onsite project manager responsible for delivery, it's critically
important that you remove the perception of onsite‐offshore divide. The
group needs to be perceived as one project team, with members in
different time zones. In conversations, avoid referring to the offshore
group as "you." Always refer to the entire team as "we," as in, "Do we
need more information from the user?" vs. "Do you guys (offshore) want
us (onsite) to get more information from the user?"
#2. Do not play customer.
Do not play the role of the "customer" to the offshore team. Most
offshore delivery models rely on the onsite manager/team playing the
"pseudo customer." This puts an additional artificial layer between the
offshore team and end users. It also generates a perception of the onsite
group being different from the offshore group. Try to remove any
barrier to direct communication between the stakeholders and the
offshore team members; work as a liaison to build seamless interaction.

8.
#3. Information – the more the merrier.
Provide as much information to the offshore team members as possible.
Educate them about al they need to know for proper servicing. Explain
what business benefits they will bring to the client and the process
deliverables. There is nothing more exciting to team members than to
see the difference their efforts are making to the business. This applies
to both onsite and offshore team members. But in case of the offshore
members, it's that much more important, as they're far away from the
action.
#4. Celebrate success and be generous with compliments.
This is an established team building technique that has additional
importance in an offshore situation. Take any opportunity to reward the
team. Even though the offshore organization may have its own reward
system – any recognition from the onsite organization will have added
significance. In addition, little things like copying senior managers on
emails that have news of success and sending congratulatory emails for
every little win are very helpful. But at the same time, don't hesitate to
criticize when needed. Try as much as possible to criticize in private and
praise in public. Though when needed, escalate to the offshore
leadership so that they can get involved. Building a good working
relationship with the offshore senior managers is critical.
#5. State the obvious.
As a general rule, always over‐communicate when dealing with the
offshore team members. It's OK to repeat yourself. It's not OK to leave
out anything even though it may seem to be an obvious detail. Keep in
mind, things that are obvious to the onsite team members may not be as
apparent to the offshore members.
#6. Don't assume anything.
Ask questions – do not assume anything. The offshore team members
won't always be very vocal or express their concerns. They won't bring
up critical issues before it's too late. You'll need to probe, at least
initially, to find out what issues the team is facing that may turn out to
create any problems for end clients.

9. #7. Know your team.
Know your team. Know what they are working on. Show interest in
their work. Try to interact with as many team members as possible. In
some cases, your offshore team will be very large, making it impractical
to interact with everyone regularly. But it's important to make an effort
to know as much detail as possible. Sending an occasional email to an
individual team member or asking about a sticky problem and how the
team managed to solve it humanizes your role in the eye of an offshore
developer in a large team.
#8. Know the offshore process.
Show keen interest in the day‐to‐day processes followed offshore. What
happens offshore on a daily basis shouldn't be a black box. Be
sympathetic to problems the team faces. Even if you can't help in solving
a problem, showing interest and sympathy will go a long way. Work
with the offshore leadership to brainstorm what best practices are
needed for the project.
#9. Build relationships with the offshore managers.
Don't try to micro‐manage. If you want changes made, work with the
offshore leadership. Build relationships with the delivery head, quality
head and other managers – and implement your ideas through them.
You need their support to be successful.
#10. A bit of cricket can go a long way.
Show interest in the local culture, and you'll be able to build a rewarding
relationship with the team. For example, if your offshore team is in
India, learn about cricket. There's no better icebreaker for an Indian
team than discussing the fate of a one‐day cricket match involving India.
We do all this for you and free your resources for generating more
business creating opportunities for Higher Profits and a Lean
Organization.

10. What we offer:
Deal with an American company: We are an American company based in
NYC with business presence all over US. We know to treat our clients
with respect, timely delivery and quality they deserve. Staff signs a Non‐
Compete and we have a talent retention track record of 85‐95%.
Broadband Internet: In our facilities we have substantial redundancy
and Internet speeds between 4 to 16 mbps to ensure near 100% uptime.
US Phone Number/Extension: Dedicated phone#/extension to reach
your key staff.
Onsite delivery manager: For clients with more than fifty offshore staff
we dedicate a delivery manager onsite in their own premises on our
cost to ensure better co‐ordination.
IP Cameras for monitoring: Dedicated channel to ensure you are always
near your team and keep track of their activities.
No setups costs or long‐term contracts: Just pay bi‐weekly in advance
with just one‐month commitment and get started within a week.
Next Steps: Try us with a TEST job for FREE up to ONE WEEK
ODEON GLOBAL CORPORATION
11 Penn Plaza, 5th Floor, New York, NY, 10001