Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director, BLS International explains how the solutions are competing in both the global and domestic markets.
What are the services and solutions in the BLS portfolio?
BLS international is an Indian company. We started in 2005 with the outsourcing industry. Currently we are present in 62 countries and working for 36 client governments. We are a tech enabled service provider across the world. We work with various government to outsource citizen services to us. We also work for the Indian Government to renew the passports of the Indian citizens who are living abroad. We also work for governments like Spain, Hungary, France Portugal, so we work for this governments also in different countries globally.
What is the difference of BLS from services like VFX? What is the practicality of tying up with several European countries separately?
BLS international is one of the three companies globally who are present in this business and BLS is the only Indian company which is present. How we are differentiated from our competition is that we use the latest technology, the bio-metric error rate that we have is the lowest in the industry. We use our in-house bio-metric software’s, in-house processing software’s. We also have an AI driven platform. So what happens is our centre undertakes documents for scanning to verify the authencity of the documents for travelling and match them with the repository documents in the tenders the government allows us to. So we have different kind of technology that we use in this kind of business.
How does the visa generation process work?
If you applied for visa for Spain you will go on the embassy website and there you will have to give your bio-metrics, documentation, you cannot come to the embassy they have our name and address as the outsourcing partner. Then subsequently we have the set of documents you need the charges required. So you come to our centres give the bio-metrics, documents then the application is subsequently processed. Now the judgement of whether to provide the VISA or not is taken care by the embassy.
What geography most of these countries are present in?
Our major volume comes through China, Russia, Africa we have a big presence in Europe but the major travellers are like in Russia we have more than 25 offices in China we have 30 offices. In Russia we work for 3 government the Portugal embassy, the Spanish Embassy and the Indian Government. We also work for the Indian Government to carry their missions abroad. Couple of year’s back we wanted to diversify and that is how we started the citizen service projects like the states of Punjab and UP we have started. We are also providing banking correspondent services on the behalf of State Bank of India, where we are working in 8states across India providing banking transaction like opening of bank accounts we have a national franchise licence with the State Bank of India.
Most Indian business visas are generated in US and UAE. How do you help in processing visas here?
We also process the VISA on behalf of the UAE government and we also work for the US government in one geography that is Canada.
How do you operate with your solutions for the domestic market?
We are a technology enable speciality retail service provider, where we work with various government across the world, like that we have a contract with the government of Punjab wherein we are operating 352 offices across the state and providing more than 233 government services. We are using technology where the entire software is developed by us there our agents log on to those from our centres and people come and apply for those applications. We process more than 30000 application every day in Punjab itself in these government services.
How does the eSeva Kendras work with the state and Central Government?
We work on an exclusive model, this tender is awarded to us by the state government. So these concepts are called Seva Kendras where we have opened offices in this districts and these are exclusive centres on behalf of those governments. The government has a department called the PSEGS which is the Punjab State E-Government Society that has a tie up with all those departments because us as a company going to each departments and getting those 233 services is quite tough job. So the government has already stream lined that so that everything is digitally available.
How much of these services can be availed on mobile?
Some departments are working on a hybrid model some have fully digitized so in some way we still have to receive physical application and transform it back into the data. But as far as mobile is concerned we have started developing a app on which we can access the information regarding the service, apply for, where are the centre, what document they need to apply these services. For some services they can surely apply through app and we can integrated those services in the department that they applied through the app.
How do you offset the poor connectivity quality in the hinterland? How do you ensure real time access?
We have done it in such a model that people can put the applications into the systems and they can be uploaded in a later time when they have access to the connectivity. As we now have people in these centres we don’t need much electricity for the internet connection they can use inverters, backup dongles mobile connectivity is still good. So we have to give then a technology wherein they process those application and upload then at a convenient time.
Most of the applications when they come and upload you can take the data and upload the data later for example there is a lag in electricity or some other problem. Minor applications have these kind of problems, majority we have not faced this problems for the systems we had to provide backup in terms of internet connectivity they have dongles and inverters and essentially what they need is a single desktop or computer to upload these applications.
How do you ensure conformance with multiple compliances as you work in different geographies?
Most important factor in our industry is the data security and privacy as that is what the entire industry based on. So every country and the European governments have the similar arrangement where the data security policy is the same and every country has a data security policy which is much higher. So we have to adhere to the policy of the country we are working for. We have strict SLA’s that every individual member of the organisation has to follow, 1st is we try to have a data purging policy, the data the purged on the same day as it is collected. Other is we collect only that much data that is required for the application. Then we have a host of security features where a USD drive cannot we inserted in the computer so the data cannot be taken out. We have dedicated internet lines where the IP address are identified.
How do you support the multiple language challenge?
We work in multiple geographies and English is the most spoken language but everywhere it is not viable, for example in Africa every people does not understand English, so we have local people dealing with their countrymen in the local language. So we have technology platform which is developed to perform in multiple languages, we have websites in multiple languages.
How do you manage a diverse workforce across cultures and geographies?
For working in a local geography like Russia China we need to have local people at the ground at the submission office level working on behalf of the those as they understand the language understand the topography. Globally we have more than 5000 people who are working for us in different geographies. Locally we also partner with companies like Rankstack and global HR companies which help us in recruiting man power.
What was the impact of the pandemic on your services?
What we expect is in the 1st quarter of next financial year travel should start. For us it was a learning the last year as the VISA business was very negligible, but at the same time we managed to post a healthy profit because of the citizen services we are providing globally. Because of the pandemic there are new services which people were not using before like home delivery and people want us to come to their houses to submit the applications. So now we are preparing offices globally to fulfil the incremental demand that will come up.
How did the revenues from the domestic services offset the loss in revenues from the global operations?
Normally 85% of the revenue is from the counsel and VISA business and the rest 15% was from the banking correspondent and citizen services. Now due to the pandemic that has changed to 75% and rest 25% from the citizen service. Now people are using many other services like E-VISA’s and home pickup so these are the kind of services that people are opting for.
What is the specific business model being followed do you charge the government agencies or the citizens?
How we work is a very asset light model, so all our contract around the world how we operate for example in Punjab it’s a government tender. The citizen pay the services to my company and we will also pay the government fee for that service. So both of those charges are collected upfront from the citizen and the price is regulated by the government.
What are the alliances with insurance providers or logistics companies?
We have tie ups with different insurance companies telecom providers to provide these services across the world. We have also started COVID testing as when travel open up as there will be huge demand as when travel opens up they will need COVID certificates so we have tied up with labs across the world to provide these value added services. Last year also we got contracts from the Brazil and Portugal governments.
What sort of changes in visa processes are happening with emergence of newer technologies?
As technology changes there is opportunities for the industry to change as 5year before there were no need to give biometric for visa. Some governments may have introduced electronic VISA’s but we as company use a technology platform which suitable to all government needs.
Can you please elaborate on the services for the banks?
Three years back we acquired a company called Stare Fare India which has a national correspondent licence for state bank of India. So during lockdown when there was a huge transfer to the people by the government we facilitated around 350 carore worth of transaction from the senders. So these are branches on behalf of state bank of India where people can open an account keep money withdraw money purchase products. We have done more tie ups with many banks to bring out more branches across India.
What are the expansion plans in the different states?
We are always in talk with some states to getting these same kind of models in those states. We want to stick to our model where we take up front charges from our clients for providing these services. States are very much interested after visiting our centres in Punjab and UP and are very interested in providing same kind of services to their citizens.
What about your datacentre infrastructure and how do you ensure the SLAs of the applications you deliver from these datacentre’s?
Core of our business is technology and IT, we have different servers in different country we have an IT head who sits out of our Delhi head quarter office. We have regional IT teams who report to him. We have R&D centres who are developing new products the software we use are saleable as they are processing transaction in big number. Now the platform has reached such a stage where it can be expanded without any problem. We have Chabot’s where applicants can now the current status of their current documents and they can accomplish personal complex transaction using AI.
How were you managing the domestic services to citizens during the pandemic?
Two things happened because of COVID people also hesitate to come to the centres and look at technology to avail those services. So we as a company also fast-tracked deployment of those kind of services where people don’t have to be physically present. So the customers are happy to again use these services so that’s how the gradual shift is coming in India.
What all initiatives are in the pipeline?
Our growth prospects are very bright, there are multiple tenders in the pipeline in developed countries like UK Canada. In India also there is a big pipe line of tenders from the state governments. Normally it takes one or two years before the tender is out the government understands your solution and the tender is awarded. We have worked very hard to achieve all the tenders and qualify processing so many applications and governments have the trust factor on us.
What are the areas where you are looking for acquisitions of newer companies?
We are looking at acquisitions for technology platform and technology based outsourcing company that are also in the same industry as us globally and in India. We are interested in the growth of the company and there will be acquisitions in the cards. So I feel we can increase the base of the company and grow the company.
What are BLS’s unique differentiators against the likes of VFX as well as IT service providers like IBM or Accenture?
If you talk from the citizen service angle we have big technology provider already in the industry but none of them provide end to end solution. We are servicing the customer also giving them a service on a timely manner. So as a difference I fell the technology we use is the latest technology that has changed over the year. We are very flexible and agile as a company. Decision making is also very fast with good lead management that is what differentiates us.
How are the global SLAs more stringent than the domestic ones and how did you conform to them during the pandemic?
I don’t know the difference between private or government contracts as we have been working with government contracts. Working with any government we have understand that the SLA’s are very strict as you are collecting data on behalf of the government. The governments are also very reasonable they will not put compliance on you which are not reasonable.
How were looking at acquiring new government customers during the pandemic?
This has been a very good time for us as all the governments are very open to meet virtually. They know this work is there and they need players all the more now, because of COVID they don’t want to be with people directly so they are looking to outsourcing very positively.
What message would you leave for the potential customers?
From BLS perspective as a company we are the only Indian company in these business providing a very good service for the last 15 years we have grown to 36 governments and as a company we want to provide service which is beneficial to both the end customer that is the citizens and the clients which is the governments.