National Public Radio had a nice five minute segment on call centers during its Morning Edition show late February called Call Center Outsourcing Slows (click the link to hear the story).

The show's host introduced the story: "Over the past few years some US companies have been closing their domestic call centers and relocating them to low wage countries like India. Researchers say many more companies are resisting that trend. Despite huge savings these companies say some call center jobs are ill-suited to overseas workers. Many companies have found an alternative to outsourcing: hiring workers who answer calls from their homes."

NPR's Jim Zarroli spoke to AAA EVP David Hughes, who told him that the company has never considered outsourcing calls overseas -- roadside assistance calls are too sensitive for someone who isn't familiar with American roads and driving problems.

He also spoke to Rosemary Batt, an associate professor of Human Resource Studies at Cornell University. She surveyed nearly 500 call centers, and says that there are still about four million call center jobs in America and only a "steady trickle" are being created in other countries (about 400,000 in India).

Batt said that it was the simple transactions that got outsourced the most. Credit card activation or telemarketing.

And then the topic turned to "homesourcing." Zarroli visited Jim Miller in the agent's office -- his bedroom in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Our Joe Fleischer hosted a webcast yesterday called "Making At Home Agents Work." You can access the archived version of the one-hour seminar with Oracle/Siebel about homesourcing here.

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