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or the equivalent of about one American dollar, visitors to McDonald's restaurants in Brazil can buy a tata de banana, or fried banana pie, a tasty treat in any language. Such geographically unique gastronomic fare is more than just a menu item for the fast food monolith; it's one of many considerations as the company seeks sites for regional call centers around the globe.
   Christopher Garrity, McDonald's senior director of customer satisfaction, came to Brazil in April for the first of at least three fact-finding

Chris Garrity, McDonald's

missions to pinpoint strategic locations for outsourcing customer service call center operations. The idea is to build on the company's successful use of a customer service 800 number that directs U.S. customers to a call center in the Atlanta area. He has planned similar visits to Europe and Asia this year.
   "Our U.S. 800-number call center has been so successful that our COO asked us to explore what it would take to establish similar centers in other areas of the world," Garrity says.
   There are more than 30,000 McDonalds restaurants in 120 countries. Most foreign- based McDonald's restaurants, like their U.S. counterparts, are owned by franchisees, and many have local items on their menus such as the banana pie.
   Garrity says the vagaries of Latin American McDonald's menus present challenges. For example, would someone in Mexico know how many calories are in a Brazilian banana pie? And, Portuguese-speaking Brazil, the largest country in the region, likely needs a call center of its own.
   "I can easily see having one call center in Brazil," Garrity says. "A second one might be in Mexico or Costa Rica or another Spanish- speaking country. We will continue to conduct our exploration to see how this idea might play out globally for the McDonald's brand."
   Garrity visited a cross section of Brazilian call centers in the São Paulo region and also a large ACS operation in Uberlandia, about 350 miles (563 km.) north of São Paulo. Many in the industry view the ACS site, which includes facilities for 3,500 agents, as the best in Brazil. ACS recently expanded with a 1,500-agent call center in Campinas.
   Flavia Egypto, international relations representative for ACS, says Uberlandia and Campinas are ideal locations for call centers due to their large concentrations of college students, providing a qualified labor pool.
   "Uberlandia has 35,000 to 40,000 college students and 15,000 are studying English," Egypto says. She notes that, generally, it takes a Brazilian about six years to become fluent in English. Egypto describes Campinas

Valeria Blanco, Montana

as the "Silicon Valley of Brazil," as many high-tech U.S. companies such as Motorola and U.S. Robotics have regional operations there. It also has the largest concentration of VOIP in Latin America, she says.
   Another growing call center specialist hoping to draw offshoring business is Montana, a company based in Brasilia. Valeria Blanco, development manager at Montana, says Brazil has the telecom infrastructure in place to become a major offshoring option. She says the industry must develop partnerships with the country's universities to develop a larger English- speaking labor pool.
   Garrity's Brazil visit coincided with a three- day conference, Contact Center Offshore in Brazil, co- sponsored by Toronto- based Summit Circuit group and by Brazil's Instituto de Telemarketing. Seen as a coming out party for the Brazilian call center industry as it promotes itself as an offshore call center outsourcing option for North American firms, the conference brought together many of the Brazilian industry's leading figures.     Overall, call centers are big in Brazil, representing a US$3.3- billion annual business, or 6.3 percent of Brazil's GDP. The Instituto de Telemarketing says there are more than 250 call centers employing approximately 650,000 agents. About 80 percent are in the São Paulo area with most of the remainder in large cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Curitiba. Call center agents are paid the equivalent of $200 per month, plus benefits which usually include transportation to and from work and a meal. The industry is unionized, with an agreement in place that agents work only six hours per day.
   Moacir de Miranda Oliveira Jr., a professor at Pontifical University Catholic of São Paulo who is participating in a multinational study of the industry, believes the figures underestimate its size: "There are at least 50 percent more call centers and call center employees," he says. "We need more reliable numbers."
   Oliveira says Brazil's advantages as a call center destination are its adoption of the latest telecom technology and its multicultural society. However, he admits there is an English language barrier to overcome before the country becomes a major offshoring site for the U.S.
   Ri Pierce Grove, a technology analyst with Datamonitor specializing in contact centers, says Brazil's future success as an offshoring destination for North American countries depends on the education path the country takes. Currently, she says there's an emphasis on Spanish language skills in Brazilian schools, because that language is easier for Portuguese speakers to learn. However, in terms of call centers, that puts the country in competition

Ri Pierce-Grove, Datamonitor

with Argentina, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and other Latin American nations.
   But while the Brazilian industry is keen to portray itself as having sufficient English- speaking prowess, many of the conference's U.S.- based attendees remain skeptical. Tim Searcy, CEO of the American Teleservices Association and a featured speaker at the conference, says it will take some time for Brazil to develop a sufficient pool of English speakers.
   "Brazil is like many of the CALA [Central America and Latin America] region countries we have encountered when it comes to English," says Searcy. "The English language is best communicated by expatriates, long- time English speakers, individuals that have spent time in the United States, and those people that have the language spoke regularly in the home. We are encouraged by the government's efforts to teach English in the grade schools and high schools. This new energy in the ESL [English as a second language] effort will yield tremendous results in the future."
   Sethu Rathman is managing director of Enss Entium, a recently formed San Francisco- area firm specializing in advising firms in a variety of areas including "intelligent outsourcing." He believes Brazil's lingual diversity offers plenty of opportunities for U.S. outsourcers.
   "Brazil is a rapidly growing economy with inherent strengths that offers great opportunities for American companies both as a destination for certain offshore services as well as a base for expansion into Latin America," Rathman says. "From an offshore perspective Brazil offers dual advantages for American firms to harness its population's English- speaking skills – which has a very neutral accent that should sound easy for the American ears – along with its ability to provide multi- lingual support in Spanish, French, Japanese, and of course, Portuguese, with its diverse ethnic population.
   "This combination would be of particular interest for small to mid- size firms that want to leverage the time zone benefits, do not want to commute very long distances to Asia, and hope to get coverage for multiple languages with one offshore setup," Rathman concludes.