Signature to go-live
Twenty-five days across five gates. Each has a named owner on both sides and a written sign-off before the next one opens.
The sequence
Agreement signed
MSA, NDA and data processing agreement executed. First tranche of the onboarding fee released.
Facility audit cleared
Network, access control, records handling and seat readiness audited and signed off.
Batch certified
Programme starts day 3; the first 25 heads assessed and certified by day 12.
Pilot on 5 seats
Live investor cases on a supervised pilot with 100% QA sampling and daily calibration.
Full go-live
All 20 seats live. The billing clock starts on this date, not on the signing date.
Scale review
Joint review of QA, SLA and attrition. Allocation opens to 40 seats on the same terms.
| Gate | Akontec does | You do | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 0 — contracting | Issues the MSA, NDA and DPA. Appoints the named process owner. Confirms the city exclusivity. | Executes the agreements. Appoints the operations manager. Releases the first fee tranche. | Both signatories |
| Day 7 — audit | Conducts the facility, network and records audit. Issues the remediation checklist. | Presents the segregated area, both links, the firewall, access control and locked storage. | Akontec auditor |
| Day 12 — certification | Deploys the trainer on site for ten days. Delivers the programme. Runs the assessment. | Hires 25 heads, completes background verification, releases them full-time to training. | Trainer and your OM |
| Day 18 — pilot | Releases live cases to five seats. Samples 100% of them. Calibrates daily with your QA. | Runs the pilot seats under the team leader. Fixes what calibration surfaces, same day. | Process owner |
| Day 25 — go-live | Opens the full case flow. Starts the billing clock. Moves to the weekly governance rhythm. | Staffs all 20 seats to the published roster. Starts the daily dashboard. | Both |
| Day 90 — scale | Reviews the scorecard. Confirms or defers the scale allocation in writing. | Presents attrition, QA and capacity plan for the additional seats. | Commercial leads |
The certification programme
Three weeks, delivered on your floor by an Akontec trainer for the first ten days and remotely thereafter. All material and assessment is included in the onboarding fee.
| Week | Content | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | FDI in plain terms: what foreign direct investment is, the automatic and government routes, sector caps, who the regulators are and what each one wants. The route matrix, read line by line. The advisory boundary and why it exists. | Written, 70% to pass |
| Week 2 | The document universe: every item on every checklist, what a valid version looks like, apostille and notarisation, what makes a document fail. The CRM, case lifecycle, stage definitions and the reporting a case must carry. | Practical, 12 cases |
| Week 3 | Live handling: call and email frameworks, first-language handover, escalation drills, boundary drills with deliberately baited questions, CSAT behaviours, and the ageing and follow-up cadence. | Observed handling |
| Certification | All three assessments passed; valid six months, refreshed half-yearly | ₹1,500 / head after the first 25 |
What delays a go-live
Hiring
Twenty-five graduate hires with background verification inside seven days is the tightest part of the plan. Start sourcing at the facility call, not at signing. Partners who wait until day 0 typically go live at day 32 rather than day 25.
The second link
Provisioning a second independent link takes two to four weeks in most Indian cities. It is a hard gate at the day-7 audit. If you do not already have it, order it before signing.
Access control
Card or biometric control on the segregated area is the item most often assumed and least often in place. It is quick to install but needs to be ordered, and it will stop the audit if it is not there.
A delayed go-live does not cost you a penalty. It costs you unbilled payroll, which is the same thing in cash terms and entirely within your control. Every day past day 25 is roughly ₹26,000 of payroll against no billing.
Next: what Akontec carries
Schedule I lists what is supplied at no cost for the term — the client, the CRM, the process material, the trainer, the process owner and the governance rhythm.