Wipro BPO to hire 8,000, optimistic on double-digit growth

Despite the continuing impact of the slowdown, Wipro BPO is optimistic about posting double-digit growth in financial year 2010 (FY10). The unit’s head said he sees the market for BPO services improving in the next few months.

Ashutosh Vaidya, senior vice-president and head of Wipro BPO said, “The slowdown, especially in the peak business period of November to February, meant that we posted around 20 per cent growth in the last financial year. Though there is still short-term decline, we are confident that we will see double digit growth in FY10.”

The BPO division of Bangalore-based Wipro had seen its growth rates dip from the traditional 30-40 per cent to around 20 per cent in FY09. The unit contributed over 8 per cent or $395 million to Wipro’s IT services revenue of $4.3 billion.

According to Vaidya, the BPO firm is seeing increased interest from existing and prospective customers both in size and type of deals.

“However, it takes between 4-6 months for a deal process to complete, so we expect to see revenue impact flowing in only after that period.”

The unit is also looking at recruiting 8,000 people this year. While some will be employed in Wipro BPO’s seven international centres, majority will be hired in India. The division has a work force of 22,624 people with 10 per cent based outside the country.

Vaidya said setting up new centres abroad is also on the cards this fiscal. While he declined to name the locations, Wipro officials have earlier spoken about expansion of BPO presence in China and Philippines. In FY09, the unit set up three new centres outside India including in Brazil and Wroclaw near Warsaw in Poland.

Wipro BPO is also looking to strengthen its domestic presence, he said. It currently has around five Indian customers including three in telecom sector and other MNCs with local presence.