Xerox, ACS buy set to bring in more jobs to India

Xerox Corporation’s move to acquire Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion comes just a week after Dell’s buyout of Perot Systems for $3.9-billion.

The Xerox deal is expected to create “significant number" of additional jobs in India as cost optimisation is going to be great focus for the copier giant. In fact, Xerox expects to achieve annualised cost synergies in the range of $300- $400 million in the first three years by using ACS’ back-office expertise to handle the latter’s internal functions.

Aman Mustafa, country manager (India), ACS Global Operations Support, told TOI: “There will be a greater flow in the back-office work related to document management space. The coming together of Xerox and ACS will throw up significantly higher job opportunities in the country.’’

ACS is a 74,000-people strong company with global revenues of $6.5 billion. It employs 5,500 people in India across Bangalore, Kochi, Chennai and Noida. ACS will now on be called a Xerox company. Based in Sohna, near Gurgaon, Xerox currently has 500 people in the country, mostly in the marketing, sales and support functions.

In a letter addressed to employees, analysts and advisors across the globe, ACS president & CEO Lynn Blodgett said, “You may know Xerox because of its industryleading printing technologies, but you may not know that its services expertise is just as strong, generating $3.5 billion in annuity revenues. Together with Xerox, ACS will be able to grow and scale in incredible ways.’’

The combined entity would create a $22-billion global enterprise for document technology and business process management. It will establish a solutions provider that surpasses every competitor and sets a new standard for document technology and BPO management.

Blodgett said, “We anticipate that this transaction will close in the first quarter of 2010. As we approach that date, I will keep you updated on the integration process.’’

Commenting on the deal, BPO exponent Raman Roy said, “We are yet to know how big an offshore play it is. However, India is already the largest handler of outsourced digitised data/images, a few trillion every hour. Xerox is a leader in document solutions. The deal may be an indication of consolidation in this space.’’