ACIS foresees 100% growth in headcount

Being in the insurance-financial services domain may not be the most attractive situation during the current downturn, but Alliance Cornhill Information Services (ACIS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Allianz Insurance, is foreseeing a 100% growth in its headcount at its operations out of the Technopark here.

ACIS, which has grown from being an IT/ITeS operation employing about two dozen employees in 2004 has grown to being a 700-staff organisation doing high-end value-added services for the Allianz group, and has added a new facility here, hoping to reach a headcount of 1,400 in the near future.

The company opened its third facility at the Technopark today, which adds 40,000 sq ft and 250 seats in the first phase of the new facility. The ACIS centre here is a one-of-its-kind facility for the Allianz group, doing captive work for the parent company and operating units within the Allianz group.

“ACIS has been working with five other operating units within the Allianz group over the past one year, and looks poised to expand to make full use of its capacity of 1,400 seats at the Technopark”, Andrew Torrance, CEO of Allianz Insurance, UK told ET.

He said some of the new projects that ACIS had added in the recent past included a project to supply certain insurance products to customers, another that is meant for the insurance broker base, a project that involves revamp of the retail platform, one relating to legal protection insurance, and a claims operation project.

ACIS COO Rakesh Gupta said the immediate future looked bright for the company in the backdrop of the pressure on businesses to achieve cost efficiencies, adding that ACIS was offering the right value proposition to attract fresh business.

Mr Torrance said Allianz Insurance was not, at the moment, looking to set up another unit on the lines of ACIS anywhere else in the world, adding that the expansion here would be able to take care of additional work for the near term. Mr Gupta said ACIS had the option of expanding by adding more space within the Technopark or outside of it should the need arise to up its headcount beyond 1,400.