Infosys eyes IT, BPO arms of European companies

Infosys is looking to acquire technology and back-office services arms of European companies as they open up to the idea of outsourcing such work with an eye on cutting costs. The deals that Infosys is chasing could give it committed business worth $40- $250 million (Rs 240 crore-Rs 1,500 crore) over three to five years, the Europe head of India's second-largest software firm said. Such transactions typically involve upfront payment for buying the facilities of corporations as well as taking over their employees.

"There are quite a few opportunities we are participating in. For clients, it is about cost-optimisation but at the same time they don't want employees to be impacted," said InfosysBSE -0.01 % board member BG Srinivas, who also heads the financial services business division. "We are open to rebadging employees because we are continuing to invest in Europe."

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/euro-trail-infosys-eyes-it-bpo-arms-of-european-companies/articleshow/21076918.cms

IBM, Jet Airways sign 10-year call centre deal

IT giant IBM will manage the customer call centre, including providing improved analytics capabilities and a 'refreshed' IT infrastructure, for Jet Airways, India's second-largest airline by passengers carried, the two companies announced.

Under the 10-year contract, IBM will provide contact centre and back-office services for the airline's 11 lines of business such as domestic and international reservations, Jet Privilege program, cargo, refunds and helpdesk services. The arrangement is an extension of their three-year relationship under which Jet says the IBM helped transform its core IT Infrastructure.

Call centre jobs: All you need to know

Information Technology (IT), the greatest change agent of the twentieth century, is changing the way we live, work, communicate, shop and study - practically everything we do.

IT is also changing the way we do business. Not only does it remove the barriers of distance and geography, but it also dramatically alters 'how' business is done.
Click here to read more.

IT services co Tieto to cut 1,300 jobs

Finnish IT services group Tieto plans to cut 1,300 jobs, or 7 per cent of its staff, as it struggles to compete against global rivals like IBM .

The company's share rose 6 percent to the highest level in 13 months on the move, which Tieto said will cut annual costs by 50 million euros ($66 million).

The cuts will include 500 jobs in Finland, 300 in Sweden, and around 500 elsewhere, the company said.

Dell chalks out new BPO offerings, takes on Indian outsourcing firms

In a bleak environment where unemployment and sensitivity around offshoring are hurting the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, IT giant Dell is readying an ambitious foray that will pit it against Indian outsourcing rivals in some of the largest back-office processes outsourced to third-party providers.

Once known for desktops and laptops and its direct selling business model, Dell has been beefing up its services portfolio by adding offerings since diversifying into software services by acquiring Perot Systems.

Ashutosh Vaidya, who joined Dell from Wipro to head its third-party BPO services nine months back, is adding final touches for the launch of four new backoffice services -- finance and accounting, procurement, customer interaction services and analytics -- slated for next quarter. Click here to read more.

Genpact bags 5-year deal from Bengal Aerotropolis Projects

BPO major Genpact Tuesday inked a five-year deal with Bengal Aerotropolis Projects (BAP) for managing its IT operations for an undisclosed amount.

BAP is engaged in development of aerotropolis projects in the country.

As part of the deal, Genpact will provide BAP with a hosted-IT application and infrastructure services model, which will help the company in saving large capital investments in IT, Genpact said in a statement.

However, the size of the deal was not disclosed. The partnership would enable BAP to move to a cloud-based IT model and help shift from a capital-heavy owned model to an operational expense model, it said.

Patni sets up hub for BPO ops in Texas

Global IT and BPO services provider Patni Computer Systems said it has set up a new North American hub for BPO operations in El Paso, Texas. The establishment of the El Paso site follows Patni’s recent move to open a nearshore centre in Queretaro, Mexico, to serve North American and Latin American markets and augment the company’s global delivery capabilities, a company release said here.

Establishing the service hub expands Patni’s business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) delivery capability to service North American customers from domestic locations in a cost-effective manner and employ highly-skilled local talent, the release said.

Tech Mahindra plans BPO unit in Philippines

Resurrecting Satyam may be dominating mindshare at Tech Mahindra ever since it acquired the firm in April, but the company is silently expanding its global footprint in the BPO space.

Tech Mahindra is mulling a brand new BPO operation in the Philippines, which will be its third offshore contact centre after Northern Ireland and the UK. If Tech Mahindra indeed dials the Philippines, it will be emulating the likes of Wipro and Infosys, who have already established BPOs to cash in on the low-operating costs in that country.

Having tapped into the outsourcing opportunities that exist in the UK and the European Union (EU) by establishing contact centres in Belfast and South Tyneside, Tech Mahindra is now tipped to set up shop in the Philippines to cater to global telecom clients in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and North American markets.

Infosys BPO to acquire US co McCamish for initial $38 mn

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies on Thursday said its subsidiary Infosys BPO will acquire US-based McCamish Systems for an initial payment of $38 million (about Rs 176.6 crore).

Infosys BPO has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all the outstanding interests of McCamish Systems LLC, Infosys Tech said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"The upfront consideration for the deal is $38 million, with up to an additional $20 million payable to the sellers if McCamish Systems achieves certain financial targets in the future," the company added.

The acquisition is expected to be completed later this year.

"We look forward to this combination with McCamish, and welcome an exceptional group of professionals with strong skill sets to the Infosys family who will enrich our service capabilities in the USA," Infosys BPO CEO & MD Amitabh Chaudhry said.

The acquisitions is expected to enhance Infosys' capability to provide complete business solutions for insurance and financial industries.

"Infosys BPO has in-depth knowledge of the insurance and financial services sector, and this deal reinforces our relationship position in providing business platform services," Chaudhry said.

The combination is likely to enable McCamish to serve larger portfolio of transactions for clients and expand into global markets.

Shares of Infosys Technologies were trading at Rs 2,336 on the BSE, up 1.18 per cent from its previous close.

Infosys BPO to hire 2000 by FY10

Infosys BPO, the back-office unit of IT firm Infosys Technologies, today said it would hire 1,500-2,000 people by the end of the current fiscal.

"We plan to hire 2000 people in the next four-five months or by the end of this fiscal. Currently, we are 16,000 people in India," Infosys BPO CEO Amitabh Chaudhry told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

The 300-million Infosys subsidiary recently signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up rural BPO centres in 22 districts of the state.

Infosys BPO gets significant part of its business from North America and Europe.

To bag more clients, it is said to be looking at aligning with Finacle, the banking solution business of its parent. Infosys BPO is also reportedly planning to set up a new delivery centre in the United States before the end of this financial year.

The back-office services wing of Infosys has eight delivery centres across the globe, including in Mexico, but it did not have a centre in the US so far.

Infosys BPO registered revenues of $71.3 million with a net profit of $16.3 million for the September quarter.

Infosys eyeing acquisitions in Europe, US

The back-office arm of Infosys Technologies, India's No. 2 software services provider, is looking at acquiring firms in Europe and in the United States of $50 million to $100 million, a top official said on Monday.

Infosys BPO would also hire 1,200 people in the current financial year, the unit's chief executive, Amitabh Chaudhry, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

Infosys BPO to open delivery centre in US

Infosys BPO will set up a new delivery centre in the United States before the end of this financial year.

The $300 million back-office services wing of Infosys has eight delivery centres across the globe, including in Mexico, but it did not have a center in the US so far. Swaminathan Dandapani, senior vice-president and head of global service delivery, told Financial Chronicle that the US delivery centre was the next logical step.

North American clients account for 62 per cent of the BPO’s export revenues, while the European clientele accounts for 26 per cent. Dandapani said the US will be a key market as the economy has been improving and outsourcing again. The US centre will be followed by more delivery centres in the UK and rest of Europe as the outsourcing scene continues to improve.

“All customers are looking to keep the costs down as they have done over the past year. Hence, outsourcing has continued to be a priority,” he said. The recession has significantly helped Indian outsourcing organisations as customers turn to low-cost suppliers to cut costs.

Infosys BPO will also be hiring to fill up these delivery centres, although it was not immediately known how many will be recruited. The BPO has 17,500 people on its rolls, with 3,000 employees outside India.

Indian outsourcing outfits were under huge stress when US president Barack Obama said that there will be no tax breaks for American companies that would ship jobs abroad.

But that cloud seems to have blown over. And now, with companies like Infosys BPO opening centres in the US, local employment would be created driving out fears of outsourcing.

Infosys BPO registered revenues of $71.3 million with a net profit of $16.3 million for the September quarter. It plans to hire 3,000 to 3,500 people during the current financial year. The company will continue to hire at the entry level which constitutes 80-85 per cent of our total employee base.

Infosys to open 22 BPO centers in Andhra Pradesh

Infosys BPO Limited, a subsidiary of IT major Infosys, signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up rural BPO centres in 22 districts of the state.

Infosys BPO Limited CEO and Managing Director Amitabh Chaudhry and State Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty CEO T Vijaya Kumar signed an MoU in this regard in the presence of Chief Minister K Rosaiah.

"The first such BPO centre will be set up in the next six weeks which will provide a testing ground for this model. The capital expenditure and other details will be worked out subsequently," Chaudhry said adding that all the 22 districts would have one BPO each.

"Over 1,000 people would get direct employment through the rural BPO centers in the next 12-15 months. Statistics suggest that direct employment generates 1.4 times indirect employment as well," he added.

Noting that Andhra Pradesh would be the first state where Infosys would be setting such facilities, Chaudhary said, "We are in talks with some other states as well for similar ventures but I can't disclose the names at this stage".

Aditya Birla BPO to expand headcount to 1,000 in 5 months

Aditya Birla Minacs, a BPO venture of the Aditya Birla Group, has drawn up huge expansion plans in Kolkata. The company, which soft-launched its operations in the city in March and employs 450 people, will expand its headcount to 1,000 over the next five months.

And not just that. Aditya Birla Minacs, which figures among India’s top 10 BPOs, is preparing a business plan which will see its headcount in Kolkata growing to nearly 5,000 people. This includes setting up a string of BPO facilities across the city as well as some 6-to-10 centres in some of the smaller towns in the state. It also plans to add more verticals in Kolkata from its present focus on telecoms.

The company’s top brass has recently made a presentation of its expansion plans in West Bengal to the state IT department. "The company is quite bullish about Kolkata and plans to set up one of their largest operations here," said the West Bengal IT secretary, Mr Siddharth.

Confirming the development, Aditya Birla Minacs CEO Deepak Patel said the company is looking at the hub-and-spoke model to expand its operations in West Bengal.

"We plan to have the hub facility in Kolkata which will support a number of smaller BPO centres in smaller towns. The small town facilities will support regional language BPO activities. While we will add some 550-odd people by March 2010, eventually our Kolkata operations will accommodate up to 4,000-5,000 people," Mr Patel told ET.

Aditya Birla Minacs’ Kolkata facility undertakes voice-based BPO activities for the group’s telecom venture, Idea Cellular. "Within the telecom vertical, we will also foray into non-voice areas like finance and accounting in Kolkata. This includes more such projects from Idea Cellular. We may also undertake BPO projects for other group companies out of Kolkata," said Mr Patel.

The company is also bullish about allocating projects from some of its others clients into Kolkata. "We will soon expand the scope of our Kolkata operations into newer verticals like banking, insurance and financial services (BFSI), health, public sector and manufacturing," Mr Patel said.

Incidentally, Aditya Birla Minacs believes in leasing out space for its facilities. It has just taken some additional space on lease in the city’s tech hub at Salt Lake Sector V. "We are currently in the process of identifying more locations where we can set up our facilities. We are particularly attracted by the huge talent pool available in the state," said Mr Patel.

While Aditya Birla Nuvo holds 88.28% in Aditya Birla Minacs, the balance 11.72% is owned by Canadian private investment firm ReichmannHauer Capital Partners. The company employs some 6,000 people out of Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Aurangabad, Baroda and Kolkata. Another 6,000-odd people are employed in overseas facilities spread over the US, Canada, Europe and Philippines.

Tech Mahindra opens BPO unit in Chandigarh

Tech Mahindra, the country's fifth largest software exporter, said it has opened a BPO facility in Chandigarh. The facility focuses on BPO operations at present, and will provide other IT services and end-to-end customer support to both international and domestic clients later, Tech Mahindra said in a statement.

The campus will have 500 seats initially and another 900 seats are planned to be added by the end of November this year, it added.

"Chandigarh is known for its exceptional BPO and IT culture, infrastructure, local support from the government, availability of skilled manpower and low rate of attrition," Tech Mahindra Vice Chairman Vineet Nayyar said.

The company has facilities across Noida, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai.

"This fully operational facility is a new addition to Tech Mahindra's operations in the northern region and we look forward to servicing our esteemed clients across the globe from this new campus," he added.

BPO companies begin hiring again

After more than two quarters of no hiring, walk-in interviews for BPOs are back in the picture. Impacted by the global credit crunch, BPO firms had cut down the employees on the bench and frozen the hiring. Now, with the market witnessing positive signs of revival, walk-in interviews are back on the job sites and newspaper advertisements.

“Actions are back on track again and walk-in-interviews are happening as earlier. The downturn had impacted this segment, but it was not a major one,” Perry Madan, executive director, Elixir Web Solutions, told Financial Chronicle over the phone.

He said there has been a growth of around 15 per cent in the walk-in-interviews, which witnessed a negative growth during the downturn.

“Walk in interviews have started, but have not picked up as it was earlier before the downturn happened, as new projects are not coming from the US and Europe. Companies are now also looking at experienced people unlike earlier when even fresh pass-outs from colleges and schools were hired and given training,” Global Hunt director Sunil Goel said. He added that earlier it was a different game when people were just hired and given training for the processes. Karthik Shekhar, general secretary of union of ITeS professionals said that the there has been some hiring in BPO firms but the number of vacancies is relatively small compared to the mass hiring earlier. “Now we find hiring only for few experienced positions and the number of applicants is also huge. In certain cases, for 10-15 openings, there are more than 1,000 applicants,” Shekhar said.

However, there are few companies that have not been affected much and the walk-in-interviews are happening the same way as earlier. “During the downturn, the attrition rate reduced a bit as people stayed longer due to fear of losing jobs in newer companies. But, walk in interviews remained by and large similar, as we were not desperate for hiring more people,” Serco CEO Aditya Gupta said.

UBS in talks with Cognizant, Genpact to sell its BPO units

Switzerland-based bank UBS, which is looking to exit its captive business and knowledge process outsourcing units, is in advanced negotiations with leading IT firms Cognizant and Genpact, said four people familiar with the development. The deal is expected to be announced soon, they added.

UBS India Service Centre, or ISC, which has two offices in Hyderabad along with its Krakow (Poland) centre, is valued at close to $100 million (about Rs 480 crore at current exchange rates), according to an executive familiar with the transaction. The deal, if it were to eventually transpire, could also include a sweetener for the new owner in the form of a multi-year contract with a committed revenue of around $400 million.

If successful, this would be the second time a global bank would be hiving off its largely India-based BPO arm. In 2008, Citigroup sold two of its captive units — Citigroup Global Services to TCS for $505 million and Citi Technology Services to Wipro for $100 million.

Between Cognizant and Genpact, the former could likely bid more aggressively as “it has been hungry for an acquisition in the captive BPO space,” said an executive from a large advisory firm who is familiar with the businesses. Also, Cognizant could leverage on the process outsourcing business in the banking and financial services (BFS) space, he added.

Genpact and Cognizant declined to comment on the deal. Pramod Bhasin, president & CEO of Genpact, said in a text message: “No comments on any M&A type of rumours please.” In an e-mailed response to ET’s query, a UBS spokesman said: “UBS continually seeks to explore commercial opportunities in all jurisdictions in which it operates that have the potential to be of benefit to the company and its component businesses. However, UBS remains committed to all its activities in India.”

24/7 Customer set to hire 1,250 in FY10

BPO firm 24/7 Customer is looking to recruit over 1,250 people for its global operations in the next two quarters of this financial year. Bharathwaj V, the company’s chief marketing officer, told Financial Chronicle that the firm is increasing its headcount on the back of project ramp-ups by four to five clients and increased new business.

Of the 1,250 people to be hired, the company will hire up to 500 in India (in October-December quarter), 500 in Guatemala and 250-500 in the Philippines. Bharathwaj said that the new recruitments are mostly for operations, innovations lab and other functions at 24/7 Customer.

The firm has already hired 1,400 people so far in 2009, taking total headcount to 8,000 people. It also means that the firm has or is in the process of recruiting a total of 2,650 people, about one-fourth of total staff in just 15 months.

The Sequoia Capital-funded BPO major is stepping on the gas in terms of hiring following a brief lull after it transferred over 1,600 staff to former client Aviva in 2007.

In the last couple of months, BPO firms, especially in Bangalore have started to hire. Examples include Wipro BPO, Hinduja Global Solutions and Tesco.

Genpact, Intelenet in line for Unitech Wireless' BPO job

Unitech Wireless, where Telenor is the majority partner, is close to finalising business process outsourcing (BPO) contracts with two vendors — Genpact and Intelenet Global Services. Unitech Wireless is looking to launch mobile services across the country.

Sources familiar with the development said the company is expected to shortly sign contracts for the North with Genpact and with Intelenet for the South. Unitech is also in dialogue with the Essar group-promoted Aegis BPO for the East, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.

Unlike IT contracts, which are given out in bulk, BPO contracts start off on a smaller scale and increase as telecom operators bring in more subscribers. Unitech has already awarded the IT outsourcing contract to Wipro earlier this year in a deal that is reported to be around Rs 2,500 crore.

Unitech’s BPO contract is likely to start off with a commitment for about 400 seats for the North and an equal number for the South, while it is expected to be around 100 seats for the East, said one of the two people quoted earlier. “Unitech, like many other operators, will have BPO contracts with different vendors for different circles,” added the person.

Aegis and Intelenet declined to comment on the matter, while an e-mail sent to Genpact met with a similar response.

Importantly, both Aegis and Intelenet already cater to the BPO requirements of domestic telecom service providers. While Aegis has contracts with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular and Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Intelenet, through its domestic subsidiary Sparsh BPO Services, works for Vodafone-Essar, Idea and Aircel. To date, Genpact, however, has catered only to overseas customers.

Telecom has overtaken financial services as the top-revenue contributor to BPO firms in the domestic market. According to a recent study released by Ernst & Young, outsourcing revenues from the telecom sector in India are set to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31% to nearly $2 billion in 2012.

BPO for telecom is also a huge job creator, employing over 1.22 lakh people last year — a number that Ernst & Young has forecast will more than double to almost 3 lakh in 2012.

Satyam BPO to hire 300 employees

At a time when software firm Mahindra Satyam is rationalising its headcount, its BPO arm seems to be on a hiring spree with plans to recruit 300 employees by the next month.

The company has recently bagged a major contract from a domestic client for providing it back office support.

"To support the client we have already hired 700 employees in the last one month and will hire another 300 by the end of next month," Mahindra Satyam BPO CEO Vijay Rangineni said.

However, he declined to divulge the name of the new client or the deal size. According to sources, the new win is in the telecom space.

The total headcount of the company after the recruitment would stand at 2,900.

Though the parent firm Mahindra Satyam have a considerable presence in the domestic market, this is the first major win by Mahindra Satyam BPO in the domestic space.

Rangineni further said the company would now focus on the sizeable domestic market.

"Post the acquisition by Tech Mahindra, we now have a footprint globally and will leverage the strengths of Tech Mahindra wherever they are present," he said.

Mahindra Satyam BPO has one delivery centre each in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. The company, however, do not have a global delivery centre so far.