Showing posts with label BPO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BPO. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2009

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Wipro BPO to host Mega Job Fest in CT Group of Institutions

Wipro BPO, the BPO arm of global IT giant Wipro, and CT Group of Institutions have joined hands to host a Mega Job Festival for the youth of the region to explore a career opportunity in the fast growing BPO Industry.

The "Job Fest" will be held on August 22 and August 23 at the CT Group of Institutions. Announcing the launch of the Job Fest, Vikas Dua (Head - Campus Initiatives) of Wipro BPO said, "It is our privilege to join hands with CT Group of Institutions, one of India's most reputed education institutions, and offer career opportunities to the youth. We are always on the outlook to partner with quality institutes to meet our rapid growth of talent.

Wipro BPO provides the talent pool an opportunity to create a career in the fast growing BPO industry - where students can choose locations from across the country where we have centres".

Also, on the occasion, Charanjit Singh Channi, Chairman of CT Group of Institutions said "The association with Wipro BPO re-iterates our commitment to career-oriented education. We are pleased to become a platform for enabling youth to take up rewarding careers with such a leading organization."

Asked whether there was any adverse impact of the economic recession on BPO sector, Dua said that there was not much adverse impact on the BPO industry and rather the industry spread its wings.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

BPOs focus on $200 bn European market

The $200-billion IT services market in Europe is throwing up greener pastures for major Indian software services companies as new geographies show positive traction besides the traditional market of United Kingdom. Hitherto, UK had remained the key market for the Indian IT services majors like TCS, Infosys, Wipro—and even for Cognizant. It is estimated that more than three-fourth of these companies’ revenue in Europe actually comes from UK.

However, the current economic downturn is changing the contours for these companies in Europe with non-UK countries showing better traction. According to Jens Butler, principal analyst, IT services and sourcing group, Ovum, “The downturn has impacted the UK significantly more than most of Europe (except maybe Spain) and as such, discretionary spend has been reigned back substantially—which will impact the 25%-50 % growth rates they (Indian companies) have been experiencing to date.”

The investments made by these IT majors in countries outside of UK like Nordics, Germany, France and Switzerland are paying rich dividends for them now. For example, TCS in its latest quarterly results reveal that the contribution from continental Europe has marginally increased while it has actually declined in the UK. In the case of Cognizant, continental Europe (non-UK ) accounted for 43% of its revenue its European revenue, recording around 75% growth in 2008.

“In Europe, global sourcing of IT and BPO are relatively underpenetrated, more so in Continental Europe.... We continue to remain optimistic about the growth in Europe ,” said R Chandrasekaran, president and MD, Global Delivery, Cognizant.

“Certain country markets such as the Nordics and Germany that have been slowly moving towards more use of Indian offshore labour, have seen more momentum towards offshoring driven by a combination of the economic climate, the availability of key referenceable customers and the substitution of lower cost Indian labour to replace more expensive Western contractors,” The Bathwick Group principal Katy Ring said.

This shift has also got to do with the sizeable base of Indian IT majors in UK which is estimated to be around $3 billion and recording high growth rates in the future is expected to be very challenging.

Butler pointed out that “continental Europe is a less mature and smaller market for the Indian providers and as such, given the differing base size and experience , there is more likely to be above average growth in newer entry markets.”

BG Srinivas, head of Europe for Infosys, in a recent interview said that their revenue from smaller countries like Nordics and Switzerland is much higher than larger economies such as Germany and France.

Despite the heterogeneity of the European continent with differing cultures and languages, it is expected that this kind of a growth momentum is likely to be maintained in the near future.

Ring said: “Basically, we are seeing a time-lag effect as some country markets within Europe catch-up with the UK’s use of Indian service providers and so growth is likely to continue to be faster in Europe (from a smaller base) than in the UK.”

“The Indian vendors are not standing still and considering less traditional alternative revenue streams, be that from a service or geographic perspective,” Butler said.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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IT services companies look at BPO to soften recession impact

Source: EconomicTimes
A potential sale of India-based back office firm WNS Holdings could trigger consolidation in the business process outsourcing sector as IT services firms, knocked back by the global financial crisis, look to bolster their presence in the growing BPO market.

According to a media report last week, private equity firm Warburg Pincus was looking to sell its 50.12 percent stake in WNS, a move that would entail a change of control at the Mumbai, India based call-center operator.

IT services firms have thrived for years by winning contracts from international clients, helped by a large pool of English-speaking engineering workforce and cheaper wages.

But a downturn in the United States, which accounts for more than half of the sector's export revenue, and turmoil in the global financial sector have halted the scorching pace of growth.

"Perhaps because the IT offshore business slowed down in the recession, IT services firms are looking at other areas where they can make some good progress," Brandon Dobell, an analyst with William Blair & Co, said.

While most of the top Indian IT services firms such as Infosys Technologies and Wipro have BPO arms, some of their U.S. based counterparts such as Cognizant Technology Solutions and Affiliated Computer Services Inc could be interested in the sector.

A Cognizant spokesman refused to comment. Even some of the world's largest IT services firms such as IBM and Accenture have forayed into BPO services. In 2004, IBM acquired Daksh to create India's largest BPO firm.

Pure-play BPO firms such as WNS and EXLService Holdings, which largely provide services such as insurance claims processing, payroll management and customer support, are seen by analysts as possible takeover targets.

Sykes Enterprises Inc, Genpact Ltd and ICT Group could also be on the takeover radar.

"Strategically, it makes some sense. There is a lot of offshoring growth opportunities available in BPO, and lot of budget dollars that could be captured by acquiring one of these BPO players," said Joseph Vafi of Jeffries & Co.

A recent Nasscom-McKenzie report had projected BPO to be a $340 billion-$360 billion market opportunity by 2020.

"So, I would look at it as an opportunistic move to expand platforms," said Vafi, adding that companies such as Cognizant and Patni Computer Systems, which do not have a strong BPO platform, could look at BPO firms such as WNS.

In an indication of what lies ahead, Philippines-based BPO firm eTelecare Global Solutions Inc and Boston-based Stream Global Services Inc merged late last week to broaden offerings and geographic footprint.

China's leading IT outsourcing firm VanceInfo Technologies is also looking at fresh acquisitions to boost its presence in the backroom operations of the financial industry.

SOLID RESULTS, GREAT VALUATION
Although the financial crisis has robbed the BPO sector of some of its charm, the pace of decline has slowed due to a revival in insurance, mortgage financing, and transactions and claims processing.

WNS, whose key areas of operations are utilities and insurance, beat analysts' expectations in its June quarter with a 53 percent jump in adjusted net income, and said it is seeing a pickup in U.S. sales and expects profitability to improve.

BPO companies enjoy decent valuations as there are not many pure play BPO assets available. IT services companies with critical mass in pure play BPO are also few, analysts said.

The improvement in the BPO business and an impressive quarterly performance may help WNS get a good price, Jeffries' Vafi said.

WNS shares are up 147 percent in the last 6 months and have risen almost five fold since touching a year low in March.

WNS shares trade at 12 times forward earnings, compared to the Data Processing & Outsourced Services average of about 16 times.

"The recurring revenue of WNS...and its client base are pretty attractive. The IPO of the company was higher than what the stock is currently trading. So, Warburg Pincus could ask for a higher price," said Vafi.

TIME TO INVEST
When WNS responded to the deal chatter, saying the company got expressions of interest on possible change of control, it signaled a revival of deal aspirations for IT services firms, which have long refrained from sizeable acquisitions due to a challenging economy.

Improved visibility on customer actions and client budgets should now encourage IT outsourcing firms to get active on acquisitions, William Blair's Dobell said.

"The average CEO or CFO are probably a little bit more open to thinking about making acquisitions or making bigger bets on new business opportunities," he said.

"These offshore IT firms have large cash balances that will have to be deployed at some point," said Vafi.

Among other BPO stocks, Genpact shares have risen 51 percent, while shares of ExlService have gained 55 percent of their value in the last six months.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

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Cognizant to offer BPO services from Phoenix centre

IT major Cognizant today announced operational expansion of its Phoenix delivery center and that it has added BPO services to an existing portfolio of application development, application maintenance, testing, and related services.

Cognizant's Phoenix BPO center will initially provide claim processing services for one of the largest healthcare plans in the US, it said in a statement.

The company also said it expects to hire over 100 full-time professionals in the next 12 months, drawing talent from the local market and academic community.

As a result, Cognizant's overall presence at Phoenix will grow to about 400 full-time employees, it added.

"With this expansion, we are able to offer clients US- based delivery capability across all our major service offerings," Cognizant President and Chief Executive Officer Francisco D'Souza said.

Phoenix is one of Cognizant's six delivery centers in the US. Besides Phoenix, the company delivers BPO services from local, regional and global centers in the US, Eastern Europe, India, and China.
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Caretel eyes 300-seater London centre

Dalmiya Group BPO, Caretel is eyeing an acquisition of a 300-seater call centre in London. After the BPO firm received the license from the Department of Telecom (DoT) to operate in the international market, the company is planning to start its operations in the UK and the Philippines in the next couple of months.

Amit Roy, CEO, Caretel Infotech told Financial Chronicle that the company is in talks with a couple of call centres in UK offering services for the banking, financial services and insurance sector. “We are in talks with a couple of firms, but we have not yet finalised anything. Something conclusive is likely to happen within sometime,” Roy said. However, he declined to list the companies. “I will not be able to estimate the size of the deal at this point,” he said.

Caretel has been operating as a domestic BPO from its 25 centres across the country focusing on business verticals such as automobile, white goods, FMCG, IT, telecom, entertainment, finance and insurance. “Now we want to take our domestic market experience to the international space. The international market is different. We will be focusing on the BFSI segment in the international space, which is a reason we are eyeing an acquisition in this space,” he added.

At present, the company operates IT enabled services in 13 business cities of India including Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kanpur and Chandigarh.

Caretel has the experience of attending Kisan call centre as their first assignment. The Kisan call centre handles around 80,000 calls every month, offering agricultural guide and medical support to farmers. It has also bagged the Anti-ragging helpline project from the HRD ministry.

Friday, August 14, 2009

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Tech Mahindra opens BPO centre in Chandigarh

IT firm Tech Mahindra on Thursday said that it has opened a new centre in Chandigarh with an initial capacity of 1,000 seats.

The set up will focus on providing end-to-end customer service delivery to global telecom service providers, Tech Mahindra said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Spread across 15 acres, the centre would have about 1,000 seats in the initial ramp up, with 500 seats at start and another 500 by the end of September 2009.

The centre will cater to both international and domestic clients, the filing added.

"Chandigarh is a preferred destination for its BPO and IT culture, state-of-art infrastructure, local support from the government, availability of skilled manpower and low rate of attrition," Tech Mahindra President (Corporate Affairs) Sujit Baksi said.

The firm already has a centre in Chandigarh and the new centre would be equipped with world class infrastructure. The firm also has BPO centres in Kolkata, Noida, Pune and Chennai and two overseas centres in Belfast and New Castle.

"This centre allows us to spread our operations in Northern India in a big way and we are keen to tap the local talent pool in this region to make this centre a major hub," Baksi added.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

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Infosys BPO bags 5-year T-Mobile UK deal

Infosys BPO, the back-office services arm of India's Infosys Technologies Ltd, said on Tuesday it had won a five-year outsourcing deal from mobile operator T-Mobile UK.

Infosys BPO has been engaged by T-Mobile UK to support several core processes for their finance directorate which cover customer finance, commercial finance and accounting (F&A), and procurement operations, Infosys BPO said in a statement.

“Our strong F&A capabilities combined with our understanding of the telecom industry helped us win this account,” said Gopal Devanahalli, vice president and head (Communications, Media and Entertainment), Infosys BPO.

Tim Spence, head of Customer Finance, T-Mobile UK, said, “We were keen to partner with a company that possessed a good understanding of our requirements and business needs.”

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. T-Mobile is one of the world's largest mobile operators with more than 125 million customers worldwide and about 16.7 million customers in the UK itself.

Monday, August 3, 2009

NASSCOM's Best BPOs list

As a part of the findings of its annual survey on the performance of the Indian IT-BPO services sector for FY08-09 and outlook for FY09-10, NASSCOM released the annual rankings for the Top 10 BPO rankings for FY08-09. NASSCOM also released Top employers of Indian IT services sector for FY08-09.

The NASSCOM survey estimates that the IT-BPO export revenues will grow by 4-7% to reach $48-50 billion in FY09-10.

1. Genpact
Genpact provides a wide range of services, including Finance & Accounting, Collections and Customer Service, Insurance, Supply Chain & Procurement, Analytics, Enterprise Application, IT Infrastructure and Management.

Genpact manages complex processes in multiple geographic regions, delivering its services from a global network of more than 35 operations centers in 12 countries.

2. WNS Global Services
WNS delivers the entire spectrum of business processes – from shared back office processes to industry-specific front and middle office processes, all the way to complex, actionable research and analytics.

3. IBM Daksh
In April 2004, IBM Corporation acquired Daksh e-Services to serve as a global hub to manage business processes for clients across the world.

With 25 service delivery centers in India and the Philippines, IBM Daksh is an integral part of IBM's BPO/BTO delivery network around the world.

4. Wipro BPO
In 2002, Wipro took a quantum jump in the BPO services by acquiring the then Spectramind. Wipro BPO Solutions, complements the services offered by Wipro Technologies, making it one of the largest BPO service players.

5. TCS BPO
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match.

TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development.

6. Firstsource Solutions Ltd
Firstsource is a global provider of business process management services. It offers a wide range of services across banking and financial services, telecommunications and media and the healthcare industry.

Firstsource provides services throughout the customer lifecycle, including customer acquisition, customer care, billing and collections, transaction processing and business research and analytics.

7. Aditya Birla Minacs
Aditya Birla Minacs provides customized business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions focused on five core areas of capability: customer relationship management/contact centers, integrated marketing services, knowledge and process outsourcing, finance and accounting outsourcing and IT.

The company combines expertise in these areas to improve revenue, customer service, and operating margin for Fortune 500 clients.

8. Aegis Ltd
Aegis is one of the fastest growing BPO companies in India. An Essar Group enterprise, Aegis offers the benefits of the global delivery model, strong financial strength, deep domain expertise, comprehensive and flexible solutions offerings, and a rich international talent pool.

9. Infosys BPO
Infosys BPO is an end-to-end outsourcing services provider. It address business challenges through its integrated IT and business process outsourcing solutions.

Infosys BPO is a global company with 12 delivery centers across the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe and India.

10. HCL BPO
HCL BPO, a division of HCL Technologies Limited started its venture early in 2001 and is now a dominant player in the BPO field drawing revenue of $232.15 million. With over 11,400 professionals operating out of India, UK and USA, HCL BPO runs 21 delivery centres. HCL BPO offers 24X7 multichannel, multilingual support in eight European languages.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

American Express may sell a part of its BPO unit

American Express is looking to sell a slice of its back-office operation in India, at least three people with knowledge of the plan said, putting it on track to join a long list of overseas firms, that have shed their captive business process outsourcing (BPO) units in the country.

A portion of the back-office operation providing travel-related services for its international clients is being hived off, and talks have started to sell this piece of the business, one person told ET, but declined to divulge details. Another person privy to the plan said the move is a precursor to the eventual sale of the entire BPO unit.

The second person said the financial and travel services provider may even divest some stake in the BPO unit to induct a partner to manage the operation. Industry experts estimate the unit could be valued at around $300 million (Rs 1,500 crore). An AmEx spokeswoman said: “We can’t comment on market speculation or rumour.”

AmEx’s BPO unit in India is a captive one. It caters only to the bank’s own clients, providing back-office support covering travel-related services, credit cards, accounting, customer care and related processes for the company’s worldwide operations. AmEx has never publicly announced the number of people it employs in India, but those familiar with its business put its headcount in the country at around 7,000. The travel service centre, for which it is looking for a buyer, employs around 500.

Late last year, American Express said it had laid off “less than 100 employees” at its BPO in Gurgaon near Delhi. AmEx also outsources work to several local BPOs and software vendors in India. Its tiny banking operation in India was acquired in 2007 by Standard Chartered as part of a global deal. If American Express sells its BPO unit, it will be following in the footsteps of those such as Aviva, GE, British Airways and Conseco, all of whom decided it was cheaper to outsource the work to specialist providers of back-office and customer care services.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Genpact to bid for UID project

India’s largest business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, Genpact, plans to bid for the union government’s Unique Identity (UID) project and is likely to enter a tie-up with IT players who can work on the hardware aspect.

“Other than the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment, government is a key sector for Genpact in India. We will be focused more on the process optimisation aspect than on the IT. But since there is a small aspect of hardware involved in the government deals, we think we are capable of handling this, as well as get into tie-ups if required,” said Harpreet Duggal, Senior Vice President and Business Leader India, Genpact.

The NYSE-listed BPO forayed into the domestic market nine months ago and has already signed four customers from the banking and finance and travel segments. The company is in the final stages of signing three to four deals. It serves customers from its centres in Jaipur and Hyderabad and has plans to further expand into tier-II cities.

As a part of its strategy to expand in the domestic market, Duggal said the company will introduce its international learning to the market and the operations would also be different from its international operations. “In total, we have 1,000 people working on the domestic market. This includes the sales and marketing. But we will leverage our talent base for winning market share in India,” said Duggal.

Like its international focus, Genpact will focus on BFSI, telecom, healthcare and government. Duggal further stated: “Small and medium enterprises (SME) will be another focus area. We think a lot of hosted solutions that Genpact has in the finance and accounting space and healthcare can be used in the domestic market also.”

Mudit Saxena, Senior VP and Business Leader heading the BFSI focus said that is not a driver in India for firms to outsource. “Rather, the discussion that we have been having with some of the banks are on outcome-based models. And a shift from fixed to variable cost,” he added.

The Nasscom-McKinsey Perspective 2020 report says the domestic outsourcing opportunity is expected to expand from $26 billion in 2008 to $90-100 billion by 2020, a compounded annual growth rate of 11 per cent. Wherein, BFSI and public services will account for 40 per cent of the addressable market. Among the business services, call centres, BFSI non-voice services and finance and accounting (F&A) will comprise 55 per cent.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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Infosys opens BPO branch in Philippines with Cisco

Infosys BPO Ltd., a business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of Infosys Technologies Ltd., has announced the recent opening of its first BPO branch in the Philippines. This new center offers collaboration technologies from Cisco .

Such technologies include the so-called, “Unified Contact Center” solution to deliver intelligent call routing; call treatment; network-to-desktop computer telephony integration, also known as “CTI” and multichannel contact management over an IP infrastructure.

According to Madhusudan Menon, center head, Infosys Philippines, "Through this project, Infosys BPO Philippines may emerge as one of the largest Cisco Unified Contact Center implementations by the end of the year."

This new branch extends the global relationship between Infosys BPO and Cisco, which got its start in India in 2002 and now includes six geographic delivery centers throughout the world.

Monday, July 20, 2009

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TCS says aims $3 bn back office revenue in 5 yrs

Tata Consultancy Services, India's top software services firm by sales, on Saturday said it was aiming to grow its back office services revenue to $3 billion in five years.

The company's revenue from the segment, also known as business process outsourcing, was $615 million in the last fiscal year that ended March 31. "We have an ambitious goal ... the market opportunity is clearly there," N Chandrasekaran, chief operating officer, told reporters. Back office services contributed about 11 percent to TCS's total revenue in the June quarter.

But Chandrasekaran declined to forecast how much the segment would contribute to TCS's overall revenue in five years.

TCS plans to recruit 1,500-2,000 employees, primarily in India, to ramp up its back office services business over the next 12 months, he said. Chandrasekaran said margins in back office services were a little lower than information technology services.

TCS, which published its June quarter results on Friday, beat forecasts with a 22 percent rise in quarterly profit and said the business environment remained weak and there was pressure on fees due to the global economic downturn.

Asked whether the company faced pricing pressures in the back office segment as well, Chandrasekaran said: "It's a common thing."

Friday, July 17, 2009

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Tech Mahindra opens BPO centre in Kolkata

IT firm Tech Mahindra on Wednesday said it has opened a BPO centre in Kolkata with the initial capacity of 1,000 seats.

The facility would focus on providing customer service delivery to telecom service providers and primarily be servicing Reliance Communications' operations in the first phase, the company said in a statement.

The Kolkata centre would cater to other clients in the future, it added. The centre would have about 1,000 seats in the initial ramp up with 500 seats coming up in end July 2009 and another 500 in the end August 2009.

The firm already has centres in Noida, Chandigarh, Pune and Chennai and two overseas centres in Belfast and New Castle.

Tech Mahindra President (Corporate Affairs) Sujit Baksi said: "Tech Mahindra has always expanded in major cities around India to leverage the availability of local skilled staff. This centre allows us to spread our operations in Eastern India in a big way and we are keen to tap the local talent pool in this region to make this centre a major hub that will service other telecom service providers in this region as well."
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BT to take back 2,000 Desi jobs to UK; more cuts likely

IT majors Infosys and HCL could bear the brunt of BT’s decision to take back 2,000 call centre services jobs from India to its home base in the UK this year.

BT’s Chief Executive, Mr Ian Livingston, had revealed the plan on Wednesday in response to a question asked by a shareholder at the group’s annual general meeting.

When contacted a BT spokesperson told Business Line, “BT Retail can confirm it is reducing its reliance on third party call centre staff in India. By next year, approximately 4,000 less people will be contracted in India than was the case in early 2008.

“Much of this reduction is due to improved customer service, which means that fewer support staff are required. “Some work will however be moved back to the UK and given to full-time BT employees affected by cuts elsewhere in these challenging times.

“BT has a responsibility to find work for its permanent workforce and this is just one measure it is taking to protect its direct workforce,” he said.

No quality issues
BT said that the move to recall jobs was not because of quality issues. BT sources in India said that while 2,000 jobs have already been taken back last year another 2,000 call centre seats will be reduced this year.

Impact on Indian cos
They said that Infosys and HCL would be the ones losing out on the contracts.

Revenues from BT have more than halved for Infosys over the past six quarters as the telecom firm has reduced volumes and also due to the adverse impact of cross currency movements.

For the latest quarter, BT accounted for about 4.5 per cent of Infosys’ revenues against a high of 10.3 per cent in quarter-ended March 2008.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Tech Mahindra said: “We do not comment on specific customer engagement. We remain a strategic partner with BT across multiple service offerings.” Tech Mahindra currently enjoys committed business worth over $2 billion from BT.

The announcement is unlikely to impact Tech Mahindra as of now since BT is a major shareholder in the city-based company, sources said. However, it may be noted that BT has been looking to sell its 31 per cent stake in Tech Mahindra for some time now.

Of late, there have been numerous examples of companies returning customer service functions to domestic locations.

The world’s largest airline, Delta Airlines announced in April 2009 that it would close its contact centre in India and return these functions to locations back home in the US. Similar centres in South Africa and Jamaica were not affected by this move, according to a report from AT Kearney.

In a similar move, Dell is now offering a premium technical support subscription that guarantees American customers they can talk to customer service representatives in the US as opposed to India.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Aegis close to acquiring South Africa's CCN for Rs 90 cr

Aegis, the BPO arm of the Essar Group, is close to acquiring South Africa-based firm Call Centre Nucleus (CCN) for about Rs 90 crore (ZAR 150 million). This is in line with the Group's intention to expand its business in the African continent. When contacted, Aegis spokesperson said, "We keep looking at growth opportunities. However, it is not our policy to comment on any specific issue."

Earlier this month, Essar Global Chairman Shashi Ruia had said that the company was looking at acquisitions in Africa. Aegis BPO has acquired 12 firms worldwide in the last three years. Latest to come into its fold is an Australian BPO service provider, UCMS Group, which it bought for AUD 45 million this year.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

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Infosys scouting for BPO firm in Canada

Infosys BPO Ltd, the business process outsourcing (BPO) operation of Infosys Technologies, is looking at raising its headcount in the Americas through inorganic growth. The company is understood to be scouting for a strategic acquisition in the $40-60 million range either in Canada or the US, according to industry sources.

"Infosys is looking at acquiring a small or mid-sized company, specialised in providing mortgage or insurance BPO services to grow faster in Canada. This will help speed up verticalisation efforts currently on at Infosys BPO. The mortgage sector in Canada has seen a number of promising start-ups, as well as established mid-sized companies coming up over the years. Infosys BPO is looking at further growth in the key mortgage and insurance verticals in Canada, where a strategic acquisition will boost the scope for higher knowledge work, like financial research and analytics," sources said.

The BPO arm has a stated focus on transaction-based processing work, particularly in the F&A (finance & accounting) software space. Mortgage solutions have emerged as a key vertical for the BPO operations.

An Infosys BPO spokesperson declined to comment on any acquisition plans or time-frame for the deal. The company is presently in its self-imposed silent period as a run-up to announcing its first quarter financial results on July 10.

Infosys has said that it will increase its hiring in overseas markets, including the US and Canada. In the current fiscal, the company plans to hire about 1,000 people in overseas locations, including the US, which is more than double that of last year's figure.

The company is not keen on making acquisitions in India, as it is capable of growing organically quite fast in the country. Chief Executive Officer S Gopalakrishnan had said at the company's annual general meeting in Bangalore on June 21 that Infosys saw a requirement for acquisitions more outside India, where it faced challenges in adding employees.

To tackle pricing pressures from clients in the US and Canada, Infosys Technologies has been increasing its focus on new engagement models, such as platform-based BPO services, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Finacle to maximise the value delivered to its clients.

The BPO business of Infosys posted gross revenues of $316.2 million (Rs 1,520 crore) in the fiscal year to March 31, 2009 and employed 17,398 people at the end of the fiscal.

The BPO arm is presently recruiting from smaller towns like Mangalore and Mysore, as part of its focus on the domestic market and to capitalise on lower rentals and employee costs. It is also looking at tying up with rural BPO outfits to save on real estate costs. The company had last month set up a dedicated domestic market arm, with an eye on the $1.6-billion domestic BPO market.

Infosys Technologies, which had cash reserves of Rs 9,695 crore as on March 31, had made two successful acquisitions during its nearly three decades of existence. Earlier acquisitions were that of Australian firm Expert Information Technologies for close to $23 million in 2003, and the buyout of Philips' global BPO operations in 2007.

Monday, July 6, 2009

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HCL BPO to offer remote technical support globally

HCL BPO, the business process outsourcing arm (BPO) of HCL Technologies, the New-Delhi based information technology services provider, shortly plans to offer remote technical support services to the global small office-home office (Soho) market, whose current size is estimated anywhere between Rs 960 crore and Rs 1,440 crore.

“The one-time solutions include virus and spyware removal, printer/scanner support, software installation and support, wireless support, internet connectivity issues, automated data backup, among others,” Gautam Saha, Head-Technical Support Services, HCL BPO, told Business Standard. The company will provide, according to Saha, both one-time incident based and subscription-based services. The monthly subscription would be around Rs 1,000 a month and around Rs 10,000 annually.

Technical support services (TSS) contributes around 31 per cent to HCL BPO’s revenues and is expected to grow by 50 per cent in two years, with these additional, platform-based, remote service offerings. There are more than 3,500 employees working in this division.

To provide remote technical support to homes in the US and Europe, HCL BPO is in talks with four broadband service providers in the US, and two in Europe, for white labelling (offering clients a branded service) HCL Virtual CIO services, to provide a single-stop shop for all IT-related products in a home/Soho environment.

For smartphone troubleshooting, for instance, it is in talks with three US-based telecom firms and two UK-based firms for whitelabelling this service. It is also in the final stages of talks with a US-based tool company to enable remote control of smartphones. The company is also tying up with big retail chains in the US to launch HCL service cards. through which these services can be taken to the consumer segment.

However, these services will be launched for the US and European markets first, said Saha, and would be gradually taken to the Indian market.

Friday, July 3, 2009

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TechMahindra BPO to hire 2,000 for Kolkata unit

Tech Mahindra’s business process outsourcing arm is looking to hire around 2,000 employees over the next 3-4 months as the company has recently signed a few deals.

“The BPO arm contributes to around 5-7 per cent of Tech Mahindra’s total revenues. We target to reach 10 per cent of the total revenues in the next 18 months,” said S V Sriram, head of BPO operations, Tech Mahindra BPO. The firm will hire mostly in its new Kolkata facility.

Tech Mahi-ndra has over 4,000 employees at the moment spread over four other centres in Noida, Pune, Chandigarh and Chennai. The company, which primarily services the telecom sector, is not looking to diversify its business because of a prob-able future merger with Mahindra Satyam’s BPO, which may happen after 6-8 quarters, said Sriram.

When asked if the Satyam BPO’s employees in telecom vertical would be taken into Tech Mahindra’s BPO, Sriram said the company does not have any such plan in the immediate future. “Except for a few top-level changes at the entity level, there hasn’t been any other change.”

TechM’s BPO gets around 80 per cent of its revenues from customers who have adopted transa-ctions-based pricing model. Besides BT, the company has three other customers in Europe, two customers in North America and four domestic customers.
“BPO sector is recovering faster than the IT sector,” said Sriram. “The deal pipeline looks healthy. We closed two large deals this quarter, one from a first-time outsourcer.”

Monday, June 29, 2009

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Africa a call center alternative to India?

Some US lawmakers and think tanks believe that Africa can be a much cheaper alternative to call centers in India. The issue came up briefly for discussion during a Congressional hearing on US-Africa Trade relations. "Is there any possibility of having call centers in Africa, in your opinion?" asked Congressman Donald Payne, at the joint hearing convened by Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

"I don't know whether that has been explored," said Karen Tandy, senior vice president, public affairs and communications, Motorola. "However, it makes sense that it is certainly possible in Africa," she said. "There are a tremendous number of entrepreneurs springing up throughout the continent that we are also investing and giving grant money to and technology, so there is no reason why a call center couldn't be part of the future in Africa," Tandy said.

"I would echo that," observed Greg Lebedev, adviser tothe president US Chamber of Commerce and Chairman, Center for International Private Enterprise. Africa has a wonder resource of English language speakers, he added. "Certainly, there is some market maturation in India right now and one could argue there might be cost-competitive advantages in Africa. So I think that, to your point and to Tandy's point, that's a sensible area in which to look," Lebedev said.

Tandy and Lebedev were responding to a question posed by Congressman Payne. "Are there any possibilities for that kind of -- even, why not have a call center in Ghana, where they speak English, or Kenya?" he asked. "You can probably less detect it than the Indians saying I'm Sam, you know, with this "I am Sam." But then I live down the street, so to speak," Payne said.
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New GE centre adds more than 1,100 jobs in Michigan

General Electric, the world’s biggest maker of power-generation equip-ment and jet engines, opened a research centre that may add more than 1,100 jobs in Michigan, the state with the highest US unemployment rate. The Advanced Manu-facturing and Software Technology Centre will be about 40 km outside Detroit, the Fairfield, the company said. It will take advantage of a pool of out-of-work engineers and scientists as the US auto industry’s centre shrinks and GE develops more efficient products.

GE, also the world’s biggest maker of locomo-tives and medical-imaging machines, said it will invest about $100 million to build the new site and benefit from more than $60 million in state incentives over 12 years. “We’ve found Michigan to be aggressive and a good partner,” chief executive officer Jeffrey Immelt said in a news conference. “We view this as a long-term commitment. We’ve looked at this downturn as a way to launch more investment faster.”

The centre, which will create all new, Michigan-based jobs, will “definitely” include renewable energy components like wind turbines, said Immelt, who is on president Barack Obama’s board of economic advisers. GE is the biggest wind-turbine maker in the US. Existing space on the site will be used for software and health-care information-technology development, GE said. Immelt said the US must be a “strong exporting country” to help speed recovery from the economic slump.