24/7 Customer to increase staff by 50%

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: 24/7 Customer plans to increase its staff strength by 50 percent to 3,000 by December. The $2.3 billion back-office sector in India is booming as multinational companies outsource business functions such as customer relations, accounting, claims processing and human resource management to cheaper locations. "We have increased our hiring targets to take advantage of an increase in business," human resources chief at the Bangalore-based 24/7 Customer Pvt Ltd, GV Giridhar told a leading news agency. He said the three-year-old company was setting up a 250-seat centre in Hyderabad. "The facility is almost ready and we will begin hiring staff for this unit from September," he said. The firm, reported the agency, had raised $22 million in July, mainly from leading US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, a founding investor in companies such as Apple Computer Inc and Yahoo Inc. Firms such as 24/7 Customer have been scouting for funds to expand operations and grow through acquisitions in a sector that has attracted software services exporters including Wipro Ltd and Infosys Technologies Ltd. Global giants such as Dell Inc and HSBC have also set up large service centres in India to tap the country's large pool of low-cost graduates and engineers.