NEW DELHI: Patni plans to add 2,000 employees to its 6,000-strong global workforce in 2003, its senior vice-president, sales and marketing Mrinal Sattawala was quoted as saying in the American City Business Journal. The company's goal is to improve an outsourcing relationship with its overseas clients by giving customers more local interaction. Sattawala explained that "in order to provide clients the full spectrum of services and in order to properly manage an offshore process as well as to add to the industry and ... expertise required to provide customers with a full (product), more local expertise is also required". US is Patni's largest marketplace, and close to 80 per cent of the company's revenue comes from the US. In May this year, Patni acquired The Reference Inc., a 44-employee Boston financial services IT firm, for a consideration of $7million, which will spearhead its financial services IT practice. Gartner Research in a report said the deal will benefit Patni customers as it will likely provide a better "global delivery model". With this acquisition, Patni now has an office in Boston office. Patni currently employs about 400 people in Massachusetts, 120 of whom are spread between its US headquarters in Cambridge and a Woburn development-and-sales centre opened a year ago. As part of the expansion, Patni is likely to acquire other companies soon, potentially in Massachusetts, depending on its needs over the coming months, Sattawala hinted. Currently, Patni's hiring will mainly be focused in countries where it has a client customer base. Patni also has sizeable operations in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe and Japan. Patni's main BPO facility is located in Noida. The company also said in its Website that its BPO facility at Pune will be operational soon. The company's revenue is expected to grow "a little bit north of 25 per cent this year" to $240 million in 2003, Sattawala said. In 2002, the company earned $188 million.