PeopleSoft to hire 700 for Bangalore
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 18 September 2003, 19:30 IST
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ANAHEIM: The company recently set up this center as a joint venture with Hexaware on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. The centre currently has a head count of 150 plus. Plans are to ramp this number up to 700 over the next three years, reports Economic Times, a business daily in India. Michael Gregoire, executive vice president, PeopleSoft Global Services, said that the company opted for a joint venture as a local partner was better suited to scan talent and take care of the modalities which are unique to the local market. The Bangalore centre does software development, support and implementation work. So far it has worked on 18 projects in areas ranging from configuration to conversion. PeopleSoft is clear that the Indian centre will not do low end work. “It should be on the same level as the centres in Sydney, Singapore and Tokyo going forward.” said Gregoire. As for doing business process outsourcing (BPO) work out of India, he said that their approach would be different. There are no immediate plans to do traditional BPO work out of India. “When the market for us to maintain the business for our customers in this segment takes-off, we might consider doing this out of India,” said Gregoire. A point endorsed by Murray Creighton, senior vice-president, Japan & Asia Pacific, PeopleSoft who said “India is very important for us especially in terms of its potential to provide support services to customers globally. There is a possibility that the capability of the centre would be expanded to provide hosting services in the future.” At present the support being provided out of India is mainly with regard to development and implementation. Gregoire said that PeopleSoft had plans to open centres in other parts of the world as well especially in Eastern Europe, in countries like Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic. A driving factor for this is the proximity to the European Union. “We need to invest in that market place,” he said. India is also a market of rising potential for PeopleSoft’s products. The company is increasing the investment it makes in infrastructure and services in the country for customer support and in expanding the services team, said Creighton. He said that PeopleSoft has two levels of activities in India: selling products in the local market place and the India Solutions Centre. The company is seeing increased traction with local, home grown companies and not just with MNC arms in the country for its products. India and China are racing to emerge as the third largest market for the company in the region after Japan and Australia. PeopleSoft which has direct presence in ten countries in the area has 1,400 customers in the region. (Source: ET)

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