TransWorks plans overseas bases
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 12 November 2003, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Transworks, the BPO company owned by Aditya Birla group's Indian Rayon, may set up overseas operations in either South Africa or the Philippines . The firm has also finalised plans to invest $8 to $10 million in a third centre, to be set up in Bangalore . According to Prakash Gurbaxani, chief executive officer at TransWorks, the company is looking at the overseas centre in order to expand its delivery capabilities. Incidentally, the Philippines facility is host to about 2,000 to 3,000 Indian Rayon employees. TransWorks joins several other BPO operators including ICICI OneSource, in their look out for overseas bases. As part of its expansion, Gurbaxani said TransWorks would set up its third centre at Whitefield, near Bangalore. This expansion is expected to happen in two stages, with TransWorks aiming to go live at phase one (around 55,000 sq ft) in February 2004. TransWorks expects to hike its headcount to around 3000 soon. Currently, the operator has two centres across Mumbai and Bangalore, with around 1,800 employees. TransWorks primarily focuses on voice-based activities, getting as much as 85% of its revenues from this area. It now wants to widen the business mix (50:50) and raise the volume of work generated from transaction processing, the other important BPO activity. According to Mr Gurbaxani, a separate BPO head will be appointed to drive this initiative. Gurbaxani also said that TransWorks is also looking to expand its industry focus. It is currently focused on the financial services and tech support segment and is looking to get into areas such as travel and hospitality as well as leisure, according to him. The US is seen as a large market for the travel vertical, with around 40 to 50 airlines active in the country. While several areas such as retail, hospitality, travel and financial services, offer multi-billion dollar opportunities, it is important to consider the benefit to end customers before venturing into it. For example, the home mortgage industry in the United States is flourishing and therefore does not immediately need to turn to lower cost operators from India, Gurbaxani said. The company expects revenue to grow from $6 million last year to over $16 million this year. (SOURCE: ECONOMIC TIMES)

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