US BPO firm plans expansion in India
Tuesday, 09 March 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Despite the growing backlash in the West over shipping of job contracts overseas, a US-headquartered business process outsourcing (BPO) firm plans to ramp up the company's operations in India in the months ahead. vCustomer Corporation, a Seattle-based company with processing centres in India, plans to double the number of professionals as well as look at the possibility of setting up another facility as part of its expansion strategy. "We know there is business growth coming in the near future and therefore we have decided to significantly boost our capacity in India," said Sanjay Kumar, chief executive officer of vCustomer Corporation. "Currently, we employ around 3,200 people and we are looking at doubling that number by the end of the current year," Kumar told IANS. "We may also set up another facility at one of our existing locations or in a new city to cope with the growth in the business. We are in talks with some southern and eastern Indian governments regarding this." Founded in 1999 by Kumar, a former Microsoft professional, and funded by investors like Warburg Pincus, WestRiver Capital and Oki Developments, vCustomer runs three centres in Delhi, with a fourth one to be unveiled in Pune in a month's time. Kumar, who is based at the company headquarters in Seattle, said the Pune centre would employ 500 professionals in the initial phase and the number would be doubled in a phased manner over the next six to nine months. The company provides technology support and handles queries over telephone from customers of leading retail stores in the US. India's vast pool of English-speaking manpower, coupled with its educational system and training programmes, have helped transform the country into a global outsourcing superpower. The rapidly growing IT industry has virtually turned the country into an electronic housekeeper to the world, taking care of a host of routine activities for multinational giants. India's IT market has grown from $1.73 billion in 1994-95 to $16.5 billion in 2002-03, accounting for three percent of gross domestic product last year. But as global recession tightens its grip and job losses in many economies become a norm, India's cost-effective software army is increasingly becoming the envy of foreign lands. In a recent move, the US Senate last week backed a measure to restrict shipping of jobs to overseas destinations like India. If enacted into a law, the decision would ban moving of government contracts outside the US. Kumar, however, said the backlash in the West against outsourcing would not inhibit the growth of vCustomer, as his company offered solutions to customers that help them cut costs and become more efficient. "The quality of service being provided by companies out of India is substantially higher from customers' point of view. Companies are going to have to do it (ship jobs to low cost destinations)," he added. vCustomer, which became profitable in 2001, hopes to log revenue growth of between 30 and 35 percent over the next few years. The company is also looking at acquiring a BPO company in the US as it seeks to expand its customer base overseas and boost service delivery capability. "We are looking at a company with a revenue base of around $30 million to $50 million and with a strong customer base."
Source: IANS
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