US IT firm opens Indian subsidiary, BPO centre

Friday, 12 December 2003, 20:30 IST
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KOLKATA: The US-based XMLstar has opened an Indian subsidiary that will target the Asia-Pacific market with its proprietary products and set up a business process outsourcing (BPO) centre here. The $17-million firm that specialises in portal solution has technology alliances with some of the biggest names in IT such as Microsoft and Oracle. "We will market our in-house products and services and focus on domestic and off-shore BPO activities," XMLstar India CEO and managing director Supratim Sen told IANS. The company hopes to break new grounds in the Asia-Pacific market and the Gulf region, particularly with its unique portal solution product that offers language services in 65 tongues. "We want to be in Japan, Singapore, China, (South) Korea and Dubai within a year," said Sen, who is a director on the board of the United Bank of India. XMLstar also offers specialised services in strategy, global marketing and expansion, software, IT networking and infrastructure, web operations and online customer support. XMLstar India will begin its BPO operations from a 100-seater call centre in Kolkata, which is emerging as a favoured destination for BPO/IT-enabled services (ITES) businesses because of soft factors like culture and demography. "The cost and attrition rates are low in Kolkata compared to other IT hubs. The city is going to be the future destination of BPO/ITES businesses," Sen said. He said the parent company was already in talks with clients in the US and the European Union for BPO contracts, adding that he had already closed a deal with a big corporate house. BPO/ITES businesses are expected to drive India's IT sector's target of revving up annual revenues of around $80 billion by 2008, according to National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) figures. 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 India's gross domestic product last year.
Source: IANS
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