Aegis aims to break into top 3 worldwide by FY15

Aegis, the outsourcing firm owned by Essar Group, is eyeing $1.5 billion in revenues by FY15 to break into the top three global BPO firms, a top official said.

"We will grow by 45-50% this fiscal to $1 billion by March 2012, and once we are in the billion-dollar club, the growth percentage will slowdown to around 15% every year," the company's Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Aparup Sengupta told PTI here.

By the end of FY15, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company's revenues will hit $1.5 billion, he said, adding it will catapult it into the top 3 BPO companies worldwide from the current sixth position.

Currently, Aegis employs 55,000 people in 10 countries, who handle calls in 55 languages, he said, adding that as the company grows, all the key numbers are expected to go up.

Answering a query on expansion plans, Sengupta said Aegis is in the process of setting up a 500-seat facility in the United Kingdom which will be operational by this August.

"Till now, we have been serving the UK market from India and Philippines, but considering the requirements of certain clients, we have decided to put up a floor in the UK," he said, declining to give a total capex on the project.

The unlisted company currently has a capacity of 38,000 seats and will be adding 3,000 to 5,000 seats yearly going ahead. This year the company plans to hire 10,000 employees, Sengupta said.

Aegis is comfortable with its current overall attrition rate of over 50%, added.

"We call it as optimal attrition, we need to have attrition in that range for the processes to run smoothly," he said.

In an experiment, the company is also working on aggregating a database of former employees.

"We are sure we will have over a million such 'alumnus' who have gone through Aegis in our six year journey and then we will see how to make use of the database," Sengupta said.

In another unique development, the company is exploring options to go beyond the traditional voice and data model to start offering video calling services to clients.

"You will have customer service associates from Aegis video call the customers of our clients. We feel there is a market for it. Clients in sectors like hospitality will be interested in it. We will launch the service soon," he said.