Reuters to shift data centre jobs to India

Reuters, the UK-based global information company for financial services, media and corporate markets, has decided to shift jobs from its London and New York data centres to Bangalore.

Nearly 150 existing jobs that include roles such as market and data analysts will now be shifted to Bangalore. Along with local recruitments, Reuters intends to be 350-strong by December 2004.

Currently, the company has already recruited 35 people after having recently taken up an office space of 60,000 sq.ft.

Looking at the benefits of starting their data centre operations in Bangalore, Reuters officials estimate further expansion to the tune of 600 people by end of December 2005.

Announcing this strategic decision to media persons, Anand Sudhakar Khare, human resources manager, South Asia Human Resources, Reuters India Pvt Ltd, said, "The data centre operations in Bangalore is more front-end in nature. It is most critical to Reuters operations worldwide. Besides creating data, these analysts will also be responsible for data management and services."

Besides New York and London, Reuters has similar data centres in Tokyo, Sydney and Singapore. Without revealing the cost of setting up this centre, Justin Abel, global head of data operations, Reuters America Inc., said, "It will take only 40 per cent of the total cost of setting up similar centres elsewhere. The analysts at this centre will work on corporate data, equity and fixed income information."

On whether this will result in job losses in New York and London, Abel said, "These roles will 'disappear' from onsite locations, but those employees will be relocated within the organisation."

While financial knowledge will be a key parameter for hiring people, the company is also keen on technical knowledge and soft skills.

Typically, Reuters will look out for graduates, post-graduates and freshers with a minimum 3 years of experience. The team in Bangalore will also work with their counterparts from across the world.

Reuters is 3400-strong, of which nearly 1,000 people work for the data centre. The Bangalore centre alone will have one-third of its total data centre staff by the end of this year.