ValueLabs aims at $14m revenues

To increase headcount by 600 this fiscal

City-based ValueLabs, which offers software services, quality assurance (QA) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), is targeting revenues of $14 million for the current financial year.

The company is looking at second-tier cities like Visakhapatnam for its future expansion programmes.

The company has also announced plans to ramp up its headcount in phases from the current 450 to 2,000 by October 2006. It will recruit over 600 people during the current financial year.

Of the 450 existing personnel, 100 are involved in software services, while the rest carry out tech support services and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) activity.

Arjun Rao, chief executive officer of ValueLabs, told a press meet that the company registered $5,283,426 revenue for 2003-04.

The company has been recording a 70 per cent growth in both revenue and headcount since its inception in 1997 and the current revenues crossed the $10 million mark, he said. The company has set an ambitious target of clocking $40 million revenue by 2006, he said.

The software services at the company comprise developing web-based applications. The company would soon foray into the embedded applications segment, Rao said.

Software services accounted for 75 per cent of the revenue during the last financial year. KPO consists of business process outsourcing, market research, financial and insurance services etc.

According to Rao, ValueLabs' operations, being carried out in 40,000 sqft space in two locations in the city, would be moved into a 1.5 lakh sqft facility by June 2005.

The centre would have state-of-the-art quality assurance and development labs with high bandwidth and triple redundant internet connectivity. The company earmarked $7 million for the new centre which would accommodate 1,500 people.

ValueLabs recently set up its US office in Atlanta. The company plans to spend around $1 million on its US operations. It has been chosen as the 'Gold Sponsor' for a prestigious BPO conference 'BPO Connections and OutsourceWorld' to be held in New York on October 5-7.

Rao said ValueLabs had been consistently attracting top talent from the industry, even as it kept the attrition rate of the company at below five per cent.

It roped in Paul Larson from 24/7 Customer Inc to head its sales force in the US. Larson was responsible for the growth of 24/7 from a 30-member company into a over 4,000-strong company. During his tenure, 24/7 saw its revenues zooming from $300,000 to $35 million.

Larson said that his main focus would be to leverage the existing human and other resources in the company to grow the company's business exponentially. The company at present has 22 major clients and it added seven new clients in the last four months.