Infosys: Value at home

Infosys Technologies intends to ramp up business in the domestic market. It recently set up an India-dedicated unit within Infosys BPO — its business process outsourcing arm. The order book has already begun to see action, inform company executives. The domestic BPO arm has won a Rs 250-crore BPO contract from the income-tax department and is soon going to sign a letter of intent for another government deal, says Infosys BPO CEO and Managing Director Amitabh Chaudhry.

Infosys has been active in the domestic market for some time now. It set up an India-dedicated IT services unit in October 2007. However, domestic business still contributes only about 1.3 per cent of its total revenue. With the recent offering the company is hopeful that its ability to deliver one-stop business services and solutions to local companies will shore up business in India.

India’s $1.6-billion (Rs 7,700 crore) domestic BPO market is a minnow compared to the $11-billion (around Rs 49,000 crore) BPO exports market. However, the former’s phenomenal 50 per cent growth rate witnessed during the last five years has attracted Indian and international IT majors like Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, IBM and MphasiS to this business. Infosys has only recently joined the fray.

Chaudhry, however, denies that Infosys is a late entrant. “The India business unit (set up in 2007) focused on IT services. After being in the market for some time, we think that this is a good time to launch BPO services. It (the foray) also comes from the confidence that we can now make reasonable margins from the domestic market,” he says.

To keep its cost low in the domestic segment, the new unit is looking to tie up with rural BPOs. These tie-ups could help the company save wage and real estate costs. “These players are a part of the deal so we bid along with these players,” reasons Choudhry.