Bangalore based Xchanging to open centre in China

Bangalore-based service provider, Xchanging, is set to open its first office in Chengdu, China, as a back-office management and operations in the next six months.
"Pending board approvals within a month, Chengdu office will be operational by end of this year or by the first quarter of next year," Xchanging Executive Director Nimish Soni told PTI.
"We are moving closer to our existing customers," he said, pointing to the Western companies which have operations in China.
The Chengdu office would also be providing supporting services, such as managing accounts and financing, to Japanese and Taiwanese customers as well as Chinese businesses operating in high cost areas of Beijing and Shanghai, he said.

The Chengdu office, which will start with 50 to 100 staff, will provide training to the recruitees at Xchanging's present operations in India, Singapore and Malaysia.
Soni expected the Chengdu office to double its staff strength in a year and saw the potential of building it to a 1,000-man strong back office operation over the next 3-4 years, supporting corporations operating in the Far East - China, Japan and Taiwan.

Going forward, Xchanging also plans to expand its Malaysia operations to 1,000-man over the next couple of years, based on the market demand and given that Asia was set to become the next major growth centre for global businesses.

Currently, Xchanging's Malaysia centre is managed by 350 people.
"Any Xchanging centre, as a large processing centre, should have at least a staff of 1,000 people," he stressed.
Soni, however, said that Xchanging faced challenges in recruiting quality manpower and management with strong leaderships to deal with customers, which comprises multi- national corporations and international banks.
Though there were options for further expansion, Soni expected Xchanging's centres in India, Singapore, Malaysia and China to manage the Asian operaitons in the coming years.
He projected Xchanging's Asian business growth at 20-25 per cent a year, the fastest within the group.
"It is only last year that we started providing business process services in Asia. We are doing banking, finance and accounting operations, for our customers. This is big for us," he said.

Comparatively, Xchanging has annual growths of 5 per cent in Europe and 10 per cent in the United States.
The London-listed Xchanging has an annual revenue of USD 1 billion.