24/7 Customer's own solutions to drive business

1st BPO firm to get patent; to open 2 more centres

24x7 Customer, an independent third party standalone BPO player backed by Sequoia Capital, aims to take a solution-led approach as it prepares for the next phase of its journey. The first player in the BPO space to win a US patent for its customer contact management system recently, 24/7 Customer derives about 10 per cent of its revenues by using the solutions built at its innovation lab located in Bangalore, and plans to double the same in the near future.

“We do about 10 million transactions a day. Some of the products we have developed in our Innovation Lab by mining the historical database and analysing them helps is addressing key problems of the BPO industry. For example, by using a solution developed at our innovation lab, we can predict why a particular person can call in a particular day. This predictive technology helps the contact centre agent prepare himself better before servicing the customer,” said S Nagarajan, co-founder and chief people officer of the company.

The company’s innovation lab which presently houses close to 60 people from various backgrounds starting from PhDs in mathematics and statistics, software engineers, analysts to call centre experts. As of today, the company has filed seven patents at the office of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The company which completed its 10th year of operation, employs close to 9,000 people globally including about 3,000 in India and 4,000 in Philippines also plans to hire about 1,500 people for its India delivery centres in the next two quarters. The company’s delivery centres in India are located in Bangalore and Hyderabad. It plans to open two more centres globally, including one each in India and Philippines in the next 6-12 months. Nagarajan said the new centre in Philippines would be located outside Manila, with 500 people to start with.

In 2003, Sequoia Capital had invested $22 million in 24/7 Customer for a stake of around 25 per cent. The promoters, including the CEO P V Kannan, and Nagarajan, along with the employees hold a majority stake in the company.

In fiscal 2010, the company’s turnover was in the range of $130-150 million. Though the company is known to be evaluating to go in for a public offer for quite some time, Nagarajan said no definite time had been set for the same. “The promoters still hold a majority stake in the company, and we are not under any pressure from investors to go public,” Nagarajan said. He, however, did not rule out a listing on the Nasdaq.

Other than India and Philippines, 24/7 Customer’s global delivery centres are located in Guatemala, Nicaragua and China (through partnership with a local company, 800 TeleServices).