Capgemini BPO unveils new facility

French IT major Capgemini on Wednesday announced the launch of its business process outsourcing (BPO) facility in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, as part of its expansion plans in India by leveraging the talent from smaller cities.

The new facility, which is part of the company’s hub-and-spoke business model, has 200 employees at present. This is the seventh facility of the company in India. Under the hub-and-spoke model, the company will set up a facility in a smaller city which could be connected to a centre of excellence facility.

The company which had global revenues of $13.5 billion in 2011 set up its facility in a smaller city, i.e. Salem in Tamil Nadu, almost three years ago.

“We are looking at a hub-and-spoke model through these facilities. We will expand these facilities to around 400 employees each in future,” said B L Narayan, head of BPO Capgemini India. Having strengthened its presence in the key cities of the country, the company is keen on leverage the talent pool in tier III cities for servicing its global clients, he added.

The Salem facility has around 300 employees and this would go up to around 400 employees in the near future. The Trichy facility has a capacity of 300 seats at present. The hub and spoke model provides a better talent pool with a cost advantage from the smaller cities. The company in India is adding its employee strength by 20 per cent every year, and presently has around 6,500 employees serving 25 engagements in 10 languages, he added.

The company’s India operations started with the acquisition of stake in Hindustan Unilever’s BPO arm in 2006, with a headcount of 1,000 employees.

The BPO business vertical has almost half of its employees in India and the operations in the country has significance in Capgemini’s global operations, said Hubert Giraud, business process outsourcing-CEO, group executive committee member, Capgemini.

While the company said that it is looking at various small cities to set up more facilities the details including the locations identified were not revealed. At present, around 30 global companies are getting the services from the company’s India facility. The Trichy facility is presently catering to various companies including international logistics firm, agriculture company, global beverage company and a major manufacturing company.