HCL Tech shifts focus to non-voice BPO segment

The company cuts its voice-based services by 50% in the third quarter.

HCL Technologies is shifting its focus to the non-voice BPO category as part of its strategy to make its loss-making BPO business profitable. The information technology (IT) services company has cut its voice-based BPO services by almost half in the June quarter from 90 per cent reported in the year-ago period.

The company aims to further scale down the share of voice-based BPO services to 40 per cent. It would, however, continue with the strategic voice business using business processing platforms.

“As part of our BPO turn-around plan, we took a deliberate decision to reduce dependence on voice by moving into the non-voice category. Our BPO business is now more focused on developing platforms and bringing in technology in order to offer high-value and repeatable services,” said Krishnan Chatterjee, global head of marketing, HCL Technologies.

In the quarter ended June 30, BPO services contributed 4.9 per cent to HCL Technologies’ quarterly revenues of Rs 4,300 crore. It made an operating loss of Rs 30 crore for the quarter. The losses for the full year stood at Rs 93.8 crore.

The company said the BPO business would make a turn-around in the January-March quarter of 2012.

“We are looking at initiatives to make our BPO division profitable. We are not focusing on low-end BPO business, and want our business processing platforms to fit with the remaining businesses. Today, we have built digital platforms for media and publishing, and even the drug discovery segment is pushing our BPO business,” the company said in a statement.

“The platforms will enable the company to offer end-to-end transactions to customers.”

In the non-voice category, the company is going to focus more on the insurance segment, including handling of claims and policy management. “That is a very big area that we are focused on,” said Chatterjee.

The company is also looking at divesting some of its loss-making back office divisions. Earlier this year, it had divested the Telecom Expense Management (TEM) business to US-based Tangoe, which provides enterprise communications services. According to sources, the TEM business line was contributing about $4 million in revenues per year.