Infosys plans 5-fold rise in BPO workers

Infosys Technologies plans to increase the headcount at its India business process outsourcing (BPO) unit by five-fold to 2,000 in one year.

To tap the domestic market, the country’s second-largest information technology (IT) company set up a separate unit within its BPO arm in 2009. Infosys BPO employs 17,978 people, of which the Indian unit accounts for 400 people.

“We started our Indian BPO unit 15 months ago, and are witnessing tremendous growth. We are planning to increase our headcount to 2,000 people in one year. Majority of them will be hired fresh from the market, while we are also planning to relocate some staff from our global process to the domestic unit,” Vaitheeswaran S, head of Infosys BPO India unit, said. To reduce costs, Infosys BPO plans to run domestic processes from low-cost locations.

It also plans to make its Jaipur facility a centre of excellence for its domestic BPO works. The Jaipur centre has a built-up area of 452,139 sq ft, with a seating capacity of 4,337 people.

The company, in partnerships with RuralShores and DesiCrew Solutions, has set up two rural BPO centres in Andhra Pradesh. It plans to partner a rural BPO in Jaipur, as the city will be its hub for domestic support operations.

“We are not interested in the traditional call centre model. We will explore partnerships with rural BPOs across India to reduce cost. Operating in domestic markets requires vernacular language support. We will utilise support of these rural BPOs for that and also to provide low-end support for our customers,” he said.

Infosys, which started focusing on the domestic market (both IT and BPO) quite late, compared to its Indian and global peers, today derives 2.2 per cent of its overall revenues from the domestic market. During October-December, Infosys BPO reported revenues of $83.52 million (about Rs 377 crore), of which India accounted for 1.5 per cent.

“Our domestic business is still in the initial stages, but a huge area of focus for us. Presently, we derive about $3-6 million from the Indian market. However, we expect this business to reach $20 million mark in the next two years,” Vaitheeswaran said.