Kenexa to double its headcount

Company to expand presence to European, Asia-Pacific, Middle-East & South American markets

Kenexa Technologies, a provider of integrated human capital management, software and services, is slated to double its workforce at its Hyderabad development centre in the next 12 months.

This apart, the Pennsylvania-based company, as part of a three-year thrust, is going global in terms of market presence and expects to be present in the European, Asia-Pacific, Middle-East and South American markets.

Rama Velpuri, chief technology officer of Kenexa, told Business Standard that the ramp up in the company's Indian workforce will coincide with a scaling down of its operations at its development centre in Wayne in Pennsylvania. Velpuri, however, was not willing to divulge the exact numbers of the ramp down.

"We expect to double our strength in India to about 250 in the next 12 months. It is normal that as we increase our headcount here we will be ramping down elsewhere, in this case Wayne," Velpuri said.

Kenexa, which was established in 1987 and has revenues in the region of about $60 million, has a diverse customer base "� and according to company officials "� include more than 100 of the Fortune 500 and half of the Dow 30.

"At the moment our focus is on enterprises and over the next three years we want to go global with our product and services. The target is to be present in between 25 and 30 countries and this would mean that the geographies would include the US, Europe, Middle-East, Asia-Pacific and South America," Velpuri pointed out.

Kenexa,which is headquartered out of Wayne in Pennsylvania, at present operates through offices located in the US and other international offices in UK and India. It has two principal offices in Lincoln, Nebraska and in Wayne.

"We want to expand our operations to these countries through a combination of our own presence and through distributors. Our unique selling proposition in these markets will be the national language support that we offer. We see it a huge advantage in serving these markets," Velpuri said.

Kenexa's products, which were named by Forbes Magazine in 2003 as 'Best of the Web', offer comprehensive talent management solutions which are focussed on hiring and retention related issues. The company's suite of web-based applications, according to its officials, automate the entire employee lifecycle from sourcing, screening and assessing to measuring and development.