WNS plans to set up delivery centres in US

WNS, the third-largest business process outsourcing (BPO) company in India, is planning to set up delivery centre in the US following high unemployment rate and demands from clients to have onshore presence.

The company will set up a delivery centre with 200 employees in the US by the end of this financial years, said Keshav Murugesh, group chief executive officer. It is currently evaluating whether to set up a centre through carve-out (taking over a clients centre and employees) or go from the scratch.

“Some of our clients want the work to be delivered near them. They have realise they need to be more sympathetic to their current employees. We, on the other hand, have the ability to take over these sites or work and reduce cost. This is not by showing people the door but by using programmes such as Six Sigma and others,” he said.

Rising unemployment in certain regions is a concern. “As a global company, we are concerned about the global uncertainty. We have to, therefore, focus on creating efficient delivery centres onsite and create jobs there,” he said.

Over the last two to three quarters, the company has also increased its presence in the UK, its biggest market, where its has an employee base of 600. “We are also building capabilities in the Far East, eastern Europe and some of the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries,” said Murugesh.

He said the company’s initiative in the last 18 months to restructure itself into a vertically-led firm was paying off. Over the last few quarters, the company has aligned its business into six verticals — banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI); manufacturing, retail and consumer products, shipping and logistics, healthcare, and travel and leisure. Each of these verticals are further integrated into horizontal offerings.

The company is in final stages of signing a significant contract with an insurance player. WNS has another four big-ticket deals, which are in four separate verticals, including telecom, utilities and retail. During the quarter ended June, the company added six clients and expanded relation with nine.

Murugesh said the acquisitions done during 2006 and 2008, has allowed it to have a strong technology backbone. “In 2010, we integrated all the acquisitions we have done since 2006 to 2008. In the process, we realised these acquisitions enable us to give a strong technology capability. Which means, we need not look for an inorganic strategy to develop tech platforms. The next level of growth for us will come from our seeding of new tech platforms being developed in-house,” he said.