Targeting the domestic business process outsourcing market in India, BPO services provider Vertex Customer Services is expanding its presence in the country The UK-based company, which acquired the Mumbai-based BPO firm Shell Transource last year, expects its Indian revenues to cross $100 million by 2013 from $25-35 million at present. Vertex has presence across 11 cities in India, including Chennai, Hyderabad, Noida, Bangalore and Kolkata. The company is also planning to open four more centres in the next 12 months.
“We entered the Indian market as a strategy of the parent company and to have a presence in the market where we operate. With the completion of Shell Transource acquisition, we will be able to double our revenues from the domestic business in India. As part of the strategy, we are opening newer centres across the country,” Keshav C Gaur, MD and CEO of Vertex Customer Services India Limited, said.
He said Vertex has already opened a facility in Bangalore and is planning to open a 400-seater facility in Kochi. With the Kochi centre, it would service clients from the four Southern states. The Bangalore centre, with a built-up area of 12,000 square feet has a capacity to accommodate 450 people. “We want to service our clients in all the Indian languages. So it is necessary to be present in the local markets,” added Gaur.
It is also planning to hire around 3,000 employees within a couple of months to support the expansion. In Hyderabad alone, the company plans to double its headcount to about 3,000 people from the present 1,500 in the next three months. Gaur said it would invest Rs 30-50 crore in the next two years for enhancing and building infrastructure. “When we acquired Shell Transource, we had a plan to take our India headcount to 20,000 by 2013 and cross revenues of $100 million,” Gaur added.
Vertex, which sees opportunities in BFSI, telecom and government sector in India, has been empanelled for Aadhar (UID) project in India. Gaur said, Indian domestic market was evolving and clients were looking for the consolidation of vendors. This would trigger a lot of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the domestic BPO space in the next 3-4 years.
“You will finally see about 8-10 major BPO services providers in the Indian market, instead of so many number of smaller players as seen now,” he added.
Some of the majors M&As in the BPO space in India include Intelenet’s acquisition of a majority stake in Spanco Telesystems, Serco’s acquisition of InfoVision Group, Aegis’ acquisition of Actionline.
According to a study by Nasscom, the total export BPO market opportunity is expected to reach $220-280 billion by 2012. It also said that the domestic BPO market provides an additional $15-20 billion opportunity for the industry by 2012.
