ICICI OneSource plans overseas expansion

Sathya Mithra Ashok

BANGALORE: Third party BPO service provider ICICI OneSource is in the process of setting up a Mumbai center with 700 seats which will begin operations in February next year. This will be its second center in Bombay, where it already has around 2,000 seats.

"We have around 3,900 employees to date. We started the year with 2,000 employees and will look at closing it with 5,000 of which close to 1,800 will be in Bombay and the rest in Bangalore," said ICICI Onesource MD and CEO, Ananda Mukerji. He added that the organization's growth rate over the next year would not be the same as that of this year.

The company is also looking at setting up a 200-seat delivery and business continuity base outside India. According to Mukerji, the strongest candidates are either Mauritius or Philippines and the company plans to decide and take out a lease on a property by March 2004.

"We have around 21 customers to date, 14 of them large ones. We will add around four more customers by the end of this financial year and look to adding 10 to 15 customers every year," said Mukerji. While refusing to give details on the company’s revenue pattern, he did say that two thirds of its revenues was generated by its UK clients even though, by sheer numbers, they constitute only 50 percent of the company’s clients. He added that the US market presented a huge potential in the near future.

Replying to a question on the fragmentation of the BPO space and how the organization intends to come out as important player in the inevitable consolidation, Mukerji said, "We already have the scale, much more than the minimum, to qualify as a good BPO operator. As far as the value chain is concerned, we will continue to focus on financial services, retail and utilities, which will ensure us domain expertise in the future and give us proven relevant experience."

The organization has an attrition rate of 25 percent to 30 percent, with it being higher for voice and lower for transaction and higher relatively in Bangalore than in Mumbai. Mukerji said that attrition will remain a facet of the industry and it depended on better management skills to keep it within a line.

(CNS)