Nipuna to hike staff to 2500

HYDERABAD: Nipuna Services Ltd, the fully owned BPO subsidiary of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, is on an expansion mode. Started in June 2002, the company plans to double its headcount from the present 1,350 and also set up centers in Chennai and Pune. Equally, it intends to start up four more centers outside India.






"Presently, we have two centers - one in Hyderabad and the other in Bangalore. While the 350-seater Bangalore center has around 180 associates, the Hyderabad center has 1,170. We intend to take this combined employee base to 2,500 by next year," said Nipuna CEO Dr Prakash Challa. "In order to reach this number, we need to hire at least 250 to 300 associates per quarter," he added.





Explaining about the growth plans, Challa further added, "In the second and third quarters of the financial year 2005-06, we are planning to add two more centers, one could be probably in Chennai and the other in Pune. These would primarily start with a 250-seater capacity. On a two-shift basis we can easily have 500 to 600 associates, but the in-take capacity would depend on the business and customer base at the time of the start-up. Besides, we also intend to mark our presence outside India by setting up offices in Malaysia for the Asia-Pacific region, in Thailand, Hungary for European customers, and Brazil for South African clientele."





"While we are ready to open the Malaysian and Hungary centers anytime, depending on the customer focus, the Thailand and Brazil centers would also be set up simultaneously," informed Challa. Talking about inorganic growth for the company, he said that the proposed centers in Chennai and Pune could also be started through acquisition of an existing company. "Acquisition could be one possible method for our expansion," he confirmed.





Nipuna manages and administers non-core yet vital business processes for verticals as diverse as insurance, healthcare, banking, telecom and manufacturing. Being on the verge of completing two full years of operations, the company has 20 clients. "It may be recalled that we have added 16 clients in just one year that only signifies the growth for Nipuna," said Challa.