Accenture India headcount crosses 35,000

BANGALORE, INDIA:  A major American outsourcer will have more employees working in India than in the United States. The Bermuda-headquartered Accenture Ltd, a world's leading consulting firm, has reached a headcount of 35,000 in August 2007, thus making India its largest center globally. 

Accenture has over 71,000 people working in its Global Delivery Network (GDN) spread across over 45 countries. Earlier, it was reported that the Indian center employed about 27,000 people in six Indian cities. By comparison, the company had about 31,000 workers in the United States. However, as the Indian headcount grew over 50 percent over the last year, it has now crossed over 35,000. 

Talking to CIOL Bureau, Sandeep Arora, Lead Executive, Accenture Delivery Centre for Technology, India said: "Earlier this August, the Indian center has reached the magic figure, and today, half of our GDN staff are based out of India. We will continue to grow our headcount at about 30-50 percent annually in India." 

Arora said that having started delivery in India about six years ago, today Accenture has surpassed the US, making it the firm's largest geography. In India, most of the staff will be employed in Accenture’s GDN. The company’s overall headcount has grown up to 160,000 this August from 146,000 a year earlier. 

"The Accenture Delivery Centers in India are part of our GDN-helping clients achieve high performance through global sourcing. We follow a focused and targeted strategy that is responsive to the structure of the economy and the needs of the marketplace," he said. 

Accenture core business areas in India include: Consulting (Change Management, Corporate Strategy, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Finance Management, Human Resources Management, Service Management and Supply Chain Management); and Technology (IT strategy and transformation) and Outsourcing (Application Outsourcing, BPO and Infrastructure Outsourcing). 

On the technology front, Accenture technology labs in India are among the four global R&D Labs pioneering asset-engineering work. It is the largest center within GDN for several technologies, e.g. SAP, Siebel, Oracle, Java, MS .Net. 

The company's core businesses generate revenue of over $4.5 billion each and about 40 percent of the company’s revenue comes from outsourcing, said Arora. 

Reacting to the high attrition in IT firms in India, Arora said that they are currently facing an attrition level of about 18 percent in the outsourcing business, while it is very minimal in the technology related areas. 

"We give high importance on training our staff and have allocated a global budget of about $776 million for FY07. The company has tied up with MIT for the AXDA Program. Besides, the myLearning offers over 18,000 courses to employees such as Global Career Program, Leadership Development, People Advocacy, etc.,"' he added. 

In a recent survey, international consultancy firm Mercer has ranked Accenture among the Top 10 Best Companies to Work for in India 2007 list, which is dominated extensively by technology firms. The best employers in India have invested in world-class HR processes and policies, and seem to have a clear understanding of employee aspirations. Leadership development, internal transfers, global opportunities, mentoring, two-way communication and reward systems have emerged as a common thread in the top 15 companies.