Chennai gets its first HR BPO

CHENNAI: Probably Human Resources (HR) would be the most outsourced business, but as far as Chennai is concerned, it is the hub for medical billing and coding outsourcing. Taking a deviation from the norm, Secova eServices Ltd. has set up its base in Chennai for delivering HR and payroll services. Its first set up will go live by the end of January next year.

This 50-seater facility will be wholly dedicated to one customer, remarked Secova co-founder and VP - technology & infrastructure, V Chandrasekaran.

Besides Chandrasekaran, (also the chief technology consultant of Congruent Solutions), other promoters of Secova are - CEO Venkat Tadanki (a founding member of Daksh), VP Strategy & Business Processes - Bob Parke (has worked for over two decades at a Fortune 100 company, heading the HR activities) and VP - Operations

Sanjeev Misra.

IL&FS Investment Management (IIML) has funded Secova and according to the company, the funding will be used to set up its initial facilities in USA and India. "Being in HR, some of our processes has to be handled in our delivery center in the US and we expect 20 percent of our volume to happen from the US," remarked Misra. In addition to the 50-seater facility, Secova will soon be opening a 300-seater facility in Chennai.

According to the officials of Secova, the company adopted a unique business model, which will be more process dependent rather than the conventional pricing method of per hour/ per agent. Further, it has adopted the strategy of acquiring the client rather than going through agents, and has kept the option of acquiring US companies open.

Finally, giving the reason behind choosing Chennai city, Misra adds, "Chennai is unexploited as compared to other cities and our plan is to do 30 percent - 40 percent of business on voice," which again is a deviation since Chennai is a place where most of the outsourcing happens on non-voice. With regard to HR, he says, "we believe HR is still under tapped. Major surveys say that HR outsourcing is the main criterion," said Chandrasekaran.

(CyberMedia News Service)