Servista sets up India development center

PUNE: Servista, Europe based provider of customer care and billing software and services for the utilities and telecom market, has marked its entry into India with the launch of a development center in Pune.

Servista is investing Rs eight crore to launch the facility by April 2005 and will be investing another Rs 25 crore over three years to expand its operations to 400 people. The Indian operations will be conducted under the name Servista Technologies India Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK parent company.

Servista Ltd COO, Martin Overton, who was in Pune to oversee the launch operations, said that the team in Pune would get to work on major projects for the company's clients in Europe. The clientele list includes UK Post Office — a high street distribution network and Lloyds TSB- UK's largest retail bank.

He added that the company is currently recruiting the first batch of 30 employees, who will receive three months training at the UK headquarters before returning to India to kick-start the Pune operations. Senior VPs of solutions and services will lead the facility. These are yet to be appointed and will report to the UK office.

Servista provides utilities and telephony providers with a customer care and billing capability that enables them to grow revenues, reduce costs and deliver customer service. Servista delivers its service as an outsourced business process and currently has no direct competitors in Europe.