UK's Vertex forms JV with Delhi BPO firm

LONDON, UK: Vertex, a global Customer Management Outsourcing (CMO) and Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) company operating across a wide range of market sectors and geographies, has announced a joint venture with Shell Transource Ltd, an integrated domestic BPO based in Delhi.

The Vertex majority-owned joint venture will emerge as a significant CMO/BPO in India to deliver integrated services across voice, non-voice and fulfillment solutions to customers in over 350 locations in India, said a press release on Tuesday. Vertex will strengthen Shell Transource Ltd’s offering by integrating world-class CMO capabilities underpinned by industry specific technology and applications, it added.

This joint venture will supplement Vertex’s capabilities delivered via its four service lines comprising CMO, IT applications and services, consulting and transformation, and decision sciences. The focus will be on public sector, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), telecom, utilities and retail. The combined strength will now be approximately 5,000 employees.

While making this announcement, Paul Sweeny, CEO, Vertex Group, said India is one of the world's most attractive and rapidly growing markets.

“Today’s announcement shows our commitment to investing in this market and is part of our global strategy of broadening and deepening our CMO capabilities. We recognize a huge untapped opportunity within Shell Transource and their unique business model and have identified a valuable way of extending our CMO/BPO business in India. Our respective strengths are a natural fit and will address the fast evolving needs of the local market,” he said.

Keshav C Gaur, CEO, Vertex India, said this joint venture creates one of India’s largest integrated end-to-end solution providers in the customer management outsourcing industry.

“We are now able to cater to the dynamic market needs of clients, especially in rural India and within Tier II and Tier III cities. We also have the advantage of multi-lingual capabilities and the understanding of these markets. Together, we will deliver strategic, integrated and optimized solutions to our customers. We expect to recruit at a faster pace and significantly increase our headcount in India,” he added.

Speaking about the announcement, Narayan Bhargava, chairman, Shell Transource Ltd, said, “We are thrilled by the prospects presented by Vertex, its worldwide infrastructure, matchless professionalism and ground-breaking technologies. Joining forces with Vertex will enable our common vision of providing the best-in-class solutions to our clients. This joint venture will enable us to expand our presence to tap into the greater opportunity that India represents.”