L&T Infotech mulling to add BPO capacity
Indian software firm L&T Infotech now plans to venture into the BPO business keeping in mind the fact that it has been falling behind its rivals vis-à-vis cost-effectiveness as well as pace of growth. The IT firm, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian engineering major L&T, now plans to offer its clients an assortment of services, including application advancement, analytics to back-office processing. In fact, the company has already engaged the services of a major consulting firm for counsel regarding its BPO approach.
According to L&T Infotech CEO, Sudip Banerjee, the company now desires to offer a complete assortment of services to its clients, as it already possesses a self-sufficient analytical services, infrastructure management, and maintenance as well as application development. He said that the consultancy company hired by them is scheduled to submit its information on the precise sectors and services they should concentrate on regarding the BPO business. In addition, the consultancy firm will also advise L&T Infotech regarding the appropriate delivery sites and if acquisitions may also be included in their initial approach in BPO business.
It may be mentioned here that in the past, IT majors like IBM and Wipro too had acquired Daksh BPO Services and Spectramind respectively to start off with their BPO operations. Banerjee, a former executive of Wipro, opined that any policy concerning the acquisition of diverse intermediary BPO supplier was not feasible in the present scenario as the BPO business has already turned into an established industry sector. Nevertheless, the L&T Infotech CEO asserted that his firm was flexible on the issue of selective acquisitions like exclusive back-office divisions of MNCs for setting up its BPO venture.
To begin with, L&T Infotech is basically mulling over setting up its BPO delivery centers at cities falling under category-III like Coimbatore and Mysore in India. According to Banerjee, L&T Infotech earned revenues worth Rs. 2,080 crore, while the net profit was at Rs. 259 crore during the 2009 fiscal year.
They had to shelve several development and investment proposals owing to the recent global recession. However, with the shadows of recession disappearing, L&T Infotech has initiated moves to set up new industry segments and have begun hiring senior executives to head them. In April 2009, the company set up its own analytics center and recently enlisted the services of Arun Bhatia, a veteran of 22 years in the field of business intelligence and analytics, to head the unit.