Aricent, a telecom services and solutions company plans to hire 800-1,200 people during the current financial year. The companys present headcount is at 8,000 employees out of which 6,000 are based out of India. Talking to FE, Aricents chief executive officer, Sudip Nandy said that the hiring has already begun and it will be proportionate to its current employee spread globally. Aricent has reported its highest recorded revenue ever of $460 million for the financial year ending March 2009, up 22% from last year.

So far, we have only been working for telecom equipment providers but now we aggressively plan to focus on the service providers too. This explains the increase the headcount, said Nandy. On being asked if Aricent is aiming to have a presence in the domestic telecom space, which is seeing entry of several new players along with existing players increasing their focus on outsourcing, Nandy said, Yes, it will be a late entry but we will also like to work in the India market.

However, Nandy said that the company will not compete directly with large companies and will instead work in partnership with them through system integrator firms. On the outlook for the year ahead, Nandy said that like the rest of the industry, recovery is expected in the second half of the financial year and the company expects flat growth for the FY2010.

In September last year, Aricent recieved PE funding of Rs 30 million from existing investor in the company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Bahrain-based-The Family Office.