Infosys BPO, the $500-million outsourcing arm of the IT giant Infosys, plans to open a new centre outside the country with a capacity of over 300 people, scalable up to 1,000 by the end of this fiscal. The management is exploring options either in Latin America or Europe.

The new centre will initially engage in customer relationship management (CRM), sales, financial and accounting services. ?Our centre strategy is based on client requirements, ability to get talent in that location and cost. It is important to operate from near-shore locations to provide competitive advantage to our clients. We are clearly seeing potential in Latin America and Europe. This fiscal in addition to our seven centres, we are looking at opening one more,? said D Swaminathan, chief executive and managing director, Infosys BPO.

The company plans to hire about 6,000 people for the next two quarters, of which 600 plus will be outside India. The management typically invests $4-5 million in setting up a centre overseas. Currently, Infosys BPO has 5 centres in India and 7 outside the country, including in Poland, the Czech Republic, China, Manila, Atlanta, Brazil and Mexico. ?We are continuing to invest in our two centres in Europe and also plan to grow our back offices in the Americas,? said Swaminathan.

In the recent past, Indian BPO companies have come under fire for losing their competitive edge to other low cost destinations, as well as for their inability to meet client requirements for onsite deployment. In an attempt to adapt to this evolving outsourcing model, companies have started to ramp up near shore and onshore centres.

In August, TCS BPO, which employs 4,500 people outside India, announced plans to ramp up operations in its Michigan and Manila centers. Wipro, which has about 19 centres outside India, has presence in six European and two Australian cities. Hinduja Global Solutions is also eyeing locations such as Milan, Paris, Rome and Latin America. Other pureplay firms such as Aegis, WNS, and EXL Service are also said to have plans to add to operations in US and UK.