Amidst the chaos created by US protectionism activities, visa hikes and changing dynamics in the Indian IT-ITeS industry, Dandapani Swaminathan, Infosys BPO, MD and CEO is optimistic about the increasing business in emerging geographies and the demand of functional expertise from BPOs. In an interaction with FE?s Diksha Dutta, he discusses the companies strategies, hiring plans and views on the changing definition of business processes.

As the economy recovers, what does the deal pipeline look like?

I do not think there are mega deals out there. But, we see a prominent increase in the multi-tower deals which involve a combination of customer service, procurement, human resources, finance and accounting. The expectation of customers has changed. The decision making period of clients has increased, but they want to see the impact of decisions on the balance sheet in the next quarter itself. In this changing dynamics, I expect a 15-18% growth for Infosys BPO. Clients now expect functional expertise and domain specific knowledge, apart from only transactional processing.

Recently Deutsche Bank moved a portion of its back office processes from Infosys BPO to its captive centre. How did it impact the company and what trend do you see in the BFSI business?

The impact of losing business from Deutche bank was not that significant. Today, the banking, financial Services, and insurance (BFSI) segment contributes 30% to our revenues.

Clients have always been switching from captive to third party-to captive, it is an on going process.

What are your expectations from the domestic BPO market, which is expected to grow at 15-17% this year as per Nasscom?

We have just started the domestic business and the revenue contribution is too small. But we are seeing good traction and have acquired clients in the telecom, manufacturing vertical and the government sector. In this market, we will play on our ability to provide customers with a combination of technology and BPO ? a comprehensive solution. We are already providing help to one of the Indian companies for its shared services centre.

What are the emerging geographies that will drive growth in the near future?

I see a strong potential in driving growth in the China centre. I think there is an opportunity for us to provide growth to the Chinese companies ? both within China and operating out of the country. I see the Chinese market as an exciting possibility. We are now 1,000 people in China. Also, Europe is a very important and key area for us. We are looking at expanding not only in Poland and Czech Republic, but also the whole of Europe.

Infosys is planning to hire 36,000 people. What profile of hiring are you looking forward to?

Our focus is to hire at all levels and not just do one kind of hiring. Hiring will definitely be more on induction level, but we will continue to hire the senior and middle level management. We are right now, 18,500 people and till the end of the fiscal we should be 19,500.

What effect will the Ohio ban on outsourcing as well as the US visa hike have on the BPO industry?

Outsourcing is not just about shifting jobs. A lot of us operate from different countries, so if somebody talks about diluting employability of a certain segment of people in a certain country ? it would perhaps be a short term vision. It might create trouble in short term, but in the medium and long term, industry will find solutions.