Wipro BPO, the outsourcing arm of $7-billion IT major Wipro, plans to open a new strategic centre in the US with a capacity of around 300 people initially, scalable up to 2,000 in the next three months. The centre will be located in a tier-II city in the US as a low-cost centre. The company is also looking at setting up five to six centres in the US and Europe in the next six months.
?We are exploring more centres in the US, Germany and in the Nordic region. In the US we are evaluating places in Carrollton city, Jefferson city, Ohio and Texas. We looking at places that have proximity to the client, kind of work and availability of talent,? said Manish Dugar, global head, Wipro BPO.
The company has a total of 30 centres, of which 20 are outside India. Wipro BPO currently employs 900 people in the US, mostly in Atlanta. ?It is easy to get talent in and around Atlanta, because of so many colleges and institutes in that region,? Dugar added.
For the company’s BPO business, US is the biggest market followed by Europe. Wipro BPO, expects verticals like BFSI, telecom, retail and transportation, healthcare and manufacturing as the major growth drivers, fuelling robust pipeline in Q3 and Q4. ?Order book and pipeline is looking good. From Q1 onwards, we will see this reflecting in revenue,? said Dugar.
?We see a lot of opportunity to grow in the BPO space. We won two deals in the investment banking space last quarter and have three i-banks in the pipeline. Practices like finance and accounting, HR procurement, back office and technical help desk are main areas of focus going forward,? he added.
During FY11, the BPO business contributed about 9.7 % to the overall revenue of Wipro?s IT business. Among other major markets, the BPO company has presence in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. It has centres in Brazil, Shanghai, Philippines and Poland.
?Today clients are looking beyond labour arbitrage and offshoring It’s no more about customer support. But more about how you can use the analytics engine to help customer sell more,? said Dugar.