Infosys BPO eyes more business from Philips

BANGALORE: Six months after bagging a seven-year, $250-million contract from Royal Philips Electronics, Infosys BPO is bullish on increased business coming its way from the Dutch firm. The company is also looking at expanding the scope of its service offering. “

We are currently in the process of integration of the three centres Infosys BPO got through the takeover of business from Philips. But, there have been some initial talks on more business coming our way. We will see some concrete steps once the integration is complete, maybe in another six months,” Infosys BPO CEO Amitabh Chaudhry told ET.

In July last year, Infosys BPO said it was taking over Philips’ finance and administration BPO centres spread across three countries – Chennai in India, Lodz in Poland and Bangkok in Thailand - for $28 million, as part of the $250-million mega deal. About 1,400 people moved to Infy BPO, as a result.

Currently, the firm is providing F&A and some procurement services. Mr Chaudhry is confident of expanding the scope of services for Philips to areas like knowledge services, HR, auto management and increase procurement and F&A business. “Philips recently acquired two companies in the US. We are hoping to get business from them as well,” he added.
According to Philips’ website, Philips has announced plans to buy home medical equipment maker Respironics, US lighting maker Genlyte Group and medical systems and service provider Visicu in the last three months.

Infosys BPO is open to more deal-based acquisitions but the CEO says that such opportunities are rare. However, the company is scouting for acquisitions both in India and abroad. “We are looking for domain expertise, platform like play and the right price,” Mr Chaudhry said, adding that valuations in the market are currently too high.

The subsidiary of Infosys Technologies is also looking to expand operations in existing centres before looking at new locations. “Some of the centres are sub scale, these need to be expanded,” he said. This includes the China centre where head count is expected to be ramped to 200-250 people by March-end from current 120 people and in Manila, Philippines.
Infy BPO has centres in India,

Thailand, Philippines and China (part of Infy Technologies), Bucharest (Hungary), and Poland in Europe, and Mexico. The company employs over 15,300 people globally. It has seen revenues of about $176 million in first nine months of FY08. Last fiscal, the company had registered revenues of $147.5 million.