3i Infotech to set up BPO subsidiary

MUMBAI: 3i Infotech, in which the ICICI group holds 39%, has announced a wholly-owned subsidiary for domestic BPO in effect making it a competitor to Firstsource Solutions, in which the ICICI group owns 26.7%.

While 3i Infotech started offering BPO services a few years ago, the launch of a separate arm positions it as a BPO player and also gives its BPO business a bigger thrust.

���So far our revenues were in the ratio of 1:1 for products and services. In FY09, we found that the BPO business was an equal contributor to the revenue of Rs 2,300 crore. So we felt it merited its own focus,��� said Anirudh Prabhakaran, executive director and president, South Asia, 3i Infotech. Mr Prabhakaran will also head the BPO business.

According to the Nasscom, the domestic BPO business was around $2 billion in FY09 and is growing at a rate of 45% per annum.

The domestic BPO arm will have around 7,000 employees to start with. 3I Infotech and Firstsource also have some common clients such as Bharti Airtel but for different services. ���We don���t do voice except as part of our customer relationship management, we are more focused on transaction processing. To that extent, we are not in competition,��� said Mr Prabhakaran.

The BPO will focus primarily on financial services and telecom. It will utilise its presence in over 200 cities in India through partners for market reach but do the back-office processing at its centres located in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The firm clocked approximately Rs 750 crore in BPO revenues in FY09, including both India and overseas revenues.