Intelenet sets up new unit for consulting biz

MUMBAI: The Blackstone-backed Intelenet Global Services, which was predominantly into voice-based processes, is diversifying into consulting.

It has hired a former banker, B Chandramouli, to head the unit and also function as its chief operating officer. Mr Chandramouli has earlier worked with Bank of America, Yes Bank and HDFC Bank.

This initiative follows Intelenet���s diversification into travel-related back office processing through the acquisition of BPO firm Travelport.

Intelenet will leverage the expertise it has gained in servicing banking and financial services clients to bag contracts for the consulting arm.

Apart from offering outsourcing advisory, one of the focus areas for the consulting arm will be to work with banks on the problems they face because of running multiple core banking applications, said Sandeep Agarwal, executive vice-president, Intelenet.

Mr Agarwal said Intelenet has already worked with a top UK bank to identify potential areas for outsourcing and came up with an implementation plan, and an IT provider to the travel and tourism industry to identify gaps in its processes and suggest changes, which could result in potential savings of $40 million. ���The client can opt to outsource to any other provider. This will only be a consulting assignment,��� he added.

In some of these engagements, where Intelenet is also involved in the execution, it would need IT capability as well and Mr Agarwal said the firm had identified some partners for this.

For instance, Intelenet recently won a contract from the State Bank of India to do back office processing for all its overseas branches. These branches are running on the Finacle core banking application by Infosys, and Intelenet will work with an IT firm to to build a software that interfaces with the application.

Intelenet,which employs over 25,000 people, ranks among the large third party BPOs. However, repeated changes in its ownership has seen the firm grow at a slower pace than some of its peers.

According to estimates, the firm���s revenues were around $220 million last fiscal and the target is to nearly double it in the current fiscal.