ISON Group beats Tech Mahindra for MTN's $300 million Africa deal

BENGALURU: ISON Group, a relatively unknown IT services and back-office contracting firm, has beaten much bigger outsourcing rival Tech Mahindra for South African telecom giant MTN Group's $300 million (RS 1,900 crore) multiyear call-centre outsourcing deal in Africa, people familiar with the development said. The value of the five-year contract can potentially go up to $500 million, they said while requesting anonymity.

As part of the deal, ISON's business process outsourcing unit will take over the call-centre operations of MTN in seven countries and rebadge about 5,000 MTN employees to ISON over the next six to nine months.

Nigeria-headquartered ISON, which currently employs 10,000 people, was founded in 2010 by former IBM India executives. It will also provide call-centre technology services to MTN and take over other functions such as interactive voice response (IVR) systems.

Ramesh Awtaney, founder and chairman of ISON Group, declined to comment on the deal value, but confirmed that ISON had won a multi-year contract from MTN. ISON currently counts Bharti Airtel and Standard Chartered among its customers.

"We have a clear goal of being an outsourcing company, as opposed to being an offshoring firm," said Awtaney, a former IBM India executive, who played a key role in bagging the landmark Bharti Airtel outsourcing deal for the Armonk, New York-based firm.

He said as much as 99 per cent of he company's workforce in its BPO business comprised local Africans. "None of these offices are being moved or off shored to destinations like India," he added.

Other outsourcing firms such as Tech Mahindra were also involved in bidding for this contract. MTN and Tech Mahindra did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The outsourcing deal comes at a time when large telecom firms are increasingly rethinking the traditional 'Total Outsourcing' model and are opting to bring some core technology functions in-house.

ISON will have up to 13,000 employees on its rolls by the end of the current financial year, said Awtaney who quit IBM in 2009 to form a joint-venture with Middle East's Zamil Group - Zamil New Delhi Infrastructure - to build, supply and manage passive infrastructure for telecom firms in India.