During an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference, the Chief Executive of Infosys BPO, Swami Swaminathan, has notified the Reuters that the Company has been growing at about 20% in the past two years and anticipated to grow around 15 to 20% in this fiscal year.

In addition, Swaminathan has expressed confidence to have net employee additions of 2,500 to 3,000, during this fiscal year. Presently, the Infosys BPO operates across Asia Pacific, Europe and in America with its not less than 19,000 employees. Further, it attributes about $427 million in annual revenue, similar to the last fiscal year that ended in March.

New Delhi, Aug 22 : Key economies like India and China will see growth in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market with rise in demand for outsourcing services in customer management, accounting, banking and financial sectors by 2015, research firm Gartner said Monday.

"Gartner expects higher demand for services related to CM BPO, HR outsourcing, finance and accounting outsourcing, banking and financial BPO services, billing BPO services and supply management BPO through 2015," said the report.

Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or simply called the Outsourcing sector has a bright future ahead. That is what the figures given by consulting firm, Gartner suggest. It said that the BPO market is expected to grow by 19 per cent throughout 2103.

This means that the BPO sector would become $1.2 billion by 2011 and $1.8 billion by 2013.

The Americans are struggling to come out of the lingering hurt of the biggest global recession of the post WW II era, and in such a scenario, the fact that jobs are being outsourced is something that is hitting the country where it hurts the most.

ExlService Holdings, leading BPO services firm, has registered an increasing trend in its net profit which stood at around USD 4 million for the quarter ended September 30. In Q3 ended on September 30, 2008, the company has clocked a net loss of USD 1.08 million.

The revenue of the firm during third quarter of current financial year stood at USD 48.2 million, as compared with $46.6 million recorded in the corresponding period a year ago.

Aditya Birla Minacs, the BPO arm of the AV Birla group, has signed a five-year outsourcing services deal with Idea Cellular.

The deal, which is valued at Rs 600-crore, is an expansion of Minacs' existing relationship with Idea Cellular.

The Essar group-promoted BPO firm, Aegis has acquired 80% stake in Sri Lanka-based Ismart Timex, a leading BPO service provider, for an undisclosed amount.

The deal, which is Aegis's 14th acquisition, has been done through Essar Services Holdings, the holding company of Aegis. Earlier in August this year, Aegis acquired Australian BPO firm UCMS Group for AUD 54 million.

The company stated in a communiqué that Essar Services Holdings, has bought 80% stake in Ismart Timex, while the balance 20% stake will remain with Timex Garments.

Tech Mahindra, a global systems integrator and business transformation consulting firm focused on the communications industry, has finally inaugurated its BPO facility in Chandigarh.
The facility, which has been especially setup for focusing on BPO operations, will also provide other IT services and end-to-end customer support to both international and domestic clients later.
At present, the campus has 500 seats, which will be further raised to 1400 seats by the end of November this year.

Caretel, leading Indian BPO services provider, has been awarded a two-year contract by state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).

The order has been placed to manage MTNL's in-bound call centre operations of the GSM network in Mumbai.

Caretel officials stated in a communiqué that the contract is for an initial 200 seats, and will assist MTNL to save costs and enhance profitability.

Mumbai-headquartered Excel Infoways Ltd has entered into a business alliance with Business Processes Redefined. LLC (BPR), a US based receivables management firm to provide call centre and debt collection services.

Both partners believe that this business alliance will significantly boost revenue and reputation of both companies.

Tech Mahindra, leading worldwide systems integrator & technology solutions provider to the telecom industry, has announced that it has established its fully owned facility in Chandigarh.

According to company, the facility will focus on offering end to end customer service delivery to global telecom service providers.

The sources said that this facility will increase company's presence in the northern India.

MphasiS, leading Bangalore-based IT and BPO services provider, has decided to purchase AIG Systems Solutions (AIGSS).

AIG Systems Solutions (AIGSS) is India's IT services and solutions subsidiary of American International Group (AIG).

MphasiS did not reveal the financial details of the deal.

In a communiqué, MphasiS stated that this acquisition will help them increase their offerings to the insurance industry and offer domain solutions.

According to MphasiS, AIGSS is having centres located in Chennai and Kolkata and employs 800 professionals.

Global slowdown has turned 1.31 lakh persons jobless in last three months, according to a quarterly report by the labor bureau on the slowdown and its impact on employment in India. Indian manufacturing and service sectors, including textile, export, Information Technology, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and gems and jewellery sectors, have been adversely hit due to low demand in the global market, forcing these sectors to shed jobs during April-June 2009.

Infosys BPO, formerly known as Progeon Limited, has secured a five-year contract with T-Mobile UK.

T-Mobile is one of the world's largest mobile operators with more than 125 million customers worldwide and about 16.7 million customers in the UK itself.

Under the arrangement, Infosys BPO will support several core processes for T-Mobile finance directorate, commercial finance and accounting (F&A), and procurement operations.

However, the company did not disclose the deal size.

India's leading technology firm, Wipro reported 12 per cent increase in its net profit for the first quarter ended June 30. Its net profit stood at Rs 1015.50 crore from Rs 1010 crore in the previous quarter.

Hailing the results, Wipro Chief, Azim Premji said, "We are starting to see the first signs of stability in the business as ramp downs start to taper off and volumes start to stabilize. We expect Revenues from our IT Services business to be in the range of $1,035 million to $1,053 million in successive quarters."

WNS (Holdings) Limited, a leading global business process outsourcing company, has entered into a strategic partnership with Trintech Group Plc.

Under the terms of the agreement, WNS will offer its customers financial governance applications, implementation services and technical support in order to maximize efficiencies, tighten controls and increase ROI from financial operations.

Mumbai-headquartered Excel Infoways initial public offer (IPO) finally ended on Friday, 17 July 2009 with subscription of 1.97 times, receiving bids for 1.11 crore shares as against 56.67 lakh shares on offer.

The IPO was subscribed 1.9 times, with retail investor's portion getting subscribed 2.64 times. The portion reserved for non-institutional investors was subscribed 5.30 times. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) portion was subscribed 0.48 times.

The price band of the issue, which opened on 14 July 2009, has been fixed at Rs 80-85 a share.

Country's IT industry grappled with global slowdown and recessionary waves across the world may further decline for the financial year 2009 under global and domestic pressures. The recession hit IT and IT-enabled services industry may grow just at 10.8 per cent to touch Rs 309,573 crore as per recently released report by market intelligence firm IDC.

Aegis Ltd., the global IT services outsourcing arm of the Essar Group, has announced the set up of an independent technology subsidiary called Aegis Tech Ltd.

The company plans to invest US$100 million over the next 12 months in Aegis Tech to propel growth in this emerging segment.

The new subsidiary will provide end-to-end, customized solutions in the areas of Voice & Data, Networking, Unified communications, Managed Services, Info Security, and Remote Infrastructure Management.

3i Infotech, a global provider of IT solutions and one of India's largest product companies, has announced the setting up of 3i Infotech's BPO subsidiary, as part of its go-to-market approach for this important business segment.

The company has informed that, from now all its BPO business would be managed through 3i Infotech's wholly owned BPO subsidiary.

The company claims that, during the financial year 2008-2009, BPO services emerged as a very important component in 3i Infotech's suite of offerings worldwide, contributing one-third of revenues of Rs 2300 crore.