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Raja Simhan T E

``The general perception among the US clients on Indian firms has changed a lot in the last few months.''

CHENNAI, Jan. 4

THE slowdown in the IT industry has not affected serious players in the call centre business. On the contrary, the slowdown has a positive impact on the ITES (IT-enabled services) industry, feels Mr Jagadish Ramamoorthi, Director and CEO, Allsec Technologies Ltd.

"The slowdown has made it easy to acquire new clients, and also increase the business with existing clients," he added. For instance, for one of the existing clients (he did not reveal the name ), Allsec started with one project in the beginning of the year, and today handles around 12 projects.

"The general perception among the US clients on Indian firms has changed a lot in the last few months. While marketing our company two years ago for call centre outsourcing, the US firms raised questions like: can you handle large projects? Do you have good telephone connectivity? What happens if sharks bite the cables, and the lines go off?,'' he said. However, today, the same US companies felt Indian firms were a force to reckon with, he added.

And, taking advantage of the bullish trend in the sector, Allsec Technolgoies will increase its employees from 350 to 1,000, and the number of call centre seats from 175 to 500, which is likely to cost around Rs 25 crore. The company plans to raise funds through private equity of around $5 million, he added.

``We are talking with seven to eight potential customers, and expect to rope in at least four clients in a couple of months. Our expansion plan will synchronise with the customer acquisition,'' he said. When asked about the size of the new clients, Mr Ramamoorthi said, it would be as big as that of Ford Business Services Centre (FBSC), part of Ford Motor Company, US. Allsec has established a response management centre in Chennai to support FBSC's accounts payables operations run for their global suppliers.

According to Nasscom, the ITES will emerge as a key growth driver in the Indian IT software and services industry. From $ 900 million in 2000-01, the industry is projected to reach revenues of $17 billion by 2008.

Allsec's existing shareholders and employees hold about 85 per cent stake in equity and the balance 15 per cent is held by IDBI. Mr A. Saravanan, President, founded the company along with Mr Ramamoorthi, and the contact centre was set up in Chennai at a cost of around Rs 10 crore.

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