The Hindu Business Line : Tata Sons sets up BPO arm — SerWizSol aims top-five slot in 5 years

TATA Sons Ltd has recently set up a wholly-owned subsidiary E2E SerWiz Solutions Pvt Ltd (SerWizSol) to exclusively focus on the contact centre and BPO business.

SerWizSol will be targeting both the domestic and overseas markets and expects to have a headcount of 5,000 by the end of the current financial year, said the company's COO, Mr Kuruvilla Markose.

Tata Sons plans to invest Rs 210 crore in SerWizSol over three years, of which Rs 65 crore has already been invested in setting up two contact centres in Pune and Hyderabad with a combined capacity of 2,200 seats, Mr Markose said. "Over a five-year period overall investments in the company is set to touch Rs 700 crore," he said.

The parent Tatas will fund only Rs 210 crore in this estimated Rs 700 crore expansion plan, while the rest will be through internal accruals scheduled to trickle in from third year of the company's operation. The company, which has already signed up two clients - Tata Teleservices and VSNL - expects to clock revenue of Rs 100 crore for the current year, he said. It is projecting a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore over five years.

SerWizSol, which started operations in mid-May has already hired 1,200 people, 600 each for Pune and Hyderabad centres. It plans to add another 800 by month-end.

The company would focus on providing customer contact centre services to industry verticals such as telecom, utilities, hospitality, media and entertainment. Its multi-channel customer services capability includes handling both voice-based inbound and outbound calls and interactions through e-mail, chat and collaborative Web sessions. The company also plans to handle the back office functions such as human resources and payroll processing, Mr Markose said.

Commenting on the rationale behind setting up a new company, Mr Markose said the Tatas see a great opportunity in the domestic contact centre/BPO market where there is no organised player.

Moreover, the new entity would complement the offerings of Tata Consultancy Services' BPO operations in the overseas markets, he said. The company expects to enter the US and the UK markets later this year and is exploring the possibilities of jointly marketing its services with other Tata group entities.

SerWizSol, which expects to be among the top five BPO players in India in five years, is planning to set up its third contact centre in Delhi by the fourth quarter this year and plans to expand its presence to the Tier II cities subsequently.

"The idea is to create a hub and spoke model and address the multilingual market by creating vernacular capabilities," he added.

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Tata Sons sets up BPO arm — SerWizSol aims top-five slot in 5 years