The Hindu Business Line : Epicenter to expand Indian operations

EPICENTER Technologies, a high-end BPO (business process outsourcing) company focussed on financial transactions related services, including recovery and tracking work, has drawn up plans to ramp up India operations that would see the company doubling its headcount this year and an investment of about $5 million this fiscal.

The company is also actively pursuing its plans for acquisitions of a US or Canadian company to enhance its footprint and build on the local advantage.

The Chief Operating Officer of Epicenter, Mr Navanit, told Business Line that the company has 1,200 people now in three centres in India and plans to double this number by the end of this financial year. Further, plans have been initiated to expand operations to another city either in the North or South, details of this are under advanced stage of consideration."

"We have grown to about 1,200 people in three centres over the last four years since 2000. Given the current business trends and requirement for wider scale of operations, we are planning another centre either in the North or South. It is interesting to note that each centre offers unique advantages and disadvantages in terms of locating a global centre. While there is abundant quality manpower in Mumbai, it also comes with its own disadvantages, therefore, we are keen to locate another centre in the country," he explained.

"Epicenter is actively pursuing plans to acquire either a US or Canadian BPO company. This is aimed at having a local presence but also leveraging the advantages of near shore centre by blending with an offshore model. Most of our clients are large US-based banking and financial services companies and this would complement our work for them as some corporations prefer to outsource work locally," Mr Navanit said.

"Incorporated in January 2000, Epicenter has evolved into a leading customer contact centre in India providing financial collections services both late stage and early stage work and for telecommunication verticals and customer care. Epicenter helps banking and financial services companies minimise cost through efficient management of processes, procedure and technological infrastructure," he said.

Carved out as a joint endeavour of Mr B.N. Kalyani, Chairman of Bharat Forge group, and Mr Ken Eldred, co-founder of Ariba Technologies, Epicenter has been venture funded by Infinity Venture and GW capital. Since inception, the company has received about $8 million in funding.