The Hindu Business Line : Stanchart service centre sees more Scope

SCOPE International, Chennai, one of the global shared service centres of Standard Chartered Group, is contributing a yearly saving of $80 million to the group.

The Chennai centre, which was started in 2000 with 200 employees, today employs around 3,500, which is about 10 per cent of the group's global workforce, according to Mr Sreeram Iyer, Group Head, Global Shared Service Centres.

"This saving will increase year-on-year as we keep adding value to the group. The cost arbitrage of moving to lower cost economy from higher cost economy has paid well for the group," he told newspersons.

The group ended 2004 with a profit before tax of $2.1 billion, a 39 per cent increase from $1.5 billion in the year before, he said.

The group set up the shared service centres to consolidate all its back office operations. Scope International, Chennai, was one such centre and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, UK.

The company processes about 75 million transactions a year and services 56 countries. The group has so far invested around $100 million in the centre, he said.

There is also a shared centre in Hong Kong, where around 1,000 people are working, and there is another small centre in Africa. "We want to now leverage the expertise and experience between the Chennai and Hong Kong centres as the group grows organically and inorganically," he said.

According to Mr Iyer, who was recently promoted to the present post from the Chief Operating Officer, Global Shared Service Centre, the Chennai centre, which has reported a topline revenue of $75 million in 2004, does various operations including human resource services, financial services, IT support and global markets.

For instance, if a customer opens a current account in Dubai, the back-end operations for it are done out of Chennai.

Similarly, if a credit card application processing is done in Hong Kong, Dubai or Singapore, the back-end processing is done in Chennai, he said.

"We will drive more high-end processing into the hub and initiate end-to-end enhancements, and migrate more high-end work from various locations of the group," he said.

Scope International, Chennai, added 150 people in January and would add another 500 to 600 by the end of the year.

The company also expanded capacity in Chennai by adding 50,000 sq.ft, and would add another 50,000 sq. ft, to have an additional capacity of 600 seats, he said.

Looking for `insourcing partner'

LEVERAGING Standard Chartered Group's network, Scope International is now looking at an "insourcing partner." The company would offer banking operations to the partner, said Mr Iyer.

The third-party could be a global financial institution or bank having large transaction processing capabilities. "Several groups, including some of the large US-based banks, have evinced interest to work with us. We hope to have a partner during this year," he said wihtout giving details stating it was too early.

According to Mr Iyer, the partner should not be in the same geography (Asia, Africa and Europe) where Standard Chartered Bank is present, but should have the same areas of specialisation such as consumer and retail banking, he said.

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