The Hindu Business Line : WNS Global to set up delivery centre in Europe

In order to tap the European outsourcing market, WNS Global Services would now set up a delivery centre in Europe. The centre would serve as an on-shore and off-shore base for language-specific work for certain parts of Europe.

Currently, the US market comprises majority of work that is being outsourced here.

"We expect to do more than 50 per cent of our business from the US and would focus on the UK, and selective parts of Europe," said Mr Arjun Singh, CEO, Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), WNS.

One centre every year

In the domestic market, the company has delivery centres in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune and Nashik. However, it plans to expand its presence in tier II cities. WNS is considering setting up a centre every year with a capacity of more than 1,000 annually over the next few years. In the BFSI segment, the company plans to increase its headcount over 50 per cent of its current employee strength, which stands at 4000, said Mr Singh.

Currently, about more than a quarter of the company's business is accrued from the banking and financial segment. "We are looking at deals worth $10-15 million annually," he said.

Tapping talent

To overcome the challenge of finding the right talent and retaining its employees, WNS would now be increasing its recruitment from its employee's referral programmes from the current 15-20 per cent to above 50 per cent. "We are looking at developing our employees with domain expertise. We would be offering incentives to our employees for being certified by national and international bodies. The company would be also be looking at providing its employees 30-50 per cent of their salaries through incentives," said Mr Singh.

outsourcing activity

While there has been increased outsourcing activity to third party service providers, WNS expects to rope in more deals through the build-operate-transfer model, as more big players plan to outsource here. The company is an Indian BPO with about 13,000 employees in the country and operates across different verticals such as travel, manufacturing, and retail amongst others. Outside India, it has offices in the US, UK and Sri Lanka and got listed on the NYSE last year.