French technology major Atos plans to double its employee strength in the country by 2016 as it expects higher demand for offshore IT services.

The €8.8-billion company intends to have 20,000 staffers on its rolls in India over the next three years from 10,000 currently, said Milind Kamat, Chief Executive Officer of Atos India. In 2011, the Bezons, France-headquartered company had an headcount of 4,500 in India.

“Our hiring will be for global delivery of services rendered out of India and for servicing our domestic customers here,” Kamat said. It will be a mix of campus recruits and experienced professionals. This is a part of the group’s overall ambition of growing at an annual rate of 2-3 per cent till 2016.

Hiring consultants

As part of the hiring mix, Kamat said the company would also hire consultants in India. It plans to launch its consultancy practice in the country.

“One of the options available is for us to employ consultants in India who will travel overseas for projects on a short-term basis. We will also provide consulting for Indian domestic customers,” he said. Currently, the lion’s share of Atos India’s revenues is from servicing overseas customers. Globally, the 77,000-employee-strong company’s offerings are structured around managed services, systems integration, transactional services, payment solutions and consulting.

Another stated objective of the IT services provider is to increase penetration in the US, which is the largest market for technology services, said Kamat. Going forward, analysts expect Atos to offshore a large chunk of US-based projects to its delivery centres in India. Analysts expect 2014 to be a sluggish year for the India domestic units of IT companies due to the impending general elections and overall economic situation. However, Kamat is not perturbed.

“I expect a lot of multinationals to ramp up business in India this year as the climate around foreign direct investment looks promising. We service many of these MNCs globally and so we would have an edge when they come to India,” he said.

Inorganic route

Atos has been open to take the inorganic route for growth. “Any acquisition that gives us access to clients in the US and delivery centres in India would be of interest. Vertical wise, the group is keen to expand presence in financial services,” he said.

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