HCL BPO likely to open next centre in Poland

HCL Technologies BPO Services, a subsidiary of HCL Technologies, is planning the next delivery centre in 2007 in eastern Europe and Poland seems to be the most probable choice because of the high availability of resources and support from the local government, according to its CEO Ranjit Narasimhan.

Representatives from HCL’s BPO, software services and infrastructure division were back last month after exploring three countries, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, to identify a location.

“Primarily, Poland seems to be most suitable choice because of considerations of low-cost of operations, availability of manpower, technological support, low cost of transport and last but not the least, government support, which includes fiscal incentives,” said Narasimhan.

He declined to give out details of investment or the number of people to be hired in the new location.

Narasimhan said that encouraged by its Ireland experience, where it is the largest BPO in the entire island of Ireland with a workforce consisting of more than 1,640 employees, most of whom are British, the eastern Europe centre is aimed to serve clients looking for multi-lingual, nearshore BPO services.

Near-shoring has become a viable solution for many companies because near-shore locations offer several advantages like similar time zones, ease of travel and potentially greater control due to familiar, physical and cultural proximity to the customer.

Organisations that want to hedge their bets and curb the inherent risks of off-shoring have an option closer to home.

Going forward, in the next two years, HCL BPO aims to move up the value chain and get 50% revenues from non-voice services.

Currently, it gets only 30% revenue from non-voice services.
Source:dnaindia.com