Aegis BPO, an arm of the Essar Group, will be hiring over 2,000 to work in its offices in India, according to its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Aparup Sengupta.
Most of the recruitment would be conducted in colleges located in tier-II and tier-III towns, Mr Sen Gupta told Business Line on the sidelines of Nasscom's India Leadership Forum 2011.
“We will be hiring over 11,000 for our global operations, but we don't believe in offshoring and are keen on providing employment locally,'' he said.
Aegis, which had bagged a $2-billion deal from Saudi Telecom to manage its entire customer care operations, is of the opinion that the deal would result in manpower requirements going forward.
Locations like Hyderabad, which have people with knowledge of the Urdu, might see some positive impact. “At present, we have 1,500 employees in Hyderabad (out of a global headcount of 50,000). If the Saudi contract demands, we may hire more in Hyderabad,'' the CEO said.
When asked on the declining margins in the BPO industry, Mr Sengupta said the margins were under pressure for pure BPO companies. “The overall margins in the industry are at about 25 per cent. But at Aegis, we believe in creating an overall experience for our customers and hence are not impacted by declining margins,'' he said.
On the industry trends, he said the non-discretionary business space (such as non-Government) has not been adversely impacted by recession.
Aegis, which operates in 13 countries, sees good potential for growth in West Asia, Africa and Latin American regions.
“We are planning to focus on more Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and South Africa in future. The Customer Life Cycle Management Business is largely unexplored with over 83 per cent of its business still available,” he added.
On the domestic markets, which accounts for $800 million of Aegis' revenue at present, Mr Sengupta said the banking, financial services and insurance sectors have good potential for growth.