GECIS: The Behemoth Rules

The year 2004 will remain etched in the memory of GECIS,

often cited as the biggest outsourcing success story in India,

as it underwent a major transformation from a captive to a

third-party BPO. As GE sold a majority stake in its Indian

outsourcing arm for $500 mn to two private equity firms, it

changed the entire BPO landscape in the country-and posing a

big challenge to the existing third-party BPOs.

The development will now give the company unrestricted

access to the world market. By moving out of the GE fold GECIS

will now be able to broaden its client portfolio beyond GE,

even while continuing serving the GE subsidiaries under a

multi-year contract. It has been reported that the company

aims to bring down the GE component of its business from the

present 95% to about 75% by end of 2006. A 25% share from

non-GE customers might not be an easy task for a company

steeped for so long into the captive BPO mentality. However,

GECIS is going for a depth and breadth of its service

offerings, supported by a huge infrastructure and resource

pool. The company has a global workforce of about 18,000

employees across its 14 facilities.