HCL BPO: Action-packed Year

With a contribution of 13% to HCL Technologies revenues for FY 2004-05, HCL
BPO saw an action packed fiscal year. It acquired the balance 10% stake in its
joint venture with British Telecom (BT) and spent Rs 29 crore in buying out the
assets of the former AnswerCall Direct Contact Centre in Armagh in Northern
Ireland. This not only established the company as the single largest BPO player
in Ireland, it also earned it a £900,000 grant assistance from the Northern
Ireland government to facilitate additional job creation. The company also
expanded its India operation by opening its second center in Chennai. Besides,
it secured an account reconciliation process from a UK subsidiary of an MNC and
went live with the F&A process for a major US manufacturing company at the
Chennai center. The year also saw HCL BPO secure BS7799 certification for its
Chennai center and COPC for its Noida operations. However, the high-close to
30%-dependence on the BT account is a cause of worry in the medium-term. Its
ratio of voice and non-voice work at 58:42 is also tilted more towards the
higher price competition, low billing rate business.