We saw the lowest growth in 2009 in several years

What were the trends in the BPO last year during the
slowdown?

Markets were certainly impacted due to recession. The US in particular was
most impacted and most BPO companies found structural imbalances. However, the
impact was for a short period and BPO companies found out that the demand of
services continued to grow even during the recessionary phase. Even for Hinduja,
we saw the lowest growth in several years, however some client acquisitions set
the ball rolling. India business was flat and so were the volumes mainly because
of poor price points.

What opportunities do you see in the healthcare
vertical for BPO after the passage of the US Healthcare Bill?

Healthcare has always been a key vertical for us. We are now hugely
leveraging on this opportunity with the passage of the US Healthcare Bill as we
see more enrollments and transactions taking place,extending the scope of
customer support. This act would also further magnify the existing labor
arbitrage between the US and Indian markets. All these developments have the
potential to double the healthcare workforce of Hinduja Global Solutions. Our
recruitment plans are already in place to this effect. This area would continue
witnessing amendments and changes as we move along. Since the turn-around time
for the implementation would not be much, the already experienced service
providers would benefit more than the uninitiated ones.

How has the acquisition of the UK based Careline
Services helped Hinduja?

The UK based Careline Services is one company that offers services in
several verticals such as financial services, telecom, FMCG, government and
retail. With this acquisition we plan to enhance our presence in twenty-nine
centers globally and also expect to increase our workforce. We have taken this
strategic move to not only help our firm to expand its operations in new
geographies, but also for enhancing our client base.

What were the verticals that saw growth and decline for
Hinduja?

Consumer electronics was the worst hit vertical for us. Apart from this,
telecom also did not perform well mainly due to a price war situation last year.
However, we did partner with Sistema Shyam Teleservices to manage the customer
care operations. Automotive, e-commerce, healthcare were some of the key
verticals which helped us leverage business opportunities last year.

What strategies were adopted by the company during the
slowdown?

We had a clear go-to-market strategy last year with a partnership model in
place. Infact, partnering with the key companies such as Astute and Talisma in
the CRM space, and Newgen and ITC Infotech in vanilla IT space helped us to
garner $4 mn in terms of revenues. Apart from this, we also expanded our
presence to tier-3 regions by coming up with a center in Nagercoil.

PC Suraj

surajp@cybermedia.co.in