Firstsource domestic biz set to grow: Official

Kochi, Sep 27 (UNI) BPO major Firstsource Solutions expects its domestic business to grow from two per cent of the total revenue last year to ten per cent this fiscal, Executive Vice-President (HR) Aashu Calapa said today.

Addressing the press here, Mr Calapa said the growth drivers for the domestic business were telecom, banking, financial services and insurance sectors.

To service the rapidly growing verticals, Firstsource set up operations in Tier-II cities such as Tiruchirapalli, Kochi, Vijayawada, Puducherry, Hubli and Indore.

''It has been our strategic policy to move our operations to Tier-II cities from where a large pool of talent comes to the metros,'' he said.

Within six months of starting its operations in Kochi, the company had an employee strength of 500 people.

Admitting Firstsource faced an attrition rate of almost 42 per cent, he said this was largely due to the growth in the sector which provided plenty of job opportunities.

While an appreciating rupee had ''marginal impact'' on business and was a matter of concern, the BPO sector was by and large continuing to witness high growth rates.

Firstsource, which netted a revenue of Rs 840 crore last year,had seen its Q1 turnover going up by 31 per cent to Rs 282 crore compared to the same period last year.

Quoting a NASSCOM study, Mr Calapa said the BPO industry worldwide was estimated at about 13.4 billion US Dollar with India taking the lion's share of 47 per cent.

The sector is estimated to grow to 25 billion USD by 2010.

''We expect the BPO sector to grow at a brisk rate in the next three to five years,'' he added.

Asked about the criticism levelled against the BPO sector for exposing youngsters to an artificial work environment where they had to adopt false names and accents to interact with overseas clients, Mr Calapa said this was no longer an issue with the industry.

''Most of our clients tell their customers that they are offshoring their services. All our employees use their own names,'' he claimed.

Firstsource's 75 clients included six 'Fortune Global 500' banks, two 'Fortune Global 500' telecommunications companies and three 'Fortune 100' healthcare companies.

The company had a global delivery model with 25 centres in India, US, UK, Argentina and Philippines.

While most of its clients were in US and UK at present, it was looking at Europe and domestic Indian market to increase its business, he added.

UNI