Accenture to take headcount to 50,000 in a year

Mumbai, Apr 22: Bullish on its Indian operations global management consulting, tech services and outsourcing giant Accenture aim to ramp up its head count to 50,000 in a year's time. ''Our foot print for the future is from India,'' Accenture Chairman and CEO William D Green told newsmen here today adding that the Indian operations would play a more important and prominent place in Accenture's operations in 49 countries worldwide.

Mr Green visiting the country with top notch executives of the company for a week to have a first hand knowledge of Accenture's operations across the country, including its lab and centre for excellence in management consulting, said that the Indian operations with a global headcount of more than 178,000, the 20 billion dollar company had a workforce of 37,000 in India.

The delivery centres here service more than 350 companies, including many of the Fortune 1000 companies. Accenture's Indian delvery centres were in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Gurgaon. It also has a lab in Bangalore.

Stating that the subprime crisis had not affected the company's operations in the United States, he said that the Banking, Financial services and Insurance sector (BSFI) contributed to seven per cent of the growth last fiscal, ending August 2007.

''We had no cancellations or defferals'' Mt Green said adding that such challenges offered more opportunities to the company. ''We maintain a steady and strong growth forward and never have peaks and valleys,''he added.

Mr Green asserted that the Indian software companies need not be wary of the crisis as companies in the BSFI sector need to spend on IT to keep their competitiveness.

UNI