UTL plans 5,000-seat BPO, to employ 14,000 people

BANGALORE: The $600-million United Telecom Ltd (UTL) group, a diversified conglomerate with interests in telecom manufacturing and banking, is foraying into the booming business process outsourcing (BPO) space. The company is setting up a 5,000-seat facility with an investment of $20 million in Bangalore.
It aims to employ around 14,000 professionals in the BPO subsidiary, United Inter-Active Centre ltd, by the third year of operations.
It claims to have singed up five Fortune 50 companies as its anchor customers. They include a major airliner, leading data research company, two telecom companies and a credit card biggie.
Rajat Ohri, CEO of United Inter-Active Centre said BPO was the natural progress for the company that has been engaged in manufacturing, services, Research and development (R&D) and turnkey solutions. ``The BPO business is just the amalgamation of all the knowledge that we have,'' Ohri pointed out.
He said the focus of the company is gradually shifting from manufacturing to services. According to him, United Inter-Active has signed 3-year contracts with its top five clients. And, the operations for each of these customers will start from 50 seats and can go up to 700 seats.
The company aims to clock in revenues of $5 million in the first year of operations, which will grow $80 million by the third year of operations. It has already set up a 2.5 lakh facility in a 10-acre campus in the city._Ohri said the company is also looking at acquisitions to spur its services capability in banking, finance and telecom areas.