Bharti Enterprises is betting big on the call centre business by increasing seating capacities across the country over the next 3-5 years.
The Bharti group, which has floated a 100 per cent call centre subsidiary called Bharti Infotrac, is planning to increase the number of seats to 10,000 from the present 170 in the next 3-5 years. The company will expand the number of call centres from the present one in Delhi.
"We are planning to add 10,000 seats in 3-5 years as per our expansion plans. We propose to make additional investments to set up a number of call centres across the country," Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, said.
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By the end of the current fiscal, Bharti Infotrac will have 500 seater capacity at its Delhi unit. The reduction in international telephone tariff has helped the company offer call centre services at economic rates to its US and other customers.
"With domestic telecom companies resorting to lowering of tariffs, we see a 50 per cent cost differential in the US. This will help us maintain a healthy margin in our call centre business," he added.
According to analysts, during the past few months, a number of firms are in the process of expanding capacity. A bulk of this capacity is in interaction centres and back office operations. Significant expansion plans are being implemented by GE Capital, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Spectramind and Convergys.
Recently, Bharti Infotrac has offered to manage a 1200 seater call centre in Gurgaon on behalf of American Express. For this, Bharti has offered entire bandwidth and other required facilities. However, this capacity will not figure in the enhanced capacity planned by the Bharti group.