Convergys setting up new facility in Hyd

Ohio-based Convergys Corporation, a $2.8-billion global integrated billing and customer care services company, is setting up a new facility in Hyderabad.

The facility, coming up in the vicinity of the company's existing IT campus on the city outskirts, will have a capacity to house 700 professionals and is expected to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2008, Douglas E Brueckner, senior vice-president (global software development), Convergys Corporation, told Business Standard.

He, however, did not want to commit on the investments for the new centre, or specify the number of employees that the company would recruit.

"Initially, our idea is to create a critical mass at Hyderabad and nurture it as our strategic centre, before looking at growing our human resources pool at other locations in the country," he said.

Convergys, which began its operations in India around five years back, currently has eight contact centres in the country across all of its business lines - customer care, employee care and information management - with a headcount of over 12,500.

It opened its campus in Hyderabad in 2005, which apart from R&D, provides professional services and operations' support for its information management business. It houses over 1,300 professionals.

Stating that the telecom vertical is the company's biggest growth driver, which has been contributing significantly to its revenues, Brueckner said they were looking at partnering more Indian telecom operators and systems integrators to offer billing capabilities.

"On the contact centres' side, retail is our new line of business. We are doing a lot of work for the retail sector and are looking at expanding our scope and applicability in this vertical," he added.