i-flex ramping up services business

i-flex solutions, the country's leading core banking solutions provider, has sharply hiked its hiring for Prime Sourcing, its services business. Nearly 600 people have been hired for Prime Sourcing in the last four months, compared to a similar number in the whole of last year.

The best kept secret of the company is the fact that even though it positions itself as a product company, Prime Sourcing contributed to nearly 40 per cent of the company's turnover in the previous fiscal. Recruitments for Prime Sourcing for the current year has not stopped yet.

"Services have always played a big role in contributing to the company's turnover. The term Prime Sourcing was given to this business only two years ago. Our competitors have built this element into their business but that's mostly in the form of consulting. However, consulting is not part of our services business. The products division have their consulting team. The key differentiator in this business is that we look out for servicing expertise in niche technology areas like Java, .NET among others," V Shankar, head, Prime Sourcing, i-flex solutions, said.

Prime Sourcing functions do not clash with those of i-flex. While i-flex has its own services and maintenance team for its clients, Prime Sourcing targets banks and financial institutions which do not have i-flex products.

"We are currently 2,000-strong (i-flex has a total head count of around 3,900) and execute nearly 400 projects a year. While consulting provides us with a lot of downstream revenues, the services business also helps us cross sell our products," added Shankar.

i-flex's services business is as old as the company itself. When i-flex solutions was formed and the company was developing its first product, nearly 75 per cent of the funding (investment for product development) came from its services business. i-flex had a team of experienced people in banking software, who went about providing solutions to banks.

Today, besides Bangalore, Prime Sourcing has a business contingency centre in Singapore where it employs 130 people as well as a nearshore centre in New York. The search for talent at Prime Sourcing for the fiscal is still on and the company is pleased with the response that its receiving.

Without revealing details on actual requirements for the year, Shankar said, "The requirements are mainly for technical people with functional exposure. Our Chennai centre is looking for expertise in mainframes as well as other technology areas like Java. We are also looking out for expertise in our payment technology initiatives, Siebel-related practices, CRM migration activities and people with project experiences in business intelligence," he said.

Building strength

• i-flex hired 600 people for its services business Prime Sourcing over the last four months
• The product maker's service unit is a major revenue-earner, contributing 40% to fiscal turnover.
• Prime Sourcing targets banks and financial institutions which do not have i-flex products.