Wipro BPO for more non-voice business

Seeks higher value process work

After the change of guard at Wipro BPO during the last quarter with the departure of Raman Roy, there is a marked change of strategy intended to address the perceived weakness of the business model.

There has been excessive reliance on call handling which is the commoditised price sensitive-end of the business.

Wipro Ltd will now aim to change the revenue mix from its BPO unit to reflect the greater integration the unit's service is undergoing with the rest of the company's IT services business.

Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, said the target is to raise the share of revenues from "non-voice" BPO to 40 per cent from the current 15 per cent. "Last year it was 87 per cent, last quarter it was 85 per cent, and it will be less in the future," he said of the share of call centre business in overall BPO revenues.

Wipro BPO posted revenues of $42.5 million for the three months ended June 2005, the first quarter of this fiscal, compared with $41.1 million, for the same quarter the previous fiscal, a Wipro spokesperson said.

At Wipro's earnings press meet on Friday, Wipro officials said the BPO unit will see flat growth in revenues this quarter. In the first quarter, it reduced staff strength by 2,000 to 13,630 from the preceding quarter.

Increasing the "transaction-based business", such as processing housing loans for a mortgage company in the US or managing orders for a computer seller, will mean Wipro BPO will plug into the IT services that Wipro might be selling the same clients.

"In the medium term, this increases 'customer stickiness', and in the long run, there will be more integration with the IT services business," Premji said.