Icra Online plans major foray into BPO mart

Banking on the brand support of Icra, the Mumbai-based Online Indiacapital.com Ltd "" rechristened Icra Online Ltd "" plans to make major strides into the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market. Icra, holds a 33 per cent stake in the company.

"The change in name is in keeping with certain major steps that Icra Online is poised to take in extending its focus beyond the niche markets it currently services," P.K. Choudhury, managing director, Icra, and chairman, Icra Online said.

Icra Online hopes to gain a foothold in the BPO market after forming an equal joint venture with a Chicago-based IT and consultancy services firm. "While the US company is engaged in marketing in the United States, the operations are being handled out of Navi Mumbai. Significantly, the US company has bagged a contract from a leading global software organisation for providing various services, including software development." Aditya Agarwal, joint managing director, Icra Online said.

As of now, Icra Online is targeting BPO segments that include research and analysis, content management, human resources, legal, insurance claims processing, and back office processing (finance and accounting).

"The strategy provides enough room for the company to take up non-finance work as well, and accordingly, investments may be scaled up in line with requirements and opportunities," Mr. Choudhury said. Currently, Icra Online seeks to generate Rs. 3-5 crore from the BPO JV in its first year of operations.

BPO apart, Icra Online is also focusing on equity markets, bond markets, commodities and insurance. "While the back office products would provide for higher efficiency and control over operations, besides the adoption of best practices, the CRM products would help corporate management gain a better understanding of client profiles," Anurag Garg, joint managing director, Icra Online said.

Icra Online expects the number of Indian intermediaries requiring software solutions in the commodities and insurance sectors to increase at a brisk pace, thus providing excellent opportunities for growth.

Globally, volumes in commodity market are many times the volumes in stock market, while in India; commodity exchanges have just started functioning in an organised way.

Currently, Icra Online is working on certain other products aimed at facilitating financial planning and portfolio management.