Secova to open 2nd facility in Chennai

US-headquartered Secova eServices Ltd, a human resources and benefits management services company with offshore operations in Chennai, is setting up its second knowledge centre here.

The company has taken 26,000 sft on lease for six years at the DLF IT Park in Porur. The facility will have a seating capacity for 400 people and is expected to be operational by October 2007.

"Our spending on the DLF facility for the next one year will be close to $1.2 million and will be sourced from internal accruals. We are planning to recruit around 150 professionals by December 2007," Venkat Tadanki, co-founder and chief executive officer, Secova, said.

The new facility will offer the same benefits management services as the existing one, which includes the segments of health and welfare benefits administration services, life event management, dependent eligibility audit, absence management, wellness and disability programmes and total rewards management.

Last fiscal, Secova acquired 12 clients, of which four are Fortune 500 companies.

Declining to disclose deal sizes of the clients, Tadanki said, "Typically, a five-year deal size would range anywhere between $2.5 million and $8 million. It takes around 3-6 months for us to roll out services to our clients."

"Currently, the human resource outsourcing (HRO) market size is $76 billion, growing at 14 per cent. Of this, the US market is the largest at around $40 billion. So, our focus would be on the US market for the next five years. Our revenues would be almost the same as that of a BPO company with around 1,500 employees, which is in the region of $15-20 million," Tadanki said.

Headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, the company employs 300 professionals, of which over 150 are in India.