Convergys opens its first Indian R&D centre at Hyd

Ohio-based Convergys Corporation, a global integrated billing and customer care services company, today inaugurated its first software research and development centre in India at Hyderabad.

In India, the company currently operates out of seven offices, which provide technical help desk services and customer support and the Hyderabad centre is the company's eighth office.

Addressing a press conference, Larry S Schwartz, executive vice-president, global information management operations, Convergys Corporation, said: "The Hyderabad centre is the third largest location in terms of employees and we will develop it into a centre for excellence in terms of sales effectiveness."

According to him, apart from the R&D activities, the new centre would also provide professional services and operations' support for the company's information management business. "The centre would also be part of the round-the-clock support infrastructure and will be fully integrated into the company's global telecom network," Schwartz said.

The research and development centre will have an Asia Pacific professional services team to ensure that customers have real-time availability of professional services in the region.

The centre at present employs 600 professionals and the construction of the second phase is currently underway and is likely to be completed by April. He, however, did not want to commit on the investments required for the new centre.

Vinay Mehta, managing director of Convergys Information (India) Private Limited, said: "Once the second phase is completed, it will have a capacity employing 600 professionals." He, however, did not specify the number of employees that the company would recruit going forward.

The company, which has 10,000 employees in India, plans to double its workforce over the next two years. Schwartz said, "Over the last couple of years, there has been a growth in the industry and the company wants to maintain its position and that is why the additions would take place."

Convergys is also looking at new technology to increase the channels of providing business process outsourcing (BPO) services. According to him, the company is looking at other cities to expand its customer care services.

Responding to a question, Schwartz said that in the last couple of years the attrition level had dropped in the BPO operations of the company. He also said that the company was always on the look out for mergers and acquisitions on the technology side.

"In the past, we have acquired some companies in the information management space and are constantly on the look out," Schwartz said.