Siemens arm to hire 1,000 for BPO operations

The recruitment would happen over 3 years.

The IT arm of Siemens India, Siemens Information Systems (SISL), plans to hire 1,000 professionals over three years for its newly launched high-end BPO operations in Kolkata.

SISL launched its centre of excellence (CoE) in Kolkata for managed services today. The division would cater to telecom companies and integrated service providers.

Anil Laud, managing director, SISL said the CoE would focus on offering end-to-end application management and operations, performance management, remote network operations and maintenance solutions.

Laud elaborated that handling sales support, customer care, billing operations, trouble ticketing and application support for a broadband service provider on a 24x7x365 basis, are the services that may be included.

"The high-end BPO operation is the first of its kind by SISL in the country. In fact, we have decided to expand rapidly in Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi in a couple of years. Kolkata was a natural choice given the developing infrastructure and untapped talent pool here," he said.

SISL has taken a 40,000-sq ft space in Millenium Tower at Salt Lake, the IT hub of West Bengal, for its operations. The company would primarily invest Rs 50 crore for the BPO operations in Kolkata.

"We shall initially employ 35-40 people in the BPO operation but gradually ramp it up to 1,000 in 3-4 years. It is going to be a major high-end operation for us," he added.

Elaborating on the business, Laud said that the company had targeted a Rs 100-crore turnover from the Kolkata operations by the end of 2008. Currently, the firm has earned Rs 46 crore turnover from operations in the city.

"We are growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50 per cent in Kolkata. So I am optimistic about a three digit revenue figure here," he added.