US BPO firm's 1st India centre to be in Gurgaon

The unit will be built with an investment of $3-4 million and provide employment to around 1,000 people.

Making its entry into the Indian BPO market, US-based Receivable Management Services (RMS) today said it will set up its first centre in India with an investment of $3-4 million and is also "actively considering" acquisitions to expand in the country.

"We will set up our first BPO centre in India at Gurgaon, which will be operational by August 2006. In the first phase, we will invest about $3-4 million and increase it to $10 million in the next three years," RMS India Chief Operating officer Anil Kumar said.

"The Gurgaon centre will have a capacity of about 400 seats and we plan to recruit 800-1,000 people in the first year. The number will gradually go up to 5,000 in the next three years," he said.

He added, "The $10 million investment would also be used in setting up three more centres at Jaipur, Chandigarh and Ludhiana in the following three years. Discussions are on to acquire some companies here and abroad to expand our business and it would be completed in the next 2-3 months," Kumar said, adding that the company would also tap the domestic market.

"With wide opportunities present in the Indian BPO market, we expect a revenue of about $6 million in the first year and about $40 million in the next three years," Kumar said.

RMS deals in business to business accounts receivable, which includes electronic bill presentation, deduction management, cash application, credit charge backs besides traditional collections. The company has over 15 centres world-wide.

"In the company's India operations, we would try to rope in some of our existing global clients. We have a strong base in the global market. We will try to rope in our international clients for Indian operations besides adding some clients from here," Kumar said.

Being a wholly-owned subsidiary, the funding for the firm's Indian operations would come directly from the parent company.

"We would replicate our US-delivery BPO model in India, which would create a 'blended solution' for servicing multinational clients," Kumar said.