24/7 Customer Enters BPO Market  

24/7 Customer, an IT enabled services (ITES) company, has entered the
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) segment, currently offering services in
financial processes. The company plans to aggressively market itself in this
area and plans to have 40 percent of its revenue coming from this business by
2003. Out of its total strength of 1,000 employees, 200-300 are working in the
BPO business.

PV Kannan, 24/7 founder and chief executive officer said that the BPO areas
held a lot of promise for Indian ITES companies. "Initially, our company
will target its existing customer to extend ITES services to offer BPO services
too. We currently have 12 customers from the Fortune 500 list who come from
varied vertical industries," he added. The company has also appointed
Vellayam Subbiah as head of its BPO initiative.  Kannan said that 24/7
would also target India-based companies in a limited manner. "To start
with, we will look at offering our services to our existing US customers who
have presence in India. Some of the top Indian corporate brands will also be
targeted," he added. According to Kannan, the practice of implementing ITES
for customers was at a nascent stage among Indian companies. "They want to
test the waters with small scale operations initially," he said.

Besides the US markets, 24/7 is also eyeing the European markets, which
Kannan said is picking up steam. The company, which has its center in Bangalore,
would soon launch its Hyderabad center. It has also acquired land in Kochi to
begin its BPO operations in a big way. 24/7 was recently ranked one of the top
ten ITES companies in India by NASSCOM.

(CNS)