CHENNAI
SATURDAY JUNE 28, 2003
BHARAT Overseas Bank Ltd has tied up with Sundaram Finance Ltd for sourcing the `ATM card application processing work' from the latter.
Sundaram Finance officials told Business Line that the BOBL deal was `very tiny' in terms of volume, for the NBFC's new BPO division, but represented a breakthrough into the banking industry. "We are very happy that the banking industry is thinking in terms of outsourcing this kind of activity," Mr P.S. Raghavan, who heads Sundaram Business Services, the BPO division of Sundaram Finance, told Business Line. Sundaram Business Services is in talks with "a couple of non-banking finance companies" for handling their accounting work.
"They have the trust in us that we would not share the data with our parent company," Mr Raghavan said.
The one-year old division has also got business from a "large conglomerate based in Mumbai", but officials did not want to name the client, because of a confidentiality clause in their agreement.
Likewise, a contract has also been signed with a US-based company, for back office work. Mr Raghavan, who recently returned from a business tour of the US, said that Sundaram Business Services was also on the verge of getting orders from two US-based companies and another based in Australia.
Today, the BPO operation has around 250 seats, (or FTEs— full time equivalents). This would grow to 500 by the end of this year. "The US business alone will require 150 seats," Mr Raghavan said.
Sundaram Business Services currently offers back office processing work relating to employee administration, credit processing, deposit processing, cheque handling and insurance related processing and accounting services.
Bureau Veritas Quality International (BVQI) has certified the `quality management system' of SBS for compliance with ISO 9001:2000 standards, Mr Raghavan said.
The division today also provides services to many constituents and associate companies of the TVS group.
It expects to earn gross revenues of Rs 6.5 crore in the current year, including non-group related revenues of about Rs 2.5 crore, he said. |
