24/7 Customer eyes acquisition

Hindu Business Line

Hyderabad: 24x7 CUSTOMER.COM, a provider of outsourced contact center and business process outsourcing services, on Wednesday inaugurated its Hyderabad facility that is expected to see overall investments of about $5 million this year.

The US-based company, with facilities in Bangalore and Hyderabad, is eyeing potential acquisition of companies in the BPO space. It has short-listed about 10 companies and is negotiating with them for acquisitions.

The Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, inaugurated the center at Cyber Gateway, which will initially have a capacity to host 300 seats. The phase two of the center is expected to be completed by the year-end thereby providing a total capacity of 700 seats capable of supporting in excess of 2,000 people over three shifts.

The Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of 24x7, Mr.Sahnmugam Nagarajan, said, "This contact center provides with a multi-center redundancy plans, which have become the current trend".

Mr P.V.Kannan, Co-Founder and chief Executive Officer of 24x7, said the latest center marked the move to enhance its position in the BPO industry. "Earlier, we had opened our first European office in June 2003 coinciding with the signing of a large multi-layer outsourcing engagement with a leading European insurance firm," the said.

The company, which currently has about 10 Fortune 500 companies as its clients, received $ 22 million venture funding led by leading venture investor Sequoia capital in July. The founders on their part pumped in about $10 million into the company. It registered a turnover of $15 million last year.