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KFC counts its dollars in Kolkata
Kolkata has no KFC outlet, but accounts of the fast food giant is maintained through a BPO agency in the city.
Kolkata has neither a McDonald's nor a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet, but the accounts of both fast food giants are maintained through a business process outsourcing (BPO) agency in the city.
Acclaris Business Solutions claims it is the only BPO in Kolkata to handle financial accounts of such US-based fast food stores as McDonald's, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Chic-fil-A.
Acclaris, which also has offices in Tampa, Baltimore and Visakhapatnam, "offers flexible finance and accounting solutions" to about 200 fast food stores of the US from its Kolkata BPO unit.
According to company managing director Kalyan Kar, Acclaris' accounting solutions are tailored to client needs and preferences and can range from outsourcing of portions of the process to turnkey outsourcing of entire functions.
"This results in higher quality back-office results with savings of 20-50 percent compared to the costs and overhead associated with an in-house back-office," Kar said.
Acclaris, which has 120 employees here, has plans of expanding its operations in the city and has already booked 20,000 sq ft in an upcoming IT zone.
The company began offering accounting solutions to the 200 fast food stores from Monday. The firm hopes to get contracts from another 200 such stores by next year.
Communist-ruled West Bengal, which initially opposed IT as anti-worker, is now making every effort to woo major companies to set up shop in Kolkata.
The BPO sector is holding out great promise for the state, which aims at becoming one of the top three states in software exports by 2010. It has set up a special cell and an expert committee to help achieve the target.
The city is already home to Microsoft, Wipro, Tata Infotech, Tata Consultancy Services, IBM, Cognizant Technology Solutions, The Chatterjee Group, NIIT, Skytech, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Computer Associates, Astral Systems and Cisco Systems.