British computer service company Xansa Plc aims to expand its operations in India and ramp up staff strength to meet booming demand for software services, its chairman said on Thursday.
Xansa, which has 4,000 employees in India or about half its total workforce, plans to add about 1,000 staff a year over the next few years, Bill Alexander said.
The firm does work ranging from developing software to processing financial transactions out of its three centres in Noida, Chennai and Pune.
Alexander, who was in Mumbai for a software conference, said he plans to expand operations at all the campuses.
In Pune, it aims to triple its headcount in the next 12 months, he said.
Many UK, European and US companies have set up offshore operations in India to take advantage of low costs and the country's vast pool of skilled, English-speaking workers.
Many companies have been under pressure to retain staff in the booming industry, and Alexander said, this was a concern.
"The cost involved in the rapid churn and getting quality people is not good," he said, referring to a high 25 per cent attrition rate in its BPO operations in India, compared with the UK's 6 per cent.
{{/usCountry}}"The cost involved in the rapid churn and getting quality people is not good," he said, referring to a high 25 per cent attrition rate in its BPO operations in India, compared with the UK's 6 per cent.
{{/usCountry}}At 40 million pounds ($69 million) sterling an annum, the cost of the Indian operations is about 10 per cent of the total turnover of Xansa, Alexander said.
In December Xansa said revenue fell for the second straight six-month period as it transferred increasing volumes of work for its UK private sector customers to India.
Doing work for clients out of India is a key plank of Xansa's strategy to raise margins to double-digit levels. Its customers include BT Group Plc, Boots Group Plc and Tesco Plc.