Suman Layak

Kolkata, October 16

ITC INFOTECH India Ltd, the information technology subsidiary of ITC Ltd is considering IT enabled services as a new line of business. Sanjay Verma, the managing director told Hindustan Times today that the company would not like to let got the opportunity to invest in this area.

"We are looking at the prospect of investing in the field. We are definitely not into low-tech areas like medical transcription. However, opportunities in higher end call centres are being actively considered," he said.

The areas that Verma has in mind are online help desks and support services. The decision is a result of the growing need in US to outsource processes and back office services in order to save on costs.

The company is a 100 per cent subsidiary of ITC Ltd and is reorienting its focus towards the Asia Pacific region. The company has two subsidiaries in United States and United Kingdom

Verma said that the company is aggressively recruiting people and has plans to recruit 400 people in the current calendar year. Of these 50 people have already come on board and are undergoing training. The company is focussed on four vertical industry areas - these are retail, commodities, hospitality and consumer products.

ITC lnfotech would be opening eight new offices all across the world including places in Europe, America and in Singapore, Australia and Japan. While most of these offices would be business development offices some may also have an onshore development centre.

The company already has an onshore development centre in United Kingdom and is setting up another in New Jersey, USA.

Speaking about the economic gloom prevailing in the world, Verma said that orders have slowed down in USA, but the situation is slightly better in Europe. However, there are a lot of orders coming in from Australia and the other south east Asian countries.

The Asia Pacific region accounts for 30 per cent of the world's IT spend of which India commands a market share of around 10 per cent.

The company recorded a turnover of Rs 60 crore in the first year of  operation. It was created on October 1, 2000. Last year 32 per cent of the revenues came from work done for ITC Ltd, but Verma expects this to go down to around five per cent in two years.