Tecnovate to make third party foray, to invest $4 mn

Shipra Arora / New Delhi

Tecnovate eSolutions, the BPO arm of European online travel agency ebookers is foraying into the third party BPO space. The company is expanding its facilities to support the third party initiative targeted at the travel industry vertical. This includes the setting up of a new centre and an addition of another 1,500 people over the next one year. Tecnovate has outlined a $4 million investment to fund its expansion activities. It will pursue a dual strategy to operate in both the captive and third party sides of the business.

Prashant Sahni, chief executive officer, Tecnovate eSolutions said that the company will be putting in $3 million by the year-end with the remaining $1 million to be invested by June 2004. These investments will be directed towards augmenting its existing capacities and scaling up infrastructure to meet growing requirements from both the captive and third party business. Tecnovate is presently adding another 62,000 sq. ft. of area. The new facility will be based in the close vicinity of its existing centre in New Delhi and is expected to be operational in the next three months. For this Tecnovate is planning to hire an additional 1,500 people by mid-next year.

Tapping the US and European markets, the company will continue to focus on the travel industry for its third party initiative as well. It is targeting airlines, hotels, destination venues, car hire companies, travel insurance companies, cruise companies, etc., for this business. According to Sahni, the company has already built up capabilities and domain expertise in the travel industry and will be leveraging on this niche focus instead of spreading itself thin.” Our parent company, ebookers, has very well entrenched roots in 11 European countries, giving Tecnovate a ready and robust marketing backbone to tap the European market,” he added. The US business will help towards better seat utilisation of capacities.

In addition to this, Tecnovate is also planning to expand its portfolio of services. It already has its core service offerings in the domains of travel services, IT services and financial services for the travel industry. Apart from adding new services within these existing domains the company is also contemplating getting into new domains. Though not confirming it, Sahni did not rule out adding the HR services domain in the near future. Within the financial services area it has recently added services like financial accounting, budgeting and MIS and treasury management, which includes cash management, foreign exchange management, etc. to strengthen its portfolio.

Tecnovate has grown from a 15-person organisation in 2001 to the present 650. Presently it is operating out of a 22,000 sq. ft. centre in Okhla in New Delhi. The company provides BPO services to ebookers’ UK, Irish, French, German, Swiss, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish subsidiaries. It comprises almost one third of the group’s staff strength. The company offers services like telesales, e-mail sales and online sales support, customer care services, booking support, ticketing, air and land product data entry, billing settlement plan and land supplier reconciliation as part of travel services. Within IT services it offers services in the areas of Web production, Web development and technical help desk services.