Amtex Systems to become an integrated player in the technology and technology- enabled outsourcing space

Chennai: Amtex Systems Inc., a global IT consulting and services company and among New York’s top four privately held companies, is betting on a new integrated business offering strategy to fuel its growth in the future. As part of this new strategy, the company is foraying into the BPO space and has since set up a 300- seater facility in Chennai. Fresh investment of Rs.22 crores has been earmarked for the BPO foray, part of which has already been made. The BPO arm will be a division of Amtex Infotech Pvt. Ltd., the flagship arm of Amtex Systems Inc., in India for all its IT related forays. This investment is over and above the Rs.100 crores announced by Amtex last year for expansion of its development presence here and the IT infrastructure project in Siruseri.

The BPO foray fits well into an integrated business offering blueprint that Amtex has been working on for a while. The company took the first step in this direction when it forayed into the IT Infrastructure space with a differentiated offering of India’s first plug-n-develop center. With consulting at the front and IT infrastructure at the back, BPO was the only missing piece in the chain which would now be filled allowing Amtex to address an entire chain of a customer’s requirements.

Making the announcement in an interaction with media persons here during his brief visit to India, Sunny Pokala, President & CEO, Amtex Systems Inc., said,” Amtex shares a slightly different and more advisorial relationship with many of its marquee clients in the BFSI and healthcare verticals. This meant they look to us for advice and solutions and it is good from a business/revenue perspective to be able to fulfill all their needs ourselves. In that sense the new BPO arm complements and adds to our existing capabilities while opening a significant new revenue stream for us. If you have noticed, this typically has been our strategy all along which explains last year’s foray into IT infrastructure as well. We believe this kind of hybrid offering model allows better economies of scale, more revenues per customer and a better branding from the value perspective with the customers. ”

Amtex Systems’ BPO division began operations end December and already provides support to 10 global customers (some of them Fortune 500 companies) across the healthcare, market research, telecom and technical support domains. The mandate is as varied as healthcare revenue management for its onsite healthcare clients, being the exclusive partner to conduct a market survey for a US company from India to handling both inbound and outbound voice-based work for a telecom company. Amtex has at present hired 250 people for the BPO arm and expects this to ramp upto 1000 by 2008. The fledgling BPO arm already handles an estimated 2 million transactions every month which is expected to grow tremendously in the coming months. Amtex expects the BPO division to contribute US$15 million in revenues this year.

“Once the IT Park in Siruseri is operational, we expect a major boost to our overall revenues as by then, the BPO arm would have gained traction adding to the revenues. This along with steady growth in our mainstream global offshore delivery and onsite consulting business will ensure Amtex shifts into new gear from a growth point of view in the next year or two,” Sunny further added.

US$60 million Amtex Systems Inc. is a global IT consulting & services company and among New York’s top four privately held companies in this segment. Founded in 1997 by Indian technocrat entrepreneur, Sunny Pokala, Amtex Systems has special domain expertise in the BFSI, telecom & healthcare verticals. With presence in 12 countries across the US, UK and India, Amtex’s clientele include marquee names such as Goldman Sachs, NYSE, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan & Pfizer among others. Amtex Infotech Pvt. Ltd. is the wholly owned subsidiary of Amtex Systems and is the flagship arm for all of its IT-related investments and forays in India. The Indian arm has been growing in size and its contribution and is expected to be the major revenue driver for the company globally, in the next few years.