The Hiranandani group-promoted Zenta Technologies has entered into a strategic alliance with NCO Group Inc., an account receivable collection services provider, for setting up a business process outsourcing (BPO) facility dedicated to NCO.
Paul E Weitzel, executive vice-president, corporate development and international operations, NCO, said, "We have tied with Zenta in an exclusive arrangement after having carried out some pilot projects in India. While lower cost is the driving force for us to create the Indian operations, the quality of people is also of a very high standard. Zenta will be a lynchpin in our international strategy."
The alliance, which is based on the build operate and transfer (BOT) model, has factored in a change in ownership pattern at a future date based on pre-determined valuation parameters.
The tie-up with Zenta is the first international alliance of the NCO Group. The company has facilities in 82 locations, including two in the UK, and six in Canada. The rest are in the US.
The group has a combined annual revenue of around $750 million globally (approximately Rs 3,750 crore).
Zenta provides call centre, customer relationship management (CRM), and business process outsourcing (BPO) services to firms in the UK and US. It currently owns three centres with a total capacity of around 650 seats.
Zenta Technologies CEO Priya Hiranandani said, "Currently, NCO contributes around 35 per cent to our revenue, and we hope to maintain it at a similar level. However, in view of the growth that we will witness within the next 18 months, we will have to set up an additional facility to cater to the expanded business."
Zenta currently has around 600 employees, of them 225 are dedicated to NCO. The company plans to increase the number of people dedicated to NCO to 500 within the next two quarters, and to 1,000 within 18 months.
Zenta's existing operation is a 500-workstation facility, which would be scaled up by another 250 before an additional facility is put in place.