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India's HCL to create jobs in Armagh
ElectricNews.net - Dublin,Ireland
by Matthew Clark
India-based HCL Technologies has taken control of another
contact centre in Northern Ireland, making it the largest
business process outsourcing (BPO) firm in the region.
HCL said on Thursday that it had purchased the assets of
AnswerCall Direct (ACD) in a deal worth about INR294 million
(EUR5.1 million). Late last year, AnswerCall slipped into
receivership, following the loss of a major contract the
year before.
According to reports in the Indian press, HCL also received
assistance from the Northern Ireland government amounting to
STG900,000, aimed at helping the firm to create more jobs at
the former ACD site. The company is set to receive a further
STG3 million if it can create up to 400 more jobs at the
facility, which is based in Armagh and employs almost 200
currently.
For HCL, the buy is its second in the province, following on
from its takeover of British Telecom's former Belfast
contact centre, which went by the name Apollo. That 2001
acquisition, in conjunction with the new Armagh AnswerCall
Direct site, has made HCL the largest business process
outsourcing (BPO) firm in the North -- and one of the
biggest private sector employers, with headcount levels
soaring to around 1,800, thanks in part to substantial
support from Invest Northern Ireland.
"We are delighted that HCL's decision to acquire AnswerCall
Direct not only helps in securing more of the jobs at Armagh,
but also sends out a clear message to international
investors that Northern Ireland offers a strong value
proposition, particularly for outsourced contact centres,
software development and shared services centres," said
Leslie Morrison, CEO of Invest Northern Ireland, in an
Economic Times, India report.
Though its Northern Ireland operations consist primarily of
contact centres, HCL has its fingers in several other pies,
including IT consulting, application engineering, software
development, and systems design and integration. The firm,
headed by Shiv Nadar, was formed 20 years ago and now has
operations in 15 countries, with annual revenue of USD568
million for the year ended 30 June 2004.
AnswerCall Direct, meanwhile, has had a more troubled
history. In April of 2003, ACD said that it would create
over 400 new jobs at the Armagh contact centre under a
STG7.3 million investment backed by Invest NI. That deal was
designed to bring employment levels to some 700 jobs by
2006. But by September 2003, the company was shedding jobs
after the loss of a contract, with the firm going into
receivership 13 months later. |
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