vCustomer will hire 950 in 2008

NEW DELHI: Privately-held customer care and technical support provider vCustomer Corp said it will hire 950 people in India in 2008. The company has bagged a customer support and order taking contract for McDelivery services in India.

McDonald’s India (North & East) calls will now be routed to the centralised vCustomer contact centre in Delhi. vCustomer said that 25% hiring will add to its current workforce of 3,800.

“We plan to have around 25% of revenue from the domestic Indian market by the end of 2008 … and the related hiring would be required to maintain that kind of a growth,” vCustomer’s chief executive Sanjay Kumar said from his Washington office to DNA Money.

The Kirkland, Washington-based company said the hiring would primarily be for the employees for the Indian market, which the company plans to double from its existing headcount of 600.

Currently, vCustomer gets around 12% of its revenue from India-specific operations.
Kumar, who believes in the benefits of staying private said he has no “active plans” to go public in the US or in India. He said the company has seen a “tremendous growth” in India operations, especially in the last nine months.

vCustomer is also looking for some acquisitions and partnerships in China and Philippines to have a delivery centre outside of India in 2008.

Kumar said there has been “no impact” on operations due to the US slowdown.
“I have not seen any slowdown in customer service outsourcing, even if there is a impact… it is very minimal. I suppose internal IT budgets of the companies may be impacted,” Kumar said.

vivek_s@dnaindia.net