Infosys to replicate rural BPO model globally

Bangalore: Buoyed by the response to its rural BPO activities in India — like the recently launched rural BPO in Kaup and its upcoming plan to launch a rural BPO in Bagepally — Infosys BPO has decided to set up rural centres in Tier II and Tier III towns in foreign countries, a senior official said. “It is tough to put a timeframe on something like this, but we should be doing this over the next four to five years,” Mr Rajiv Raghunandan, Associate Vice-President, Strategic Business Practice and Head - HR Services, Infosys BPO Ltd, told Business Line. Infosys BPO has five centres in India and seven centres internationally in countries such as Poland, China and the Philippines, which typically operate from large cities. For instance, four years ago, the company established an office in Lodz, the third-largest city in Poland. Now, as per the plan that Mr Raghunandan has outlined, the company wants to target rural areas in such countries. Partnership model The model may be similar to what the company is doing in India. Explaining this, Mr Raghunandan said, “We operate directly in Tier I and Tier II cities, but tie up with partners for Tier III and Tier IV cities.” For example, Infosys BPO launched the Kaup unit in Karnataka's Udupi district with Desicrew, while the Bagepally centre in Andhra Pradesh's Nizamabad district, which will be operational in a few months, will be launched with RuralShores. Infosys BPO embarked on its plans for rural BPOs around 18 months back and wanted to help people get jobs and more flexibility for itself. “If there is a spike in workload and we want people to work for two more hours, it is easy in a rural BPO, but in a Tier I city, you have to contend with various issues such as transport, overtime, etc. Also, the ability to retain talent is higher in rural areas,” said Mr Raghunandan.