Post-acquisition of Portland Group, Infosys BPO is set to change gears and provide clients “transformational and business value kind of services” rather than transactional services.

The company now plans to invest in the area of sourcing and category management, and grow its business in this horizontal across Europe and North America.

Last year, Infosys BPO acquired the Australia-based provider of strategic sourcing and category management services for almost Rs 200 crore to “help accelerate profitable growth and fill any wide spaces in our service offerings,” according to Mr Gautam Thakkar, Vice-President and Head – Enterprise Services, Infosys BPO.

With this acquisition, Infosys BPO is armed to serve clients at all points on the value chain, and assist clients with strategic sourcing, category management, not just the transactional services like purchase process, requisition and help desk, Mr Thakkar said.

Infosys stands to benefit from the presence that Portland has in Australia and Asia, and is now going to establish presence for clients in Europe or North America. “Our emphasis is to grow in other geographies; we have invested a lot in our front end to get industry specialisation,” Mr Thakkar said.

“This is one of the focus areas for us and we need to exploit this area, and in the next 18-24 months this market is really going to open up for us.” he said. “We are growing our businesses onsite and are talking to our customers and telling them to invest more in the front end and have their specialised skills available,” he added

Unlike other offerings which have matured over time, the sourcing and procurement is an area that is most under explored as clients are just beginning to realise the benefits of doing this, Mr Thakkar told Business Line. “Companies are beginning to realise that it is not about costs but about value to improve the bottom-line and help optimise cost base,” he said.

The company works across horizontals such as finance and accounting, sourcing and procurement, HRO, customer service and operational analytics, with sourcing and procurement contributing 8 per cent to the company's overall revenues.

“There are other areas we want to invest in - whether in sales and fulfilment, HRO or supply chain- we will find opportunities,” Mr Thakkar said, adding that while Infosys BPO is not particularly scouting for further acquisitions, it will make one in any of the horizontals should anything interesting come up.

Source: Hindu Business Line