|

|
|
ATUL
KUNWAR |
|
|
| FACT
FILE |
| CEO |
Atul
Kunwar (MD-global outsourcing
operations) |
| POSITIONING |
Broad-based BPO
company |
| STARTED
IN |
Jun-05 |
| OWNERSHIP |
eFunds
Corporation |
| REVENUE
(2002-03) |
$37
million |
| NO OF
PEOPLE |
3,210 |
| CORPORATE
ADDRESS |
Infinity Mind
Space, Raheja Commercial Complex, New Link Road, Malad (West),
Mumbai-400064 |
| WEBSITE |
www.efunds.com |
| NO.
OF CLIENTS |
11 |
|
|
|
| QUALITY |
 |
Created three centers of excellence. More are ongoing |
 |
Six Sigma implementation underway |
 |
Smartworks ongoing |
|
| LOCATION |
 |
FACILITIES:
7 (Mumbai–2, Chennai–2, Gurgaon–1, Woodbury, US–1, Dallas, US–1) |
 |
SALES
& MARKETING: Scottsdale, US; Cheshire, UK |
|
|
|
|
|
Featuring Efunds in this list is a paradigm shift in how India-centric has
been defined so far. Yes, the company conforms to our criterion of 60 percent or
more operations in India. That is the basic reason why it has been featured.
However, what is also significant about the company is its outsourcing
division is headquartered in Mumbai. So India is not just another facility for
the company, it is the decision-making center as far as outsourcing as a
business is concerned.
Starting as a small captive center for its parent—$ 543 million Scottsdale,
Arizona-based eFunds, an electronic funds transfer (EFT) solutions company—the
company quickly realized the India advantage and turned that into a
multi-million dollar, India-centric business.
Today, the Mumbai head quarters of the global outsourcing business of the
company is headed by an Indian MD, who had decided early in his career that he
would like to be based in India. The outsourcing operations today is several
times bigger than its captive operations in India.
One problem for us was that the company did not share much of the financial
figures for 2002-03, though it was prompt enough to cooperate on sharing other
details. Based on the manpower, type of work and the revenue that it has started
reporting from this year, bpOrbit estimated the revenue to be $37 million, thus
catapulting it to the no. 3 position in our ranking.
Unlike many other companies eFunds does serve a number of verticals—traditional
strength finance, retail, manufacturing, consulting—and number of different
types of processes—customer service, back-office processing, telemarketing,
collections, HR. The company even runs a dedicated offshore center for West
Teleservices, a top 10 call-center company in the US.
This is probably the only such partnership that has withstood the test of
time. The company also does collection for RMA, a major account receivable
management company in the US. American Express is another major client for which
the company does transaction processing, brokerage, credit cards, reconciliation
and the likes. In fact, it claims to be the only debit bureau in the world.
Efunds got into some negative press when it moved some work back to New
Jersey in the US sometime back. It continues to cater to government services for
mainly EFT and Risk Management solutions.
However, the magnitude was negligible and eFunds continues to grow in India.
Its exposure to government makes it susceptible on that front. Its large
telemarketing—entirely US-targeted—also raises the risk for the company,
considering the FTC DNC regulations.
EFunds has also concentrated hard on maintaining quality and unlike many
other players this extends to its infrastructure too. Therefore, it has tied up
with a number of best-of-the-breed partners for a proper telemarketing software
(in the post-DNC era) in addition to standard outbound dialer and monitoring
equipments.
It already has five facilities and the only company other than Spectramind to
have facilities in North, South, and West.
The company is looking for a new phase of growth now that will take it even
further. It remains to be seen whether it follows the WNS model of getting
independent.
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