NEW DELHI: Anil Ambani-headed Reliance Communications has shortlisted IBM and Wipro among five companies each for two contracts worth a combined upto Rs 1,200 crore to upgrade technology across its call centre operations as well as to outsource those back office operations, a top official at the telco said.IBM, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Aegis and Vertex are those in the fray for the call centre outsourcing contract while IBM, Wipro, Cisco, Genesys and Avaya are in the running for the technology upgradation deal, the official told ET, asking not to be named.
"The two contracts worth a total Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,200 crore will be awarded to one company each. The deals are likely to be finalised next week," the official added.
The two contracts are a part of India's fourth largest telecom company's plans to exit non-core businesses and reduce costs to boost profitability which has been under pressure for several years now due to huge debt taken for buying spectrum and for network expansion.
Under the plans, RCom aims to slash as much as 37% of its 15,000-strong workforce by July-end by outsourcing its call centre and shared services operations to two third parties, which will result in some 6,000 employees exiting the company's rolls.
The official however didn't share any details regarding outsourcing of RCom's shared services operations.
The call centre outsourcing deal - which could be announced next week - involves nearly 3,500 employees based at its Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) near Mumbai and another 1,000 based at 12 regional call centres across the country who are engaged in servicing postpaid and premium customers.
Taken together with around 1,500 more employees - part of the shared services group - who will all move to the rolls of the contracted companies, RCom would be able to save around Rs 200 crore annually, the official said.
Spokespeople at RCom, IBM, Wipro, Cisco, Tech Mahindra, Avaya and Aegis declined to comment, while queries sent to Vertex and Genesys went unanswered. Another person familiar with the negotiations said that Aegis, an Essar Group company, was among the "final few left in the race" for the call centre outsourcing contract.
"Aegis will absorb 70%-80% of the staff, if it were to win the deal".
An RCom official had earlier told ET that the BPO and shared services businesses were "highly inefficient and not adding any value to RCOM's bottom line", which is why the company decided to outsource them and purely focus on core telco issues like customer acquisitions, sales, distribution, marketing and brand building to create a leaner organisation that is more cost-efficient.
RCom's debt will stand at aroundRs 34,000 crore after it repays someRs 6,100 crore raised by issuing shares to institutions and warrants to promoters recently. RCOM has also been trying to pare debt by initiating talks to sell its international and direct-to-home TV businesses and by monetising real estate holdings.
The attempt to cut staff costs Rs 307.3 crore in the January-March quarter, up from Rs 250.8 crore in the previous one and Rs 213 crore a year ago is aimed at complementing sales efforts. These will be the second wave of RCOM's outsourcing deals. Last year, it signed a total $2 billion of deals with Sweden's Ericsson and France's Alcatel-Lucent to outsource its pan-India network management operations to optimise resources and cut costs.
Once the employees move out from DAKC premises over the next six to nine months, RCom is likely to explore ways to monetise the freed-up office space once, company insiders added.
The Reliance Group company has reportedly set in motion plans to monetise its pan-India property holdings to raise Rs 5,000 crore, which it will use to reduce debt.
RCOM's plans to sell its global, wireline and DTH businesses apart from monetising its real estate holdings to nearly halve debt over the next two-three years, according to a person with knowledge of this.
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