Outsourcing > KPO

After building up its Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) businesses, Hyderabad-based Karvy Global Services (KGS) is focused on forging stronger relationships with its clients in the U.S. and Canada and cultivating new ones.

\"The management of Karvy, our parent company, was very keen to have the leader of KGS sitting in the U.S. to be closer to our clients,\" says Atul Sood, Karvy Global Services\' recently appointed, New York-based president. \"One of the main reasons I have come on board is to deepen relationships with existing clients and drive value for them beyond their day-to-day requirements.\"

Sood, who joined Karvy in July from Bangalore-based IT services company Mphasis, where since January 2005 he was head of the North American solutions division in New York, says he is \"all about long-term relationships.\" Not only will KGS continue to produce high-quality work in a cost-effective manner, according to Sood, but it will also leverage its capabilities to offer clients an extensive set of solutions to help them expand.

\"Many of our clients--particularly financial services companies--are looking toward India as the U.S. slows down,\" Sood explains. \"We can serve as a real conduit for them, in terms of providing them with what they need for their growth plans, because of the breadth and depth we have in India. They have tried and tested us out; they know we can provide a quick turnaround and add value.\"

Such service, Sood says, will help establish the kinds of relationships that KGS needs for future growth. \"We are not that huge yet, but we\'re fine-tuning our offerings so that we\'re ready to scale new heights,\" he says. \"There will be continued retrenchment in the banking and financial services industry and more work going to India, so I see a continued opportunity for us to grow.\"

KGS was launched by financial services and accounting company Karvy in 2005, with ARthur Flew, a former Citigroup executive and the founder of Mphasis, which was acquired in 2006 by Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, as chief executive. Flew, who had been based in Hyderabad, retired early last year and Kris Sakotai, head of Karvy Global\'s KPO business, left the company in November.

Sood began his career as an investment banker in the technology sector before joining the business development team of Trilogy, an Austin, Texas-based technology services provider with an office in Bangalore. Gaurav Agrawal, a sales manager at Alcatel-Lucent Technologies who has also worked at Wipro Technologies, replaced Sakotai.