Here is a company that started it all. Aegis BPO, owned by the Essar Group, was the first case of a big onshore customer services firm being acquired by an Indian Groupsomething that has become an industry norm by now. And, since then, it has not rested. Aegis itself was large enough, so, scaling up was not the priority; diversifying for strategic reasons was the thrust. The acquisitions have been to that effect.

Aegiss acquisitions and other strategic growth initiatives follow directly from its positioning: that of an end-to-end customer lifecycle management company. While customer service and telesales have been its traditional strength area, to complete the cycle, it needed the other strategic piece: collections and recovery. Aegis did fill that gap by acquiring Global Vantedge, the largest pure play offshore collections services provider from India. Similarly, to address the database marketing space and have access to its VoIP-based telephony platform, Aegis acquired US-based Technion.

While strengthening international operations, Aegis sensed the opportunity to provide customer interaction services in Indias booming consumer market. Its two acquisitionsCustomer First, which gave it access to southern and eastern India, and Orion Dialog, which gave it access to the north Indian marketwere part of the India expansion strategy.

While in the established and mature US and European call center markets, Aegis had to play by the established rules, it sensed that in the still-evolving Indian market, it could experiment with some disruptive strategies. So, while the acquisitions gave it a platform to grow and have continuous revenue stream, it started positioning itself as what it calls a virtual retail player, or an alternative channel. Called Aegis Direct, this program already employs 500 people and has signed five clients in insurance, finance, and consumer goods. If successful, it plans to carry the program to other geographies.

This year could see a few more acquisitions as well as significant organic growth. DQ

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