eFunds Corporation, the United States-based information technology company with global outsourcing operations as one of its core business areas, has expanded its call centre capacity in Mumbai by 200 seats.

One of the earliest players in the outsourcing space in India, eFunds will now have a total of 2,900 people employed in its outsourcing services centres across its three centres in India.

eFunds Corporation, which does third-party outsourcing work for the US and the United Kingdom-based clients in the financial services, retail and telecommunication sectors outsources close to 90 per cent of its work to India and only 10 per cent is done onshore in the US.

"The outsourcing sector is still experiencing tremendous growth. eFunds' global expertise in the financial services space, coupled with our process improvement and technology capabilities makes us strategically positioned to be the partner of choice in India for an increasing number of high-profile companies in the US and UK," said Kathleen Flanagan, senior vice-president, division executive, outsourcing solutions, eFunds.

According to a research study done by Call centre.net, an Australian research and consulting firm, the Indian call centre industry is expected to grow by 68 per cent in the next 12 months to touch 158,000 seats, overtaking Australia to become the largest call centre country across Asia in 2004.

Australia is currently on top with 135,000 seats and will grow to only 146,000 seats in the next one year. According to the study, India currently has over 1,200 call centres, with 154,000 agents and 96,000 seats. These are both in-house and outsourced call centres.

Gartner has also labeled offshore outsourcing as the world's fastest growing IT industry segment. This growth is a result of the 29 percent CAGR of the Offshore IT Services segment and the 68 percent CAGR of Offshore BPO, from 2002 through 2007.

Flanagan was here in India to announce the expansion plans and also announce Atul Kanwar's appointment as the new managing director of eFunds Corporations Global Outsourcing Solutions.

Atul Kanwar was formerly the chief executive officer of Syntel India.

On the problems in the US professionals facing resistance to jobs being sent to India, Flanagan said that resistance in the US is very small than it is actually being made out.

We are getting plenty of new work and we are having no problems. We are getting enquiries from financial institutions and insurance companies everyday, she added.