Backed by new client wins and increasing business from the existing customers besides the addition of new geographies and focus areas, US-based Sierra Atlantic Inc, plans to go on a recruitment drive this year.

The application networks company, which has its global development centre in Hyderabad, intends to ramp up its global headcount by 2,000 by this year end, of which around 1,800 would be deployed in Hyderabad. Sierra Atlantic currently employs 1,200 globally, with around 1,100 of them working from Hyderabad.

Speaking to Business Standard, Sanjay Khendry, vice-president (global business development), Sierra Atlantic, said they would be initially focusing on the enterprise application services market in India during 2007, primarily in one of the company's core competence areas -- manufacturing.

"The clients in India are very knowledgeable and do a lot more diligence. We plan to start slowly this year, and significantly scale it up next year," he said, adding that the company was in discussions with several prospective companies in India including MNCs, with a few of them in advanced stages.

Sierra Atlantic currently has a clientele-base of around 400. It added around 15 new customers since the beginning of this year, including leading IT services and solutions providers based out of the West Asia and North America.

Stating that Sierra's merger and acquisition (M&A) pursuits were still on, Khendry said the company looked at a few firms for acquisition, both in India and abroad. "However, most of these companies' profiles really didn't match with that of Sierra Atlantic during due diligence," he added.

According to Khendry, Sierra would also focus on the banking, finance, securities and insurance (BFSI) vertical this year.

"BFSI traditionally needs lots of outsourcing and it is difficult to break into. We, however, would lay more thrust on this segment this year," he said. At present, BFSI segment accounts for only 5 per cent of Sierra's business.

Sierra Atlantic, which operates from four locations in Hyderabad -- Banjara Hills, Madhapur, Jubilee Hills and Secunderabad � is setting up a seven-acre campus near Nanakramguda on the city outskirts, at an investment of around $9 million.

"The first phase of the campus comprises five floors and would accommodate around 1,500 employees, while the second phase would be an over 2,500-seater. We expect the first phase to be completed by September-October this year. Once completed, we will merge the four facilities into the new campus," Khendry said.