Ailing US computer services firm Unisys Corp plans to boost investment and hiring in India over the next three years as it cuts costs and strengthens cheaper offshore units, company officials said on Monday. Cal Killen, vice-president of global sourcing at Pennsylvania-based Unisys, told a news conference in Bangalore the company expected its workforce would total 4,500 in India in three years, half of them employed through partners.
The company currently employs 150 on its payroll in India and 1,000 through its partners. It plans to close this year with 2,000 workers in India, half of them on its payroll, Killen said.
The target implies an increase of about 50 percent from previous plans. Unisys had said last year that by 2009 it would employ some 2,000 people directly and 1,000 through partners.
Its Indian outsourcing partners include NIIT Technologies, Hexaware and privately held firm Caritor.
Killen gave no numbers on Monday for how much it planned to raise its investment in the country but said the increase would be significant. The firm said last year it planned to invest $180 million investment in India.
Unisys cut its 2005 outlook in January after posting a fourth-quarter loss resulting from problem outsourcing contracts and weaker sales of mainframe-class computers. Lawrence Weinbach, Unisys's chairman, told the news conference the company had suffered from a write-off in the last quarter on account of investments in its insurance-related services that did not pay off as anticipated, but he saw better days ahead.
Company officials said they were looking at an outsourcing centre in Eastern Europe but that Asia would be the fastest growing region for the company, which employs 40,000 globally.
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