IT outsourcing firm Sutherland Global Services on Wednesday said it has acquired India-based Adventity Global Services, the latest in a string of acquisitions in the sector.
The all-cash deal was valued at about 2.5 billion ($55 million) with Adventity expected to record revenue of $50 million in the next 12 months, a source said on condition of anonymity.

The purchase of Adventity will help Sutherland, which is backed by Standard Chartered Private Equity and Oak Investment Partners, to firm up its presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Dilip Vellodi, chairman and chief executive of Sutherland, told Reuters.

These regions account for about 15 percent of a $175 billion global outsourcing services market, with U.S. constituting 65 percent and Europe making up the rest, he added. Funded by Norwest Venture Partners, CIBC and DA Capital in 2007, Adventity employs over 2,500 people who service the banking and financial, airline and travel sectors. (more…)

A Bangalore based IT firm Radiant Info Solutions, which is one of the key sponsors of 20-20 cricket tournament is set for a public private partnership with the prison authorities to start the first ever BPO behind bars. The idea developed from a conversation between G N Gopinath Reddy, the director general of prisons and C Narayanacharyulu, director of the Radiant Solutions.

The officials believes that providing jobs to the inmates in the IT sector can help find jobs easily after their release. Research shows that there are about 40% of the prisoners in the Cherlapally Central jail of Hyderabad who are educated and can contribute to the working of this project. With two to three months of training, the prisoners are likely to earn about 120Rs per day replacing the average per day wage of 15Rs for a traditional worker in a prison.

Radiant Officials states that the prisoners would be initially allowed to work on the back end processes like data entry for bank related queries. The BPO behind bars would operate in three shifts and round the clock. Though the company is planning to take about 200 to 250 inmates, at the beginning they would focus on 70 prisoners capable for this job depending upon their aptitude and interest levels. The company is expecting to have British as well as US clients in future. With this news widespread, there is havoc in the minds of customers about their information theft. But banks like Goldmans Sach, Royal bank of Scotland and Marks and Spencers states that it is completely safe as sensitive data is not being shared with the prisoner. Moreover, the convicts of fraud and robbery would not be allowed to work in the project. Source