IBM Daksh on Monday announced the launch of three new outsourcing delivery centres -- one each in Pune, Chandigarh and Kolkata -- with a total capacity of 2,100 seats.

Sanjeev Aggarwal, chief executive officer, IBM Daksh, said, "The launching of our operations in Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad ushers in the second version of business process outsourcing in tier-II cities, from metros."

With this expansion, the company now has centres across seven locations - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Manila.

Aggarwal refused to divulge the details like the investments and the break-up of seats in terms of each of the three cities but spoke on the working of these centres. He said these units would be catering to the domestic market as well.

"These are business transformation outsourcing centres, which will be catering to the domestic and the international markets. They will specialise in the hi-tech, insurance and telecom domains, and will provide both data and voice services," Aggarwal said.

Explaining the difference between a BTO and a BPO, he said, "A BTO provides a comprehensive set of services across the entire organisation resulting in a pre-decided output, whereas a BPO is just a contract for outsourcing services/ functions to be done in a specified way. So, Aggarwal added, "BTOs are more profitable and higher up in the value chain."