UK's Prudential sets up offshore unit

Prudential plc UK, a life and pension provider with around seven million customers, has set up its fully owned subsidiary called Prudential Process Management Services in India with an investment of $10 million.

The 100,000 sq ft new offshore service center in India located in Mumbai has been established to improve customer contact service levels for the group's UK insurance operations, a statement from Prudential said.

Philip Broadley, group finance director, Prudential plc, said, "Prudential Process Management Services India is a logical extension of the ongoing customer service transformation strategy, outlined by Prudential in November 2001.

"Currently we are working to re-engineer our business and strengthened the prudential plc brand in the UK through a customer service focus that is driven by quality, productivity and cost efficiency."

R K Rangan, managing director, Prudential Process Management Services (India) Pvt Ltd, said, "We are launching a state-of-the-art service center that is fully integrated with the UK operations. We have implemented best of the breed global practices enabling professional development that will help us recruit and retain the best people. Our employees will gain range of skills including knowledge of the UK Financial services."

While, it is a captive offshore centre, the company claims that their Indian venture cannot be categorised as an outsourcing outfit like the other companies.

They say that they do not see this as an activity that is outsourced, but as a business which is very much a part of their UK business.

Nel Berkett, COO, Prudential UK explains, "The principle driver behind the decision was cost but we also wanted to increase our flexibility. The other main attraction to India was that we already had a business there. We leveraged off our experience in Asia. It really helped."

According to Rangan, by operating out of India, Prudential UK will save costs to an extent of 30-40 per cent compared with its centre in UK.

When asked how much of the work would be shifted to India, Rangan said, "As a part of the ongoing the ongoing customer service transformation strategy, we are expecting 30 per cent of the work to be done out of India by mid next year."

Operations will start by the end of June and the centre would be fully functional with a capacity of 850 employees by mid-2004.

While a third of Prudential's India operations would comprise call centre services, two-thirds would be business process related.