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IT-People: a specialist recruiting firm

EC Bureau / Mumbai

A specialised recruiting firm for the IT industry, IT-People, has launched its Indian operations with ambitious plans to be one of the largest IT staffing organisations in India and the APAC region. The ‘click and mortar’ company is setting up eight offices in India, and will be appointing 25 franchisees across the country. This is apart from its global offices in the UAE, UK, US and Singapore. In fact the Dubai office was set up at Dubai Internet City in October 2004, a few months before the launch of its Indian operations.

How will a late entrant make its presence felt in an already overcrowded IT recruitment market? “We understand the IT business as we are from the same field. We firmly believe that there is tremendous demand for a niche player,” states Ketan Sheth, chairman of IT-People. Its key management people include well-known industry names like Adi Cooper (founder and chairman of Tracmail) and Vikram Shah (former Talisma head). “IT-People is going to have a worldwide presence in the Far East, Middle East, UK and the US,” adds Sheth. In India, apart from Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi, the recruiting firm will have its own offices in Chennai, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Pune and Ahmedabad. It will appoint franchisees wherever it is unable to set up an office. It is also looking for staffing company acquisitions in India and abroad.

With an investment of Rs 25 crore, the company is aggressively targeting the market. Besides e-recruitment and temping, it will also have an HR consultancy division. A state-of-the art facility is in the process of being set up at the Millennium Business Park in Mahape, Navi Mumbai, for providing infrastructure and people for ODC (offshore development centre) partnerships with global IT organisations.

Sheth plans to increase the current staff-strength of IT-People from 25 to 150 by this year-end. Says he, “We have people of five nationalities working with us. People who have joined us have come from much larger organisations. They are working with us because they believe in the business model.”