Spotlight

The supply chain specialist

Corbus is among the frontrunners in the Supply Chain Management segment buoyed by advantages such as Low Cost Country Sourcing, writes Kusum Makhija

Rakesh Mittal President and COO Corbus

Corbus is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Soin International and specialises in supply chain services and solutions for IT companies and BPOs and KPOs. It has a strong presence in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific markets, and has a global delivery centre at Noida, India. The company provides services across a wide industry base, which includes several Fortune 50 organisations. The company has developed a value proposition via a comprehensive range of competent BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) cells catering speed, accuracy, and reliability to leverage the client’s needs.

“We have been focussing on Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) which is at the higher end of BPO and is the future of the global collaboration industry,” says Rakesh Mittal, President and COO, Corbus. “Leveraging Corbus’ dedication in Supply Chain Management, we are confident that we can help clients cut costs, minimise and manage risk, and improve service quality and operational efficiency.”

The Corbus management team consists of experienced professionals from diverse backgrounds and industries. The company provides customers with a well-established infrastructure and business continuity processes, and certified IT and KPO professionals with multi-platform expertise making Corbus a preferred service provider for many leading organisations worldwide.

SCM for BPOs

“The BPO spend in the SCM space stands at $33 billion. Our target set of companies spend most of this. We have little competition in this space. The market is good and the opportunity ripe for us to aim for an aggressive growth. We are and will continue to remain a niche segment player in the e-procurement business,” says Mittal.

Though Corbus specialised in complete outsourcing solutions in supply chain, it developed a value-added offering focussed on Low Cost Country Sourcing (LCCS). LCCS is adopted by almost all the manufacturers and distributors and is projected to be a great entry strategy for many years to come. “Our LCCS advantage would help clients build synergy and speed into the workflow while achieving annual deflation targets, perfecting spend management strategies, and meeting or exceeding strategic business objectives,” explains Mittal. According to him, by adopting the LCCS advantage Corbus has addressed the explicit needs of the global clients, in the process giving the organisation an edge in the supply chain services market.

The company provides procurement services that are core to the manufacturing sector. Its clients include top companies in the aerospace and automobile manufacturing segments for whom it sources components. Corbus started in 1994 as a component supplier to a major aerospace manufacturer in the US and gradually expanded to provide BPO services in procurement. From aerospace it expanded its reach to manufacturing. The company screens suppliers, manages contracts on behalf of clients and monitors quality and supply chain.

In expansion mode

Corbus recently announced a contract for more than Rs 60 crore involving Fortune 500 corporations in a supply chain area. To support this supply chain contract, the company added 100 new employees globally to the current 500 employees located in the US, UK, and India. Many of these employees are Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt certified. “The combined strength of our employees brings rich domain expertise across industry sectors providing benefits to our customers. Corbus has crafted processes that combine the strengths of its client companies with a unique onsite and offshore ‘global collaboration model,’” says Mittal.

The company is bullish on the e-procurement market in North America and Europe. “We are in a unique position of offering complete outsourcing to co-sourcing solutions in the supply chain arena using our global collaboration model successfully,” comments Rajesh K Soin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Corbus.

“We started operations in the US and then came to India unlike other Indian companies which start here and then go abroad. Almost 70 percent of our SCM business is still in the US. All units are highly profitable and the operations are well-oiled. We are also exploring possibilities of setting operations in other B, C and D class cities in India,” explains Mittal.

Corbus currently has a headcount of about 350 people in India and is experiencing a 33 percent growth annually in this aspect. The company has an attrition rate of about 5 percent annually for its SCM practice. “The reason being we do not recruit fresh graduates and rather hire people with at least two to three years of work experience, with good educational background,” explains Mittal. The company has employees from various backgrounds such as lawyers and ex-defence personnel.

The company has recently acquired a new facility at Noida wherein they have a capacity of 400 people out of which 200 are on board. The company is looking to hire the rest of the people by the year end.

“Our Noida facility is world-class and signifies our focus on consolidation and streamlining of operations,” says Mittal. The company is now looking to expand its presence in China through a joint venture. It also offers quality certification to suppliers who may want to improve their production and processes to be eligible for supplying to Fortune 500 companies.

The company is expecting to grow to $ 100 million by the year 2007, through some acquisitions and value-additions.