EDS Opens Services Facility In IndiaEDS Opens Services Facility In India

EDS said Tuesday that it has opened a 500-seat IT services facility in India to serve customers who wish to move back-office operations to the subcontinent--where labor costs can be less than half of what they are in the United States.

Voice and data communication, business process outsourcing, data entry, and financial process management are among the services EDS will offer at the facility, which is located in the city of Mumbai. It will house about 700 staffers by year's end. EDS is investing roughly $12 million to build out the center.

EDS currently maintains about 1,200 staffers in India and says it plans to triple that number by the end of next year. Analysts say U.S.-based services companies need to expand their presences in India if they hope to stay cost-competitive with indigenous firms such as Wipro and Infosys. "India offers a low-cost, highly skilled labor pool; there is no getting around that," Technology Business Research analyst Humberto Andrade says.