Enhancing its BPO services, Infosys takeovers Eishtec in Ireland

Strengthening its operations in Ireland, India's IT major Infosys has taken over a 1,400-employee contact center company, Eishtec. The companies, however, has not disclosed the amount finalized for the acquisition, financial daily the Economic Times reported. Eishtec communicated the development to its employees on Monday and informed that the company's workforce will now be transferred to the Bengaluru-based IT services firm. In a statement, the Ireland based company informed that the merger would allow both companies to grow as they already share some key clients.

Eistech's CEO, Heather Reynolds said, "Eishtec is committed to our employees who have played a critical and integral role in helping us to attain our position as one of Ireland's leading customer service providers. We believe the decision to transfer the business to Infosys is in the best interests of those employees and the wider organization." Eishtec was formed in 2011 and has specialization in providing services to the telecom, social media, healthcare, edtech and fintech sectors. The company has offices in major parts in Northern Ireland including in cities like Waterford, Wexford, Clonmel, and Craigavon.

As per the deal, the current management of Eishtec will continue to execute to work. The analysts have said that acquisition would be part of Infosys's strategy to expand its BPO services in the Irish market. Mrinal Rai, principal analyst at technology researcher ISG said, "Infosys has strong capabilities in back-end business process services, while contact center services are more of front-office operations. There is pressure to bring back-office and integrate with front-office and providers are strengthening their capabilities."

"We are very excited to welcome the Eishtec employees who will help us further enrich our customer experience services. We look forward to helping them enhance their professional careers within Infosys. The transfer of the Eishtec employees will enable us to better serve our clients from the UK and Ireland, further leveraging our deep expertise in technology, analytics, and digital." Anantha Radhakrishnan, chief executive of Infosys BPM

Notably, earlier this year, Infosys had acquired 75% of Stater, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ABN AMRO, for around Rs 989 crore. The company has plans to grow in the mortgage processing market. In 2018, it has also acquired WongDoody and Fluido. Infosys has a considerable presence in Ireland and the company works major corporates including the Allied Irish Bank. Infosys had announced to invest up to $10 million in Irish startups in 2015.