Prudential''s $10-million offshore service centre set up in Mumbai

Mumbai: Prudential Plc, UK, has said that it has set up its fully owned subsidiary, Prudential Process Management Services (PPMS), in India with an investment of $10 million. The new offshore service centre in Mumbai is set up to improve customer contact service levels for the group''s UK insurance operations.

The Mumbai centre is expected to start operations by end-June 2003 with about 200 employees to begin with, while it has a capacity of 850 employees, which it expects to fill up by mid-2004. A third of the operations will comprise call centre services and two-thirds will be business process-related.

"PPMS India is a logical extension of the ongoing customer service transformation strategy outlined by Prudential in November 2001. We are working to reengineer our business and strengthen the Prudential Plc brand in the UK through a customer service focus that is driven by quality, productivity and cost-efficiency," says Prudential Plc group finance director Philip Broadley.