Call centre ahead of new jobs schedule

AN Indian-owned call centre company set up in Northern Ireland a year ago is well ahead of schedule in creating 1,000 jobs.

Firstsource set up its first base in Belfast last August and another in Derry in December promising to deliver the jobs total in 2008.

“We are well ahead of schedule with 950 jobs created so far,” said Sean Canning, Firstsource’s British operations director as the company celebrated its first anniversary in Belfast.

He said it was a tremendous achievement and paid testimony to the hard work of the staff and the availability of talented people.

“We are delighted to be here at a time when the economy is expanding and to be making a valuable contribution to that economy as a whole, in Belfast and Derry in particular.”

Firstsource is one of India’s leading business process outsourcing service providers and employs over 15,000 people worldwide – with operations in India, Ireland, the US, Britain, Argentina and Philippines.

Firstsource was the first India-based BPO to directly invest in Northern Ireland.

The company specialises in servicing customers in banking and finance, telecom and media, travel and transportation, and healthcare.