Kanbay International, the US-based premier global systems integrator in the financial and security service sector, on Tuesday expanded operations in India by opening its third facility at Pune to meet the growing customer demand in the US, Europe and Asia.

The expansion comes in the wake of new customer orders and Kanbay's commitment to leverage Indian skill sets to augment its business.

The $83-million Illinois company plans to leverage its India operations for providing cost efficient, customised and scalable financial software solutions to corporations, worldwide.

As the largest software development centre outside the United States, the Indian operations represent the core of Kanbay's software activities.

Kanbay has built an impressive client list, including Fortune 500 firms.

After ramping up its Indian employee strength to 1300 from 500 last year, Kanbay plans to increase the number to 3000 by 2005. The new facility will house about 550 software professionals.

"The new facility reflects that the company's capacities are fully engaged and are ready to undertake new projects.

We can deliver the best of software solutions with our team of software professionals and the infrastructure built at the three facilities," Kanbay India CEO Cyprian D'Souza said in a statement on Tuesday.

The decade-old Kanbay has been an early proponent of offshore outsourcing business model, and has benefited most by offering software solutions to its customers through the global delivery model.

Global offshore outsourcing at competitive prices is becoming a critical success factor for global majors for application-related services.

According to Gartner, by 2004, about 40 per cent of US enterprises would be outsourcing IT services through a global delivery model," D'Souza stated.

US job loss up on BPO boom

Meanwhile, Kanbay has signed a new four-year $65-million contract with Household

International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC.