Software services firm Digital GlobalSoft Ltd expects to increase the number of workers at its fledgling call centre by about 70 per cent this year to handle increased outsourcing from global companies, a top official said.

"We are aiming to turn profitable in January and have a staff strength of about 1,500 by the end of March," Prashant Sankaran, who heads Digital's contact centre business, told Reuters late on Wednesday.

Digital is 50.6 per cent owned by Hewlett-Packard Co and earned 70 per cent of its revenue from its parent last year.

Its one-year-old technical customer contact centre has about 900 staff and has three overseas clients, including HP.

"The business is in the take-off stage and we should be closing the year with a couple of new customers," said Sankaran.

The Bangalore-based company's engineers provide remote voice-based support for computer hardware products such as desktops, servers and laptops over high-speed telecom links.

The loss-making division reported revenue of Rs 5.6 crore (Rs 56 million) in the past year to March, with the majority of the sales coming from the latest quarter.

The unit accounted for a fraction of Digital's sales of Rs 439 crore (Rs 4.39 billion) last year, but analysts expect its revenue to grow multifold this year and be a key driver of Digital's growth.

Foreign firms battling a prolonged economic slowdown are outsourcing back-office services and call centre business to Indian companies. Many of them are also setting up their own units.

"We have reached a stage where we are aggressively bidding for HP's business as well as other customers who are increasingly looking to move work to India," Sankaran said.

India's back-office services boom is aided by the country's vast pool of English-speaking workers, who can be hired at a fraction of what their counterparts earn in the United States.

The Digital unit's rivals include privately-held Daksh eServices and Wipro Spectramind, part of software giant Wipro.