India bags first client in Tata Steel Europe

KOLKATA, India - India's oldest private steel giant, Tata Steel and State-owned Steel Authority of India Limited's joint venture - Mjunction services, which has tied up with EPSA Groupe of France for a slice of Europe's e-procurement market, has bagged its first client in Tata Steel Europe, formerly known as Corus, a Mjuntion top official Friday said.

Mjunction is betting on e-procurement outsourcing in Europe as it plans to achieve multi-billion dollar worth transaction in the e-procurement space in financial year 2013.

Viresh Oberoi, Mjunction founder CEO and MD said "Our alliance with EPSA Groupe has helped us break into Europe, which is a mature market for e-procurement. Some 65 percent of Tata group's business comes from countries outside India. To begin with, we would like to target Tata group companies and jointly service the clients who require a presence on-site. We recently received a letter of intent from Tata Steel Europe after we made a joint pitch for the business."

In e-procurement, mjunction is mainly targeting low-cost, nonstrategic buys like paper and stationery or bearings, for instance, to achieve cost savings for corporates.

"Incidentally, Tata Steel Europe's operations are divided into three parts: the UK, mainland Europe and downstream units," Oberoi said.

"For starters, mjunction will work with the Tata Steel Europe's downstream units," he added.

While the EPSA alliance is likely to assist it in gaining a foothold in Europe and North America, Mjunction will provide a low- cost BPO facility for EPSA in India.

Rhodia and Faceo are the two French companies for which Mjunction is doing back-end transaction processing work for EPSA Groupe.