BA finance services win contracts
British Airways has already won three contracts to provide finance and accounting services to companies outside the BA group from its new centre in Bombay.
Last month BA announced that it would be contracting out 100 accounting jobs to an Indian subsidiary because the cost of staff was only 20% that of comparable salaries in London. The operation given the job of recruiting finance staff based in India, World Network Services, is a subsidiary of BA’s management consultancy subsidiary, Speedwing.
Industry insiders said WNS would appeal mainly to large multinational companies in very competitive markets, such as car companies. But the operation could soon rival firms in the UK like Andersen Consulting, which has outsourced several oil company finance departments.
BA confirmed it had signed the deals, but refused to reveal the names of the companies involved. All the company would say was: ‘They are not all in the UK and not all other airlines.’
Adding: ‘Several options were looked at before we made a decision, but Speedwing was considered to be keeping up the best service at the right price.’ Speedwing is best known for supplying specialist computer skills in areas like ticketing and computer-based training and advising on the privatisation of Kenyan Airways. Until last year it was part-owned by UK software house Logica.
BA said 600 of its 1,000 finance and accounting jobs would disappear as part of a wide ranging review. It estimated that 300 staff would be redeployed.
The company has spent u3m on computer systems to take over from staff working in the passenger revenue accounting section in order to save #9m over three years, it said.
