Infosys today (6 September) became the latest Indian IT outsourcing specialist to bolster its presence in Europe, announcing plans to double the size of its Czech nearshore development centre to over 350 seats.

The company said the site, which currently provides a range of business process outsourcing (BPO) services for European customers, would be expanded to also provide IT services such as capabilities for infrastructure management and package implementation projects.

BG Srinivas, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Infosys, said there was growing demand among UK customers for such nearshore facilities as they operate in a nearer time zone than Indian development centres, ensure that sensitive data remains within the European Union and tend to be staffed by workers who better understand customers' industry-specific issues.

Eastern Europe's multilingual workforce also appeals to pan-European firms looking to move work from France and Germany as well as the UK, according to Srinivas.

However, Srinivas insisted that nearshore development centres would complement rather than replace existing Indian sites and as a result the increased use of nearshore sites (which tend to be more expensive to run than Indian operations) will not lead to price inflation for UK customers.

"We've been able to maintain pricing levels as [more expensive nearshore sites have expanded] as you are not moving less work offshore to cheaper Indian sites - you're moving work that is otherwise done onshore to nearshore locations," Srinivas explained.