New Delhi: Eyeing a revenue contribution of about six per cent from its Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) division, Hughes Software Systems (HSS) will double the division's current manpower strength of 300 in 2004.

"We will more than double the manpower in the Hughes BPO division next year," Arun Kumar, president and managing director of Hughes Soft, said.

Currently, it is contributing about one per cent to the revenue, he said.

Talks are at an advance stage to bag a few non-HNS (Hughes Network Systems) clients for the BPO division. HNS is the parent of HSS.

The Hughes BPO division provides online customer care services using voice, chat and e-mail across multiple industry segments like IT, networking, telecom, automotive, insurance, banking and financial services.

Hughes had set up dedicated BPO division last fiscal.

It would add 1,000 professionals in 2004 to work on wireless solutions and network management products to its current workforce of 2,200.

In October, the company had revised its net profit guidance for the year 2003-04 to approximately 80 per cent from the earlier 60-70 per cent but retained the earlier sales growth forecast of 55-60 per cent during the year.