New Delhi: Terming India as its fastest growing market in Asia Pacific with 43 per cent year-on-year growth, hardware major Dell on Wednesday (Nov 24, 2004) said that it would invest more in the country and raise the headcount.

"We have a lot of sales and marketing people here in India including our call centres. As the business and market will be growing here, we will be raising headcount and resources in India. India is the fastest growing market for us in Asia Pacific and the third largest in terms of size after China and Japan," Paul Henri Ferrand, VP and GM, South Asia said. He said that Dell had four consecutive years of growth since its launch of the direct business model in India and had witnessed 43 per cent year-on-year growth. Dell had also gradually moved to get more market share, he said.

Without giving details on headcount or financials, Ferrand said, "We hired a lot of people in India. The business is growing very, very fast and we are basically addressing the headcount as the market grows. We are also starting to grow our professional services and we have a full-blown structure in India." He ruled out any manufacturing plans of Dell computers in India. Mr Ferrand said that Dell's focus on verticals in India would be large corporates, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) companies, telecom companies and banking finance and Government. Dell, which pioneered the direct sale model, recently opened its third call centre in Chandigarh.