On January 31, Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (acs) announced its plan to open a second operations center in Tianjin, China. The new center will provide IT and business process services to the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently, ACS has a Beijing center that handles human resources. The Tianjin center will add finance and accounting to the ACS' services in China. The new center will also provide IT outsourcing. It will accommodate 200 workers as soon as it opens next spring. And as early as now, clients have agreed to have services delivered from Tianjin.

China is considered the next destination for outsourcing. With two outsourcing centers already in India, an ACS spokesman states that "...China will help the company diversify its geographic base and service offerings. The spokesman adds, "India isn't the only place from which we want to provide offshore services. There are other places with other skill sets." At present, one-third of ACS's workforce is based outside the United States.