Nordea AB, the biggest regional bank in the Nordic region, along with peers Svenska Handelsbanken and SEB, are among a new set of customers planning to offshore technology work to India, as they aim to bring down operational costs by up to 30% and cope with the slump more effectively.
Indian tech vendors such as TCS, HCL, L&T Infotech, Wipro, Infosys and Cognizant are in discussion with Nordic customers for outsourcing contracts potentially worth around $100 million each over next few years.
Outsourcing advisory firm EquaTerra recently analysed around 370 outsourcing contracts signed by over 200 Nordic customers and concluded that the Indian service providers scored better than European vendors such as TietoEnator and Capgemini when it came to customer satisfaction. EquaTerra analysed almost $4.3 billion worth of outsourcing contracts signed by these customers.
Most Nordic countries, especially Sweden, have high cost structures. This is putting pressure on local customers to seek low-cost resources in locations like India, which will help them tighten belts by up to 30-40 %.
“India remains the dominant offshore destination for Nordics firms. 61% of the respondents are using India to fulfill at least some of their global sourcing needs,” EquaTerra said in a recent report. When contacted by ET, Indian tech vendors declined to comment on any potential outsourcing contract being pursued by them.
TCS, India’s biggest software outsourcing firm, said Nordic customers are indeed beginning to explore more outsourcing options.
“While the overall Nordic IT market is expected to remain flat in 2009, the demand for services outsourcing continues to be firm and we are seeing continued growth,” said AS Lakhminarayanan, vice-president and head(Europe), TCS. “Norway in particular is expected to demonstrate one of the highest IT market growth rates in Europe in 2009, estimated at between 1-2 % annually, while most other markets have remained flat or even declined,” he added.
Customers such as Handelsbanken have been exploring offshoring of IT work for almost a year, and a worsening economic crisis forced them to look at offshoring more seriously.
The bank is now seeking suppliers for maintaining its legacy mainframe systems, and also make them work with newer business software applications. Nordic customers prefer to start an outsourcing engagement with smaller contracts of $10-20 million, but are expected to ramp up after experiencing the promised benefits.
Unlike other European markets such as Germany where labour laws make it difficult for an offshoring contract, countries in the Nordic region are more flexible.
However, they still prefer to exercise caution during early relationships without succumbing to doling out multi-year, mega outsourcing contracts. “If you look at the last 100 deals signed over the past six to eight months, you would find that they range from € 500,000 to € 150 million, which is a broad range. The most significant deal size segment, in terms of frequency, would lie in the range of € 8-20 million,” agreed Mr Lakhminarayanan.
Showing posts with label TCS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TCS. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
IT market, New Deals, Outsourcing, TCS
TCS bags multi-million dollar deal
Indian IT major Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), today announced that it has entered into a a multi-million dollar deal with a Singapore's People's Association, a statutory board under Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, to provide annual Application Management Services for two years.
Under the agreement, TCS would develop and maintain People's Association's business and citizen centric applications including mission critical applications. It involves consolidating its multiple vendor environment allowing for reduced maintenance costs and simplified system administration, said a press release.
This system would enable higher process efficiency and staff productivity across the organization. All these would contribute towards lower costs spent on application maintenance, while improving end user satisfaction and enhancing citizen experience with the agency.
Girija Pande, EVP and head, TCS Asia Pacific, said, "Our expertise in AMS, combined with our ability to deliver certainty of results would provide sustained value to People's Association."
He added that they installed strict quality control procedures and continued to drive more value for their Singaporean clients through increased service quality provided by their team of highly qualified people with local knowledge of culture and processes.
Under the agreement, TCS would develop and maintain People's Association's business and citizen centric applications including mission critical applications. It involves consolidating its multiple vendor environment allowing for reduced maintenance costs and simplified system administration, said a press release.
This system would enable higher process efficiency and staff productivity across the organization. All these would contribute towards lower costs spent on application maintenance, while improving end user satisfaction and enhancing citizen experience with the agency.
Girija Pande, EVP and head, TCS Asia Pacific, said, "Our expertise in AMS, combined with our ability to deliver certainty of results would provide sustained value to People's Association."
He added that they installed strict quality control procedures and continued to drive more value for their Singaporean clients through increased service quality provided by their team of highly qualified people with local knowledge of culture and processes.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Cost cutting, HCL, Infosys, IT market, Recession, TCS, Wipro
IT firms pull out all stops on staff training
Indian IT majors may have tightened their belts in various areas to contain costs as a fallout of the global economic slowdown. However, most of them see continuing value when it comes to employee training, even though it skims crores of rupees off their top-lines.
Top tier IT firms — including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro and HCL Technologies — have identified the need to train the brains they handpick annually from India’s top engineering colleges and technical institutes as a critical task, even as the industry is seeing a degree of upturn in client demand.
India’s largest IT services provider, TCS, for instance, spends 2 per cent of its revenue every year on training new entrants. Bangalore-headquartered Infosys recently announced the opening of a grand training facility at its Mysore campus. Infosys annually spends over Rs 800 crore on training alone. Wipro spends about 2 per cent of its net sales in providing training to employees.
While Infosys and TCS have, to a certain extent, tried to centralise their training resources, Wipro’s strategy has been of a federal nature to cater to local manpower requirements. Wipro has set up an archipelago of training centres in proximity to its competency centres all over India and overseas.
“Wipro believes in taking learning as close as possible to the learner. Hence, for fresh recruits, training is conducted at the development centres where the employee is to be placed. Training happens primarily at our Talent Transformation Centres in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata and Kochi,” says Sreekala Ramamurthy, GM (talent transformation), Wipro Technologies. Overseas recruits, she says, are either provided training at the company’s global centres like the Atlanta Development Centre or “...recruits are flown down to our India offices”.
HCL, too, has decentralised its training infrastructure across the globe because its employees are no longer confined to a particular geography or location. According to Anand Pillai, senior V-P and global head (quality, talent transformation & intrapreneurship development), HCL Technologies: “Since learners are spread across the globe, the entire training department is also spread across the world. Our programmes are standardised to cater to global learning challenges and simultaneously manage different cultural nuances and local sensitivities.”
TCS provides an Initial Learning Programme (ILP) at the company’s corporate learning centre in Thiruvananthapuram. “We invest heavily in world-class training for our employees. ILP training is primarily conducted at our corporate learning centre at Thiruvananthapuram for Indian and non-Indian trainees. We replicate our fresher training programme at Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore and Baroda, as well as overseas, to bring scalability to our training model,” says Ajoy Mukherjee, V-P & head (global HR), TCS.
TCS’ new facility, the Peepul Park, is spread over 12 acres of newly acquired land in Technopark. The 3.5-lakh square feet Peepul Park is snazzily designed and also houses a Leadership Development Institute. The ILP Learning Block can accommodate 1,000 employees at a time, a hostel block accommodates 500 people, with a recreation centre and library thrown in. The facility has a capacity of 1,500 people.
The ILP is replicated in overseas geographies for new hires from countries like Australia, China, India, Hungary, Uruguay, the UK and the US. TCS also ensures that it hires people with diverse educational backgrounds and across geographies.
Infosys recently expanded the company’s global training centre, located at its 337-acre Mysore campus, by setting up another dedicated facility (GEC-II) for training. However, Infosys also maintains training infrastructure at all its development centres. The company recently extended the training duration for new recruits (freshers).
“We consider training as an investment in the future. Our investments to enhance our training capabilities are in keeping with future requirements,” justifies S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD, Infosys Technologies.
Top tier IT firms — including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro and HCL Technologies — have identified the need to train the brains they handpick annually from India’s top engineering colleges and technical institutes as a critical task, even as the industry is seeing a degree of upturn in client demand.
India’s largest IT services provider, TCS, for instance, spends 2 per cent of its revenue every year on training new entrants. Bangalore-headquartered Infosys recently announced the opening of a grand training facility at its Mysore campus. Infosys annually spends over Rs 800 crore on training alone. Wipro spends about 2 per cent of its net sales in providing training to employees.
While Infosys and TCS have, to a certain extent, tried to centralise their training resources, Wipro’s strategy has been of a federal nature to cater to local manpower requirements. Wipro has set up an archipelago of training centres in proximity to its competency centres all over India and overseas.
“Wipro believes in taking learning as close as possible to the learner. Hence, for fresh recruits, training is conducted at the development centres where the employee is to be placed. Training happens primarily at our Talent Transformation Centres in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata and Kochi,” says Sreekala Ramamurthy, GM (talent transformation), Wipro Technologies. Overseas recruits, she says, are either provided training at the company’s global centres like the Atlanta Development Centre or “...recruits are flown down to our India offices”.
HCL, too, has decentralised its training infrastructure across the globe because its employees are no longer confined to a particular geography or location. According to Anand Pillai, senior V-P and global head (quality, talent transformation & intrapreneurship development), HCL Technologies: “Since learners are spread across the globe, the entire training department is also spread across the world. Our programmes are standardised to cater to global learning challenges and simultaneously manage different cultural nuances and local sensitivities.”
TCS provides an Initial Learning Programme (ILP) at the company’s corporate learning centre in Thiruvananthapuram. “We invest heavily in world-class training for our employees. ILP training is primarily conducted at our corporate learning centre at Thiruvananthapuram for Indian and non-Indian trainees. We replicate our fresher training programme at Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore and Baroda, as well as overseas, to bring scalability to our training model,” says Ajoy Mukherjee, V-P & head (global HR), TCS.
TCS’ new facility, the Peepul Park, is spread over 12 acres of newly acquired land in Technopark. The 3.5-lakh square feet Peepul Park is snazzily designed and also houses a Leadership Development Institute. The ILP Learning Block can accommodate 1,000 employees at a time, a hostel block accommodates 500 people, with a recreation centre and library thrown in. The facility has a capacity of 1,500 people.
The ILP is replicated in overseas geographies for new hires from countries like Australia, China, India, Hungary, Uruguay, the UK and the US. TCS also ensures that it hires people with diverse educational backgrounds and across geographies.
Infosys recently expanded the company’s global training centre, located at its 337-acre Mysore campus, by setting up another dedicated facility (GEC-II) for training. However, Infosys also maintains training infrastructure at all its development centres. The company recently extended the training duration for new recruits (freshers).
“We consider training as an investment in the future. Our investments to enhance our training capabilities are in keeping with future requirements,” justifies S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD, Infosys Technologies.
H1-B, NRIs, Recession, TCS
TCS: We need more time
The new head of India's top outsourcing firm, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, said that it would take another few months to tell whether business spending was recovering, as customers were still working on their IT budgets for 2010.
"We'll have to wait for the next three months. All the customers are going through their cycles now," N Chandrasekaran, who takes over as chief executive when S Ramadorai retires on October 5, said in an interview.
TCS, which provides consulting, system integration and call center management, competes with India's Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd as well as big global players such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co and Accenture which offer similar services to multinational corporate clients.
Ramadorai, in the same interview, said the company was seeing more stability but that a more substantial recovery would take time.
"When is there going to be growth? I think it's going to take a while," he said.
Despite the cautious outlook and a recently announced plan by Dell Inc to buy technology services company Perot Systems, Chandrasekaran said he did not see a need for TCS to consolidate through mergers and acquisitions.
"It's not a question of ... getting squeezed" by US companies beefing up their services offerings, Chandrasekaran, currently chief operating officer, said.
"There is a lot of room for organic growth. We're expanding our footprint, we're expanding our portfolio of services that we offer," he said. But he added that TCS would consider acquisitions that bolster the company's portfolio of services.
He also said the company plans to add 1,000 jobs in the United States in the next year to boost its presence in a market TCS sees recovering ahead of other regions like Europe. The company currently has around 13,000 workers in the US.
"We'll have to wait for the next three months. All the customers are going through their cycles now," N Chandrasekaran, who takes over as chief executive when S Ramadorai retires on October 5, said in an interview.
TCS, which provides consulting, system integration and call center management, competes with India's Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd as well as big global players such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co and Accenture which offer similar services to multinational corporate clients.
Ramadorai, in the same interview, said the company was seeing more stability but that a more substantial recovery would take time.
"When is there going to be growth? I think it's going to take a while," he said.
Despite the cautious outlook and a recently announced plan by Dell Inc to buy technology services company Perot Systems, Chandrasekaran said he did not see a need for TCS to consolidate through mergers and acquisitions.
"It's not a question of ... getting squeezed" by US companies beefing up their services offerings, Chandrasekaran, currently chief operating officer, said.
"There is a lot of room for organic growth. We're expanding our footprint, we're expanding our portfolio of services that we offer," he said. But he added that TCS would consider acquisitions that bolster the company's portfolio of services.
He also said the company plans to add 1,000 jobs in the United States in the next year to boost its presence in a market TCS sees recovering ahead of other regions like Europe. The company currently has around 13,000 workers in the US.
Friday, September 25, 2009
IBM, New Deals, Outsourcing, Satyam, TCS
TechM, IBM, TCS in race for $400-mn Sistema deal
Tech Mahindra, IBM and TCS are vying for a $400-million (Rs 1,800 crore) IT outsourcing contract from Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), said a person familiar with the matter.
Negotiations are on with these companies for a 10-year deal, but the contract will contain a clause that will allow Sistema Shyam to exit after five years, he said, requesting anonymity. Sistema — one of the largest public diversified corporations in Russia and the CIS — has a 74% stake in the JV with the Shyam Group that offers mobile services under the ‘MTS’ brand in India. Sistema Shyam is the only CDMA player, among the new crop of telecom operators.
“A final decision on the deal is expected to be taken by the year-end,” said Rajeev Batra, chief information officer of SSTL. He confirmed that these three IT companies were in the reckoning for the contract, but did not confirm the value of the contract.
The proposed deal will not include the operator’s BPO operations, as the telco has already outsourced its customer care operations to Essar Group’s Aegis BPO.
The winning company will manage SSTL’s IT systems across the 22 telecom circles in the country. SSTL, which is scheduled to launch telephony services in Delhi next month, plans to be a pan-India operator by the third quarter of next year. While a senior Tech Mahindra executive confirmed that the talks with SSTL were on, the TCS spokesperson declined to comment. But, TCS had earlier said it was aggressively chasing deals in telecom, financial services, life sciences and retail.
IT major IBM, too, did comment on being in the race for the SSTL contract. Early this year, SSTL had tied up with IBM for designing and building its green data centres in Chennai and Gurgaon.
SSTL executives said the company was exploring an operating expenditure model for this IT outsourcing contract. This model of outsourcing is considered more cost-efficient for companies since it allows the IT partner to take the telco’s IT assets on its books. While SSTL is yet to award its IT contract, most other new operators have already done so. Etisalat DB recently awarded the contract worth $400 million to Tech Mahindra, while Datacom’s IT infrastructure management has been awarded to IBM for about $200 million.
Unitech Wireless, in which Norway’s Telenor holds a controlling stake, has outsourced its IT infrastructure management to Wipro for about $500 million.
SSTL was among the nine new companies that were given licenses early past year to launch mobile services. So far, the company has launched CDMA-based services in six circles and has about two million customers in its network.
The country has seven pan-India mobile phone operators led by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Vodafone Essar. A string of new players like Datacom, Loop, S Tel, Unitech Wireless and Swan are also in the process of rolling out nationwide services.
The country has close to 450 million mobile subscribers and a telecom penetration of over 41%.
Negotiations are on with these companies for a 10-year deal, but the contract will contain a clause that will allow Sistema Shyam to exit after five years, he said, requesting anonymity. Sistema — one of the largest public diversified corporations in Russia and the CIS — has a 74% stake in the JV with the Shyam Group that offers mobile services under the ‘MTS’ brand in India. Sistema Shyam is the only CDMA player, among the new crop of telecom operators.
“A final decision on the deal is expected to be taken by the year-end,” said Rajeev Batra, chief information officer of SSTL. He confirmed that these three IT companies were in the reckoning for the contract, but did not confirm the value of the contract.
The proposed deal will not include the operator’s BPO operations, as the telco has already outsourced its customer care operations to Essar Group’s Aegis BPO.
The winning company will manage SSTL’s IT systems across the 22 telecom circles in the country. SSTL, which is scheduled to launch telephony services in Delhi next month, plans to be a pan-India operator by the third quarter of next year. While a senior Tech Mahindra executive confirmed that the talks with SSTL were on, the TCS spokesperson declined to comment. But, TCS had earlier said it was aggressively chasing deals in telecom, financial services, life sciences and retail.
IT major IBM, too, did comment on being in the race for the SSTL contract. Early this year, SSTL had tied up with IBM for designing and building its green data centres in Chennai and Gurgaon.
SSTL executives said the company was exploring an operating expenditure model for this IT outsourcing contract. This model of outsourcing is considered more cost-efficient for companies since it allows the IT partner to take the telco’s IT assets on its books. While SSTL is yet to award its IT contract, most other new operators have already done so. Etisalat DB recently awarded the contract worth $400 million to Tech Mahindra, while Datacom’s IT infrastructure management has been awarded to IBM for about $200 million.
Unitech Wireless, in which Norway’s Telenor holds a controlling stake, has outsourced its IT infrastructure management to Wipro for about $500 million.
SSTL was among the nine new companies that were given licenses early past year to launch mobile services. So far, the company has launched CDMA-based services in six circles and has about two million customers in its network.
The country has seven pan-India mobile phone operators led by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Vodafone Essar. A string of new players like Datacom, Loop, S Tel, Unitech Wireless and Swan are also in the process of rolling out nationwide services.
The country has close to 450 million mobile subscribers and a telecom penetration of over 41%.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
New Deals, Outsourcing, TCS, Wipro
Wipro, TCS bag major IT services contracts
Two of India's IT bellweather companies Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro bagged contracts from major agencies. Wipro Ltd, India's No. 3 outsourcing company, said on Wednesday it had won a three-year IT services contract from Aquarion Water Company, one of the largest water utilities in the United States.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on the other hand has won India's largest state-wide area network (SWAN) project from the Andhra Pradesh government.
Financial details of the Wipro deal were not disclosed. TCS' five-year project is based on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model. "This is the fourth SWAN project TCS has bagged in a row," said a company statement here Wednesday.
It is now implementing SWAN projects in Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Bihar.
The proposed SWAN project will enable the state government to start and run various e-governance projects and citizen services. The project would be rolled out in 12 months and TCS will then maintain it for five years.
"We are happy to partner with TCS for this project. This is yet another initiative of the state government to take a wide array of services to the common man," said Sameer Sharma, secretary and chairman of Andhra Pradesh Technology Services.
The project envisages connecting state headquarters with 1,088 sub-divisions and 23 district headquarters.
Once the project is commissioned, the network will enable the state to have video-conferencing facility across government offices and enable them to communicate and conference with each other over VoIP (voice over IP) phones, which will reduce the government's phone bills considerably.
Various e-governance applications like RTO, healthcare, education, municipality would also ride on this network backbone, said Sanjay Kumar, managing director of Andhra Pradesh Technology Services.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on the other hand has won India's largest state-wide area network (SWAN) project from the Andhra Pradesh government.
Financial details of the Wipro deal were not disclosed. TCS' five-year project is based on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model. "This is the fourth SWAN project TCS has bagged in a row," said a company statement here Wednesday.
It is now implementing SWAN projects in Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Bihar.
The proposed SWAN project will enable the state government to start and run various e-governance projects and citizen services. The project would be rolled out in 12 months and TCS will then maintain it for five years.
"We are happy to partner with TCS for this project. This is yet another initiative of the state government to take a wide array of services to the common man," said Sameer Sharma, secretary and chairman of Andhra Pradesh Technology Services.
The project envisages connecting state headquarters with 1,088 sub-divisions and 23 district headquarters.
Once the project is commissioned, the network will enable the state to have video-conferencing facility across government offices and enable them to communicate and conference with each other over VoIP (voice over IP) phones, which will reduce the government's phone bills considerably.
Various e-governance applications like RTO, healthcare, education, municipality would also ride on this network backbone, said Sanjay Kumar, managing director of Andhra Pradesh Technology Services.
New Deals, TCS
TCS bags Rs 140 cr AP network project
Tata Consultancy Services on Wednesday said it has been awarded a state-wide area network (SWAN) project from the Andhra Pradesh government, which targets to connect the state’s headquarters with all 23 district offices in the state to increase efficiency in government functioning.
Andhra Pradesh IT secretary Sameer Sharma said the size of the deal would be about Rs 140 crore. This is the largest such contract in the country and will be based on the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model, that is typically used in infrastructure projects for five years, TCS said in a statement.
Andhra Pradesh IT secretary Sameer Sharma said the size of the deal would be about Rs 140 crore. This is the largest such contract in the country and will be based on the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model, that is typically used in infrastructure projects for five years, TCS said in a statement.
New Deals, TCS
TCS bullish on government deals worth Rs 3000 crore
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is looking at Rs 3,000-crore government projects to help it double its revenues from the domestic market in three years.
The country’s largest IT services company is chasing 24 projects related to technology implementation in railways, defence, power and several state governments. The company hopes to bag a large number of these projects in the coming 12-18 months and double the share of its domestic business to 10% in three years. “We expect to increase domestic revenues to double digits by 2012,” said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, vice-president and head of global government industry group at TCS.
The increased activity in the domestic market - particularly from underpenetrated government departments and ministries - will help the portfolio of the export-focused domestic IT services firms as the global slowdown has seen their growth tapering off.
“Prior to elections, decisions were on hold. But now with the new government settling down, we expect quite a few large projects to be announced in the domestic market in 12-18 months,” said George Paul, executive vice-president for marketing at HCL Infosystems. HCL is also pursuing technology projects related to power, telecom and computerisation of municipal corporations in several states.
Infosys Technologies, the country’s second-largest IT services company, is similarly pursuing opportunities in the domestic market. The Bangalore-based company’s nascent India business unit has bid for defence, telecom, railways and some power projects. The company was unavailable for comments as it is observing a mandatory silent period before announcing its financial results for the second quarter.
In a recent interaction with ET, Infosys’ India business unit head Binod HR had said, “Given that the government is technically underpenetrated, there are a large opportunities to tap. We will be pursuing them.” The company had recently bagged a 10-year e-business project from the ministry of commerce.
Small to mid-sized companies such as Mumbai-based Spanco that has bagged projects in Maharashtra and Orissa see opportunity in the domestic market. “We are chasing businesses like modernising public distribution system, border check posts and developing e-districts,” said Kaustubh Dhavse, head of business strategy at Spanco.
As government departments increasingly take the hi-tech path, there will be plenty of business for locally-focused IT players.
The country’s largest IT services company is chasing 24 projects related to technology implementation in railways, defence, power and several state governments. The company hopes to bag a large number of these projects in the coming 12-18 months and double the share of its domestic business to 10% in three years. “We expect to increase domestic revenues to double digits by 2012,” said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, vice-president and head of global government industry group at TCS.
The increased activity in the domestic market - particularly from underpenetrated government departments and ministries - will help the portfolio of the export-focused domestic IT services firms as the global slowdown has seen their growth tapering off.
“Prior to elections, decisions were on hold. But now with the new government settling down, we expect quite a few large projects to be announced in the domestic market in 12-18 months,” said George Paul, executive vice-president for marketing at HCL Infosystems. HCL is also pursuing technology projects related to power, telecom and computerisation of municipal corporations in several states.
Infosys Technologies, the country’s second-largest IT services company, is similarly pursuing opportunities in the domestic market. The Bangalore-based company’s nascent India business unit has bid for defence, telecom, railways and some power projects. The company was unavailable for comments as it is observing a mandatory silent period before announcing its financial results for the second quarter.
In a recent interaction with ET, Infosys’ India business unit head Binod HR had said, “Given that the government is technically underpenetrated, there are a large opportunities to tap. We will be pursuing them.” The company had recently bagged a 10-year e-business project from the ministry of commerce.
Small to mid-sized companies such as Mumbai-based Spanco that has bagged projects in Maharashtra and Orissa see opportunity in the domestic market. “We are chasing businesses like modernising public distribution system, border check posts and developing e-districts,” said Kaustubh Dhavse, head of business strategy at Spanco.
As government departments increasingly take the hi-tech path, there will be plenty of business for locally-focused IT players.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
IT market, TCS, Wipro
Mid-size IT companies to ring in pay hikes
After software giant Wipro lifted freeze on promotions and hikes, although selectively, mid-sized technology firms like MphasiS-EDS, Sonata Software and Symphony Services are also planning to increase salaries and give bonus.
IT services firm MphasiS, which recently bagged new outsourcing contracts, has announced a recompense bonus for its staff which the company feels is possibly an innovative compensation model. “For good performers, the bonus can be 15-25% higher than the average pay hike,” MphasiS chief human resources officer Elango R said.
Recompense bonus will compensate for the salary freeze which was introduced in early 2009. “It is a one-time adjustment in the form of a bonus to reward employees for their commitment and contribution,” said Mr Elango.
The recompense bonus is guaranteed up to the third quarter and is linked to the company’s overall performance and that of the business units as well as to the performance of employees, which includes the individual appraisal rating, for the fiscal year ending 2009.
“If in the fourth quarter, the company achieves its targets again, the bonus size will get bigger. In case they do not meet targets, the bonus will still be paid out on a pro-rata basis based on the third quarter results,” Mr Elango pointed out. He said this bonus was possible not only by winning new businesses, but also through
operational efficiencies.
Offshore product firm Symphony Services is planning to hike salaries for all its employees by 7-8% once its budget is ready. “We are noticing that other companies are also contemplating hikes of 5-8%. However, companies are keeping a watch on the overall market,” C Mahalingam, executive vice-president and chief people officer of Symphony Services, said.
Like MphasiS, Sonata Software, too, has introduced a new package called ‘company-linked performance pay’. Last year, the firm had dropped annual incentives and appraisals due to the economic meltdown. “But this year, there will be appraisals, salary increments between 7-10% and incentives based on performance because the market is getting better and Sonata is getting projects from the UAE, the US and the UK,” said a person privy to the developments.
These changes come at a time when layoffs and salary cuts have become a rather controversial method to control cost. Experts like Ashok Reddy, managing partner and co-founder of staffing company, Teamlease, said business is picking up and companies are increasing salaries based on employee performance, revenue and profit rise. “Many companies are restructuring pay scales or cost-to-company compensations. And attrition rate will also grow as more jobs are coming in,” said Mr Reddy.
Going forward, mid-sized companies will explore more innovative compensation models that will be based more on performance, experts said. To boot, apart from the bonus plan, MphasiS has announced a quarterly performance-linked pay model for FY10. “Effective November, a percentage of annual fixed and base salary will be converted to variable which will be paid based on quarterly performance of the company and the business unit,” Mr Elango said.
IT services firm MphasiS, which recently bagged new outsourcing contracts, has announced a recompense bonus for its staff which the company feels is possibly an innovative compensation model. “For good performers, the bonus can be 15-25% higher than the average pay hike,” MphasiS chief human resources officer Elango R said.
Recompense bonus will compensate for the salary freeze which was introduced in early 2009. “It is a one-time adjustment in the form of a bonus to reward employees for their commitment and contribution,” said Mr Elango.
The recompense bonus is guaranteed up to the third quarter and is linked to the company’s overall performance and that of the business units as well as to the performance of employees, which includes the individual appraisal rating, for the fiscal year ending 2009.
“If in the fourth quarter, the company achieves its targets again, the bonus size will get bigger. In case they do not meet targets, the bonus will still be paid out on a pro-rata basis based on the third quarter results,” Mr Elango pointed out. He said this bonus was possible not only by winning new businesses, but also through
operational efficiencies.
Offshore product firm Symphony Services is planning to hike salaries for all its employees by 7-8% once its budget is ready. “We are noticing that other companies are also contemplating hikes of 5-8%. However, companies are keeping a watch on the overall market,” C Mahalingam, executive vice-president and chief people officer of Symphony Services, said.
Like MphasiS, Sonata Software, too, has introduced a new package called ‘company-linked performance pay’. Last year, the firm had dropped annual incentives and appraisals due to the economic meltdown. “But this year, there will be appraisals, salary increments between 7-10% and incentives based on performance because the market is getting better and Sonata is getting projects from the UAE, the US and the UK,” said a person privy to the developments.
These changes come at a time when layoffs and salary cuts have become a rather controversial method to control cost. Experts like Ashok Reddy, managing partner and co-founder of staffing company, Teamlease, said business is picking up and companies are increasing salaries based on employee performance, revenue and profit rise. “Many companies are restructuring pay scales or cost-to-company compensations. And attrition rate will also grow as more jobs are coming in,” said Mr Reddy.
Going forward, mid-sized companies will explore more innovative compensation models that will be based more on performance, experts said. To boot, apart from the bonus plan, MphasiS has announced a quarterly performance-linked pay model for FY10. “Effective November, a percentage of annual fixed and base salary will be converted to variable which will be paid based on quarterly performance of the company and the business unit,” Mr Elango said.
new openings, TCS
TCS opens centre in Argentina; to employ 250
Expanding its footprint in Latin America, the country's largest software exporter TCS today said it has opened a new delivery centre in Buenos Aires for providing consulting, BPO and IT services which will employ 250 professionals.
"Our growing presence in Latin America continues to be of strategic importance to our overall business growth and we remain committed to working in close collaboration with institutions and universities (here) to help foster the development of local talent in Argentina and provide our customers with IT solutions from this location," TCS CEO S Ramadorai said.
The new centre would provide consulting, advanced IT solutions, BPO services and IT product implementations besides, housing the company's first regional SAP centre, the company said in a statement.
This is the eighth global delivery centre of TCS in Latin America, in addition to centers in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico.
Indian IT companies have been focusing on South America and countries such as Argentina and Brazil as a destination for offering services to clients in the US time zone.
Shares of TCS were trading at Rs 568.50, down 0.42 per cent in afternoon trade at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
"Our growing presence in Latin America continues to be of strategic importance to our overall business growth and we remain committed to working in close collaboration with institutions and universities (here) to help foster the development of local talent in Argentina and provide our customers with IT solutions from this location," TCS CEO S Ramadorai said.
The new centre would provide consulting, advanced IT solutions, BPO services and IT product implementations besides, housing the company's first regional SAP centre, the company said in a statement.
This is the eighth global delivery centre of TCS in Latin America, in addition to centers in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico.
Indian IT companies have been focusing on South America and countries such as Argentina and Brazil as a destination for offering services to clients in the US time zone.
Shares of TCS were trading at Rs 568.50, down 0.42 per cent in afternoon trade at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Cost cutting, IT market, TCS
No variable pay for TCS trainees for first six months
India’s top software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has said that fresh recruits will not be eligible for variable pay during the first six months when they are on training. The decision will take effect from this quarter when about 1,500 freshers are scheduled to join the company.
“The compensation re-structuring is primarily from a productivity point of view — we want them (freshers) to understand variable component is really a ‘variable’ and will depend on how well they perform in their project. We want that accountability and mindset change to happen from day one,” said Ajoy Mukherjee, head, global HR. During the training period, freshers are not billable as they don’t work on any client projects, and hence do not contribute to company profits.
Freshers at TCS get variable pay of Rs 5,000 a month. The move will result in savings of close to Rs 75 crore for the company, as it has recruited about 25,000 students from campuses in 2008. These freshers are expected to join the company during the course of fiscal but depending on business demand and training capacity.
“There will be savings as a result of this — not very significant but not very low either. The primary reason is not savings, but a mindset change,” said Mr Mukherjee. He said TCS would honour all the campus offers that were made with 1,500 freshers joining this quarter and the rest by the end of the fiscal.
The concept of variable pay was introduced for freshers last year, and the training period, which was for three months, was extended by another three months in the fourth quarter of last fiscal. The company had also decided not give any increments this year, and Mr Mukherjee said there were no changes to this as of now. Last year, it had given a 10% annual increment to all employees. However, those employees, who have been promoted, have been given nominal increments this year, he said.
Companies are not yet returning to big spending and TCS is still in a mode of being as efficient as possible, he added.
The company is also recruiting 250 freshers from US universities for its Cincinnati campus in the current fiscal. However, these freshers have a different compensation structure and will not be affected by the change in variable pay policy. TCS is attempting to replicate the same model it has in India on its Cincinnati campus as well. It will hire students from technical fields on campus and train them.
“The compensation re-structuring is primarily from a productivity point of view — we want them (freshers) to understand variable component is really a ‘variable’ and will depend on how well they perform in their project. We want that accountability and mindset change to happen from day one,” said Ajoy Mukherjee, head, global HR. During the training period, freshers are not billable as they don’t work on any client projects, and hence do not contribute to company profits.
Freshers at TCS get variable pay of Rs 5,000 a month. The move will result in savings of close to Rs 75 crore for the company, as it has recruited about 25,000 students from campuses in 2008. These freshers are expected to join the company during the course of fiscal but depending on business demand and training capacity.
“There will be savings as a result of this — not very significant but not very low either. The primary reason is not savings, but a mindset change,” said Mr Mukherjee. He said TCS would honour all the campus offers that were made with 1,500 freshers joining this quarter and the rest by the end of the fiscal.
The concept of variable pay was introduced for freshers last year, and the training period, which was for three months, was extended by another three months in the fourth quarter of last fiscal. The company had also decided not give any increments this year, and Mr Mukherjee said there were no changes to this as of now. Last year, it had given a 10% annual increment to all employees. However, those employees, who have been promoted, have been given nominal increments this year, he said.
Companies are not yet returning to big spending and TCS is still in a mode of being as efficient as possible, he added.
The company is also recruiting 250 freshers from US universities for its Cincinnati campus in the current fiscal. However, these freshers have a different compensation structure and will not be affected by the change in variable pay policy. TCS is attempting to replicate the same model it has in India on its Cincinnati campus as well. It will hire students from technical fields on campus and train them.
HCL, Infosys, IT market, TCS, Wipro
Infosys ahead of the rest of the world, says Sonia
Software major Infosys is a "stunning reminder" of what Indian talent, ingenuity and hard work can accomplish, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi said today.
"You have shown to India and the world that an Indian company Cannot just be world class, but be ahead of the rest of the world", the Congress President said after inaugurating the company's Global Education Centre-II here.
She said the success of Infosys, India's second largest software exporter, should not be measured in Dollars alone, but in the difference it makes in transforming a society for the better.
Praising the Indian IT industry, Gandhi said the success of Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and other companies had changed the lives of millions of Indians and propelled the country's economy to a record-breaking growth.
Gandhi also spoke of the enabling environment created by the state government for the growth of Indian IT companies.
She recalled the "temples of modern India" established by former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the groundwork laid down by her husband Rajiv Gandhi for the "revolution" in Communication and Information Technology.
Rajiv Gandhi faced "bitter political opposition" to his vision, not just in introduction of computers, but his greater challenge was on the "mindshift" of people in terms of accepting new ideas, she said.
"You have shown to India and the world that an Indian company Cannot just be world class, but be ahead of the rest of the world", the Congress President said after inaugurating the company's Global Education Centre-II here.
She said the success of Infosys, India's second largest software exporter, should not be measured in Dollars alone, but in the difference it makes in transforming a society for the better.
Praising the Indian IT industry, Gandhi said the success of Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and other companies had changed the lives of millions of Indians and propelled the country's economy to a record-breaking growth.
Gandhi also spoke of the enabling environment created by the state government for the growth of Indian IT companies.
She recalled the "temples of modern India" established by former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the groundwork laid down by her husband Rajiv Gandhi for the "revolution" in Communication and Information Technology.
Rajiv Gandhi faced "bitter political opposition" to his vision, not just in introduction of computers, but his greater challenge was on the "mindshift" of people in terms of accepting new ideas, she said.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Outsourcing, TCS
Tata Consultancy CEO says demand pipeline good
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS.BO), India's top IT services firm by sales, is seeing more stability stability and the demand pipeline is good, its chief executive said on Monday.
"Essentially, the drastic downturn is behind us and we have entered a new phase where we are seeing stability on the ground and it is not in a downward spiral for sure," S. Ramadorai, who retires from his office next month and will become vice chairman, told reporters.
After posting a scorching pace of growth for years, India's export-driven outsourcing sector has been battling a slowdown as top global customers were hit by the financial crisis and economic downturn.
Ramadorai said the order pipeline was good but there could still be some occasional shocks.
Hopes for a pickup in outsourcing demand have increased after leading companies such as TCS and Infosys Technologies (INFY.BO) beat street estimates in their April-June earnings and on signs of stability in the global economy..
TCS, which provides services such as consulting, system integration and manages call centres, was one of a number of outsourcing firms that won five-year IT contracts from oil and gas major BP (BP.L) last month.
"There may be couple of similar deals, which we will be working on," Ramadorai said, adding the deals would include providing technology infrastructure or call centre services.
He had earlier said the BP deal would likely add to revenue from the next quarter and contribute $30 million to $100 million on an annualised basis over the next three to five years.
Shares in Tata Consultancy, whose clients include Citigroup (C.N), General Electric (GE.N), Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L), and Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI), were up 2.9 percent at 547 rupees by 0906 GMT, outperforming the broader Mumbai market .BSESN that was up 1.7 percent.
Banking, financial services, retail and utility were showing promises in terms of new outsourcing deals, Ramadorai said, but sectors such as manufacturing and telecoms would continue to show sluggishness in the near future.
Tata Consultancy gets more than 40 percent of its revenue from banking and financial services clients and Ramadorai said the company could win some deals from the integration of global banks in the aftermath of the financial turmoil.
"Essentially, the drastic downturn is behind us and we have entered a new phase where we are seeing stability on the ground and it is not in a downward spiral for sure," S. Ramadorai, who retires from his office next month and will become vice chairman, told reporters.
After posting a scorching pace of growth for years, India's export-driven outsourcing sector has been battling a slowdown as top global customers were hit by the financial crisis and economic downturn.
Ramadorai said the order pipeline was good but there could still be some occasional shocks.
Hopes for a pickup in outsourcing demand have increased after leading companies such as TCS and Infosys Technologies (INFY.BO) beat street estimates in their April-June earnings and on signs of stability in the global economy..
TCS, which provides services such as consulting, system integration and manages call centres, was one of a number of outsourcing firms that won five-year IT contracts from oil and gas major BP (BP.L) last month.
"There may be couple of similar deals, which we will be working on," Ramadorai said, adding the deals would include providing technology infrastructure or call centre services.
He had earlier said the BP deal would likely add to revenue from the next quarter and contribute $30 million to $100 million on an annualised basis over the next three to five years.
Shares in Tata Consultancy, whose clients include Citigroup (C.N), General Electric (GE.N), Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L), and Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI), were up 2.9 percent at 547 rupees by 0906 GMT, outperforming the broader Mumbai market .BSESN that was up 1.7 percent.
Banking, financial services, retail and utility were showing promises in terms of new outsourcing deals, Ramadorai said, but sectors such as manufacturing and telecoms would continue to show sluggishness in the near future.
Tata Consultancy gets more than 40 percent of its revenue from banking and financial services clients and Ramadorai said the company could win some deals from the integration of global banks in the aftermath of the financial turmoil.
Friday, September 4, 2009
new openings, TCS
TCS to hire 25, 000 globally this year
India’s largest IT employer, Tata Consultancy Services, will hire 25,000 people globally this year, 90% of which will be India. Though significantly large when compared to the current recruitment numbers, the figure is 10,000 short of the number of people TCS hired last year. Tanmoy Chakrabarty, vice-president and head of government industry solutions unit, confirmed the plan.
“We will be hiring 25,000 people this year, which means roughly 25 lakh sqft of work space required and, therefore, we need to grow outside the metros. Tier-II cities are our only focus for expansion in the country as the top rung are clogged and saturated,” Mr Chakrabarty said.
With this, the total number of employees globally would go up to more than 1.8 lakh, making it one of the largest private employers in India and putting it in the league of Tata Steel, which has an employee base of 2 lakh people.
With the Indian government planning to spend Rs 40,000 crore on IT services, TCS with an estimated 32% market share, is actively looking into this space for more business.
At present, 70% of the this segment’s revenue comes from India while the smaller share coming from the US, Latin America, Africa and South East Asian countries. However, the revenue contribution from Indian
government businesses to the total company revenue of $6 billion is less than 5%, which the company intends to increase to more than 10% in the next three years.
“We will be hiring 25,000 people this year, which means roughly 25 lakh sqft of work space required and, therefore, we need to grow outside the metros. Tier-II cities are our only focus for expansion in the country as the top rung are clogged and saturated,” Mr Chakrabarty said.
With this, the total number of employees globally would go up to more than 1.8 lakh, making it one of the largest private employers in India and putting it in the league of Tata Steel, which has an employee base of 2 lakh people.
With the Indian government planning to spend Rs 40,000 crore on IT services, TCS with an estimated 32% market share, is actively looking into this space for more business.
At present, 70% of the this segment’s revenue comes from India while the smaller share coming from the US, Latin America, Africa and South East Asian countries. However, the revenue contribution from Indian
government businesses to the total company revenue of $6 billion is less than 5%, which the company intends to increase to more than 10% in the next three years.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Infosys, New Deals, Outsourcing, TCS, Wipro
IT majors chase $6.5-bn Belgian outsourcing deals
Belgian Grand Prix is not the only race where Indian hopes are riding high. A worsening economic crisis is forcing companies such as AXA, Dexia Bank, Belgacom, drugmaker UCB and car insurer Allianz in Belgium explore IT offshoring and back-office projects, making it almost $6.5-billion opportunity for Indian outsourcing vendors including TCS, Infosys and Wipro apart from MNC rivals.
According to Quantum Step, an outsourcing advisory firm, customers in Belgium will spend around $1.8 billion on infrastructure management outsourcing, almost $2.6 billion on application development and maintenance and nearly $2 billion on BPO this year.
“We have recently started discussions with some Indian suppliers for pure offshoring of our ERP maintenance — it would be fair to assume that until last year, we were not prepared for any such initiative,” said an official at one
of the biggest Belgian enterprises.
While many Indian offshoring firms have been attempting to hire more local European sales professionals and project consultants, it appears that now customers only want to deal with Indian offshore experts. “Many outsourcing dialogues these days are being spearheaded by Indian offshore delivery managers, unlike in the past when some local expert would help us gain entry into an account — the CIOs are specifically asking for Indian suppliers,” said a top executive at one of the Indian IT firms pursuing outsourcing contracts in continental Europe. Officials at the Belgian firms did not respond to an e-mail query sent by ET.
When contacted by ET on Tuesday, TCS said the company’s early investments in the Belgian market are now fetching dividends. “Belgium represents one of the more mature markets for us within Continental Europe. After 15 years of operations in the country, we hold a significant share of the market and are now a prime IT partner to some of the largest BEL20 companies,” said AS Lakshminarayanan, vice-president and head — Europe, TCS.
“Our strategy to invest in localised delivery centres in Europe, particularly the ones in Eindhoven and Luxembourg, fuses well with our Global Network Delivery Model,” he added. TCS already has around 700 professionals working for Belgian customers, with around 200 onsite. InBev, AXA and Belgacom are among TCS’ top customers in Belgium.
Experts such as Sridhar Vedala of outsourcing advisory firm Quantum Step say that the key European markets opening up for offshoring include BeNeLux, Nordics, Germany and France. “Most of the European companies are more or less first time outsourcers. Some big multinationals had offshored previously such as ABN Amro, Ikea, Nokia and Philips.
However, this did not trickle down to regional customers as many of them felt that there was cultural mismatch. Also, to a large extent, Indian providers also did not focus on this market,” he told ET in an interview.
As reported by ET recently, BASF AG, the world’s biggest chemical company, along with Euroclear-Europe’s largest settlement firm, and Anheuser-Busch InBev — the world’s biggest brewer are among companies looking at offshore outsourcing for the first time, as they seek to lower their operational costs and cope more effectively with an unprecedented slump in demand for their products and services.
According to Quantum Step, an outsourcing advisory firm, customers in Belgium will spend around $1.8 billion on infrastructure management outsourcing, almost $2.6 billion on application development and maintenance and nearly $2 billion on BPO this year.
“We have recently started discussions with some Indian suppliers for pure offshoring of our ERP maintenance — it would be fair to assume that until last year, we were not prepared for any such initiative,” said an official at one
of the biggest Belgian enterprises.
While many Indian offshoring firms have been attempting to hire more local European sales professionals and project consultants, it appears that now customers only want to deal with Indian offshore experts. “Many outsourcing dialogues these days are being spearheaded by Indian offshore delivery managers, unlike in the past when some local expert would help us gain entry into an account — the CIOs are specifically asking for Indian suppliers,” said a top executive at one of the Indian IT firms pursuing outsourcing contracts in continental Europe. Officials at the Belgian firms did not respond to an e-mail query sent by ET.
When contacted by ET on Tuesday, TCS said the company’s early investments in the Belgian market are now fetching dividends. “Belgium represents one of the more mature markets for us within Continental Europe. After 15 years of operations in the country, we hold a significant share of the market and are now a prime IT partner to some of the largest BEL20 companies,” said AS Lakshminarayanan, vice-president and head — Europe, TCS.
“Our strategy to invest in localised delivery centres in Europe, particularly the ones in Eindhoven and Luxembourg, fuses well with our Global Network Delivery Model,” he added. TCS already has around 700 professionals working for Belgian customers, with around 200 onsite. InBev, AXA and Belgacom are among TCS’ top customers in Belgium.
Experts such as Sridhar Vedala of outsourcing advisory firm Quantum Step say that the key European markets opening up for offshoring include BeNeLux, Nordics, Germany and France. “Most of the European companies are more or less first time outsourcers. Some big multinationals had offshored previously such as ABN Amro, Ikea, Nokia and Philips.
However, this did not trickle down to regional customers as many of them felt that there was cultural mismatch. Also, to a large extent, Indian providers also did not focus on this market,” he told ET in an interview.
As reported by ET recently, BASF AG, the world’s biggest chemical company, along with Euroclear-Europe’s largest settlement firm, and Anheuser-Busch InBev — the world’s biggest brewer are among companies looking at offshore outsourcing for the first time, as they seek to lower their operational costs and cope more effectively with an unprecedented slump in demand for their products and services.
IT market, TCS
TCS may follow multiple power-sharing structure
For TCS, India’s largest software services provider by sales, deciding who will fit into CEO S Ramadorai’s shoes after he retires in October was quite easy. It had to be crown prince N Chandrasekaran, who is COO now. But, finding the person to fit into Mr Chandrasekaran’s shoes is proving more difficult.
So much so, that TCS is actually looking at two or more people for the role. Top executives such as Ravi Viswanathan, NG Subramaniam, AS Lakshminarayanan and Abid Ali Neemuchwala are believed to be in the race. “There is an organisation transition to a new CEO currently underway at TCS. Therefore, it is too premature to comment on any restructuring or other organisational initiatives,” said a TCS spokesperson, in response to a mail from ET NOW.
However, multiple employees in senior positions and ex-employees in the know said that a multiple power-sharing formula was being discussed within the organisation, and it has only intensified in the last month or so, as TCS prepares to welcome on board its new CEO next month. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
There are three main reasons why TCS will most probably opt for this structure. TCS is now a $6-billion entity with a headcount of 1.4 lakh. So, huge management bandwidth will be required to carry out functions across different verticals, geographies and service lines. Secondly, Mr Chandrasekaran had too many people reporting into him, which may not be the case going forward. COO duties will be divided up among multiple executives. Thirdly, IT companies are increasingly trying to split duties among various levels in the company.
So much so, that TCS is actually looking at two or more people for the role. Top executives such as Ravi Viswanathan, NG Subramaniam, AS Lakshminarayanan and Abid Ali Neemuchwala are believed to be in the race. “There is an organisation transition to a new CEO currently underway at TCS. Therefore, it is too premature to comment on any restructuring or other organisational initiatives,” said a TCS spokesperson, in response to a mail from ET NOW.
However, multiple employees in senior positions and ex-employees in the know said that a multiple power-sharing formula was being discussed within the organisation, and it has only intensified in the last month or so, as TCS prepares to welcome on board its new CEO next month. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
There are three main reasons why TCS will most probably opt for this structure. TCS is now a $6-billion entity with a headcount of 1.4 lakh. So, huge management bandwidth will be required to carry out functions across different verticals, geographies and service lines. Secondly, Mr Chandrasekaran had too many people reporting into him, which may not be the case going forward. COO duties will be divided up among multiple executives. Thirdly, IT companies are increasingly trying to split duties among various levels in the company.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Outsourcing, TCS
TCS sees $30-100 mn BP deal revenue
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said it expects to get $30 million-100 million revenue on an annualised basis over the next three-five years from its recently won deal with BP.
Talking about the potential of the deal TCS Chief Executive Ramadorai said, "It could be anywhere around $30-100 million in the next three-five years."
To a query on when would revenue from the contract start flowing, he said, "I think it will start by the third quarter, in a small way but more importantly by next year."
TCS was one of the outsourcing firms that won five-year IT contracts from oil and gas major BP earlier this week. TCS had been selected for engagements in refining, manufacturing and corporate IT with opportunities across fuel value chain including upstream and trading.
Talking about the potential of the deal TCS Chief Executive Ramadorai said, "It could be anywhere around $30-100 million in the next three-five years."
To a query on when would revenue from the contract start flowing, he said, "I think it will start by the third quarter, in a small way but more importantly by next year."
TCS was one of the outsourcing firms that won five-year IT contracts from oil and gas major BP earlier this week. TCS had been selected for engagements in refining, manufacturing and corporate IT with opportunities across fuel value chain including upstream and trading.
IT market, TCS
TCS eyes $1 bn revenue from domestic mkt
Country's top software exporter Tata Consultancy Services said that it aims to double its revenues from the Indian market to $1 billion in the next 3-4 years.
"India has been one of the important markets. We are looking at whether in next 3-4 years we can double our revenue to billion dollars in the Indian market," TCS CEO S Ramadorai said.
At present, the domestic market contributes 10 per cent to the total revenue.
"Every mission mode project (government) that would come on the radar, we will certainly bid for them. TCS is in talks for 3-4 such mission mode projects as of now," Ramadorai said.
"When we look at the domestic market we look at three pillars -- large enterprises, governments - both the central and state governments -- and the third is the small and medium businesses which are part of our overall growth," he added.
Of the three, he expects the large enterprises to contribute more than the other two, followed by the government and the SMB sector.
"India has been one of the important markets. We are looking at whether in next 3-4 years we can double our revenue to billion dollars in the Indian market," TCS CEO S Ramadorai said.
At present, the domestic market contributes 10 per cent to the total revenue.
"Every mission mode project (government) that would come on the radar, we will certainly bid for them. TCS is in talks for 3-4 such mission mode projects as of now," Ramadorai said.
"When we look at the domestic market we look at three pillars -- large enterprises, governments - both the central and state governments -- and the third is the small and medium businesses which are part of our overall growth," he added.
Of the three, he expects the large enterprises to contribute more than the other two, followed by the government and the SMB sector.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Infosys, New Deals, Outsourcing, TCS, Wipro
TCS, Infosys, Wipro bag big chunk of BP's 5-year IT deal
Country's top three IT companies TCS, Infosys and Wipro today bagged a seizable chunk of five- year outsourcing deal from British oil Spokepersons of all three companies did not disclose the size when asked whether the total deal size is worth $ 1.5 bn (approximately Rs 7,500 crore). They also did not reveal their independent size of the contract they have won.
The multi-crore rupee contract is a big boost for the domestic outsourcing majors, currently under pricing and margin pressure in the wake of gloabl downturn.
Global IT majors IBM and Accenture have also has snapped a part of the deal. The three companies announced separately that they have entered into an outsourcing deal with BP.
Infosys said it will operate BP's business systems. Wipro said it will provide IT Application Development and Application Maintenance (ADAM) services for BP's Fuels Value Chain and corporate business globally.
TCS said it has been selected for engagements in refining, manufacturing and corporate IT with opportunities across fuels value chain including upstream and trading.
As part of the deal, IBM will manage and run the oil giant's enterprise applications and integrated service desk responsibilities, IBM said.
The big three closed up in the range of 2-4 per cent on BSE after the news of them bagging the deal broke out.
The multi-crore rupee contract is a big boost for the domestic outsourcing majors, currently under pricing and margin pressure in the wake of gloabl downturn.
Global IT majors IBM and Accenture have also has snapped a part of the deal. The three companies announced separately that they have entered into an outsourcing deal with BP.
Infosys said it will operate BP's business systems. Wipro said it will provide IT Application Development and Application Maintenance (ADAM) services for BP's Fuels Value Chain and corporate business globally.
TCS said it has been selected for engagements in refining, manufacturing and corporate IT with opportunities across fuels value chain including upstream and trading.
As part of the deal, IBM will manage and run the oil giant's enterprise applications and integrated service desk responsibilities, IBM said.
The big three closed up in the range of 2-4 per cent on BSE after the news of them bagging the deal broke out.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
New Deals, TCS
TCS bags Avaya IT deal
Avaya GLobalConnect (AGC) today announced that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will be its technology partner for managing and overseeing the company’s total internal IT outsourcing needs.
Under the multi-year deal, TCS will assume responsibility of AGC’s internal IT operations. Avaya GlobalConnect is leading solutions integrator in areas of Unified Communication, Contact Centers and IP Telephony, with focus on accelerating customer’s business across industry verticals.
Anil Nair, Managing Director, Avaya GlobalConnect said, “For us, scalability and cost-control are essential to tap the enormous potential of India market, expand customer base and sustain our leadership position. Outsourcing our IT systems to TCS will allow us invest the accruing savings towards growth and customer responsiveness.”
G Srinivasa Raghavan, Country Head, India Business, TCS said, “We will provide comprehensive IT solution for AGC’s business needs and work with them on a well-integrated delivery platform built for quality service and high performance.”
Under the multi-year deal, TCS will assume responsibility of AGC’s internal IT operations. Avaya GlobalConnect is leading solutions integrator in areas of Unified Communication, Contact Centers and IP Telephony, with focus on accelerating customer’s business across industry verticals.
Anil Nair, Managing Director, Avaya GlobalConnect said, “For us, scalability and cost-control are essential to tap the enormous potential of India market, expand customer base and sustain our leadership position. Outsourcing our IT systems to TCS will allow us invest the accruing savings towards growth and customer responsiveness.”
G Srinivasa Raghavan, Country Head, India Business, TCS said, “We will provide comprehensive IT solution for AGC’s business needs and work with them on a well-integrated delivery platform built for quality service and high performance.”
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