Infosys sees good demand in India, West Asia; bags 3 deals in home market

Infosys Technologies Ltd has won three significant deals in the last five months in India, a market that has become increasingly strategic to the company.

Though details were not available, Mr Subhash B. Dhar, Member, Executive Council, said one of the deals was in the telecom sector, while another was in the manufacturing sector (private).

Infosys had formed an India Business Unit towards the end of 2007 to tap opportunities in the domestic market. The company earned about 1.3 per cent of its total revenue from India last fiscal.

Mr Dhar said the India Business Unit is doing well in terms of deal pipeline. The company is selling aggressively in markets such as India and West Asia, in addition to China and South Africa, he added.

In India and West Asia, the pipeline is good in sectors such as communication, even as the government remains a big customer, Mr Dhar said.

The company expects contribution from the ‘new engagement models’ to the total revenue to be in double-digit in the next three years.

New engagement models
The new engagement models include a shift to outcome-based pricing or cost per unit of work from per-hour/per-head pricing, offering solutions based on IP developed internally.

As a result of the economic downturn, there are budget cuts and cost sensitivity irrespective of whether a company’s balance-sheet is healthy or not, said Mr Dhar. This has prompted Infosys to give its clients cost savings. “We are not changing our rate, but have changed our cost structure by moving to transaction-based pricing,” he added.

The downturn that has affected some of the mature markets more than it has hurt emerging markets such as India has prompted companies to increase their focus on these markets. This, coupled with changing preferences of consumers who demand more Web-based distribution channels, could force companies to build newer systems or channels of engaging with customers, Mr Dhar said.

This is resulting in more and more processes getting driven into the Web sphere, and a company like Infosys could build the digital eco-system, he added.