Infosys, Wipro bag 5-yr BP deal

Indian outsourcers Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd bagged five-year outsourcing deal from oil and gas firm BP.

Under the terms of the deal, Infosys will operate a large portion of BP's business systems. No financial details were available.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies, said, “Infosys has a long standing relationship with BP, delivering consulting and technology services. We are well positioned to use our global sourcing expertise and transformational capabilities in the oil and gas domain.”

Under the five-year agreement with BP, Wipro will provide IT applications development and maintenance services for the company’s fuel and corporate businesses globally.

Earlier last week, Infosys Technologies said that it has bid for more than 10 large government projects in India as part of a drive to lower its dependence on the US market.

Infosys, which gets more than half its business from the United States, plans to generate $1 billion in revenue from the Indian market in 2-3 years versus an insignificant level now, the head of its India business unit said.

"There are large opportunities in India. So we are definitely going to go after these kinds of businesses very aggressively in India," Binod Rangadore said. "We have a very healthy pipeline right now."

The market for technology and business outsourcing services in India is expected to expand five-fold by 2020 to $90 billion to $100 billion on the back of a growing economy, according to a recent study by lobby group NASSCOM and consultancy McKinsey.

Outsourcing firms such as Infosys and bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services are tapping new markets such as India, China, Japan and countries in Europe to beat a recession in the United States.

The Indian firms face competition from big global players such as IBM Inc, Hewlett-Packard and Accenture that have raided their home turf as they look for growth outside their mature markets.