Infy launches TradeEdge

Murthy says company moving towards increasing revenue from platforms

India's second largest Information technology (IT) services firm Infosys, which has for the past few years been working to increase its revenue from products, platforms and solutions (PPS) business, on Monday launched its third platform named TradeEdge. TradeEdge is an insight-driven sales platform that provides visibility across the demand chain from distributors to consumers.

The launch is aimed at taking Infosys closer to its ambition of growing revenues from the PPS business. Infosys' vision under its 3.0 strategy has been to raise the revenue from PPS business to 33% of its overall revenue. However, three years into this strategy, the division accounts for around 5.5% of Infosys' overall revenue.

"In the products platform and solutions space there is possibility for Infosys to derive much higher margin and going for larger outsourcing projects. These new launches would help us as we move forward to enhance the per capita productivity," N R Narayana Murthy, executive chairman, Infosys said.

"We are on our path and slowly moving to that direction (of PPS contributing 33% to the revenue). TradeEdge launch is instrumental in reaching such initiatives. But it is difficult to give a definitive time by when we will reach the 30% mark."

TradeEdge is targetted at helping global brands accelerage profitable growth in the emerging markets, Murthy said.

The Bangalore-based company had first brought TradeEdge to the market around two-and-a-half years ago, and now has 10 clients for this cloud-based platform serving across over 70 countries. The company's first client on TradeEdge platform was global consumer goods major Procter & Gamble.

"The new platform delivers insights that help brands accurately sense and fulfill consumer demand while significantly improving sales and operational performance," Girish A. Ramachandra, vice president PPS, head-retail CPG, logistics and life sciences said.

"TradeEdge provides brands one of the most affordable ways to expand reach in the emerging market."

Infosys' banking product, Finacle has seen great success since its launch in 2000. The product has an estimated two-thirds share of commercial banks in India and significant shares in Africa and Asia. The product contributes to over 4% of Infosys' overall revenues.

However, the rest of the PPS division has not performed equally well, as all of the remaining products and platforms contribute to only 1.5% of the revenue, despite the increased focus on the business in the past few years.

Separately, Ramachandra said, Infosys may look at inorganic route to expand its product and platform portfolio. However, he added that there is nothing concrete on that front as of now.

"It is not that we are not looking for acquisitions, if the right opportunity comes around we are open to it," Ramachandra said. Ramachandra added that Infosys may launch more platforms in the near future.