Persistent confident of 20% revenue growth in FY14

Company believes that new technologies are great opportunity even for smaller players like them

Outsourced software product development services company Persistent Systems is confident of recording 20% revenue growth this financial year, owing to a buoyant order pipeline, especially in the mobility and analytics space.

 

“Our order pipeline is very good and we think we will definitely grow more than the Nasscom guidance this year,” Chief Operating Officer Mritunjay Singh told Business Standard. Industry body Nasscom estimates growth in the information technology (IT) sector this financial year at 12-14%.

 

In FY13, Persistent Systems had reported 29% growth in revenues at Rs 1294.5 crore; its net profit had risen 32% to Rs 187.6 crore.

 

In 2008, the Pune-headquartered company had identified mobility, analytics and cloud as key growth areas. Today, most analysts believe for Indian IT companies, these areas are becoming part of the mainstream segment. Persistent derives 49% of its revenues from mobility, analytics and cloud. Singh said the company was continuing to expand its suit of services across these areas.

 

The company’s Bangalore centre, set up in April this year, is focused on these new segments. The centre has a headcount of about 50, which the company plans to increase to 500 through the next 18 months. “We have an option to take another 150 seats at the same premises where our Bangalore centre is located. So, we can scale up very quickly,” Singh said.

 

Persistent has also identified a few segments such as wearable computing devices, internet of things and gesture-based computing, which it feels would come into the mainstream in five-seven years. “The technology industry is all about change and adapting to change as fast as possible. We believe companies like us, which work with a lot of start-ups and are at the edge of innovation, will always benefit. So, as change becomes faster, companies that are able to adapt to the changes will do better,” Singh said.

 

‘Wearable devices’ has been identified as a growth area by many global technology giants. Internet giant Google is working on one of its most ambitious projects, the Google Glass, a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display. It displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format that can communicate with the internet through voice commands.

 

Persistent Systems believes new technologies are a great opportunity, even for smaller companies. “We think in the next five years, we have as many opportunities as we want; we can grow as much as we can stretch or afford to grow. The market is there; whether we can become a billion-dollar or two billion (company), is up to us,” Singh said.