Persistent Systems will do better than Nasscom's guidance: Anand Deshpande

Interview with chairman and MD, Persistent Systems

Pune-headquartered Persistent Systems reported a growth of 15.2% in dollar revenue for FY14, higher than Nasscom?s growth target of 12-14%, as it saw demand in software product development and technology services. Anand Deshpande, chairman and MD, Persistent Systems in an interview with Shivani Shinde Nadhe said that he is confident that for FY15 Persistent will do better than Nasscom's growth target and is also well set on its growth road-map. Edited excerpts:

The fourth quarter numbers seem to be a tad slow than analyst estimates. Comments.
Overall, for the quarter and the full year, we are happy the way we have reported numbers, which was a growth of 3.9% (y-o-y) and 15.2% for the full year, in US dollar terms. The fourth quarter numbers are a bit soft as we had an one-of situation, as one of our clients from the telecom segment ramped-down. We had about 50 people involved in this deal, all of whom have been redeployed as we have good business flow. But this is just a one-off.

Persistent has managed to do better than the industry growth rate. Do you think you can keep this momentum up?
Nasscom has given a guidance of 13-15% for FY15, we clocked a revenue growth of 15.2% and we are confident that we will do better than Nasscom's guidance. There are reasons for this growth. We have been focused on working with product companies and working in the SMAC technology segment. The impact of this has been that infrastructure product companies with whom we are building SMAC portfolio are showing traction. Moreover we see a lot of activity in the ISVs landscape. Secondly, we have entered into partnership with some of the leaders in the technology space and many are in the deployment phase. All these development makes us feel upbeat.

Can you elaborate on the deal pipeline you are chasing?
We generally work in partnership with technology companies and we go with them and help them deploy customers cloud strategy. These deals are typically in the range of $100k to 200k. This is a big number for us. On an ongoing basis we sign deals in the range of $250-500K. We have done a lot of deals last year. For instance, we signed three new accounts that contribute about $2-3 million for us.

Last quarter the company announced the setting up of Accelerite, a business unit based out of Silicon Valley. Why a different unit?
Over the last 2-3 years we have been acquiring companies and have built a portfolio of product and IP-led business, which today contributes about 18% to the firms revenue. But we feel that a lot of customers perceive us to be an IT services firms. We need to create a look and feel that will make us look like a product firm. So with Accelerite we are working on the branding initiative, isolating some of the people for different roles, and aiming to change perception about us.