Satyam to open its Hungary centre on November 2

Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services Ltd will be opening a new development centre in Hungary on November 2. The move is aimed at boosting the company's nearshoring strategy in Europe.

Addressing a press conference, Keshab Panda, head of Europe operations, said: "Satyam's commitment to Europe is very strong and the company is making serious investments in the region as a long-term strategy." The company also sees a potential for growth from Eastern and Western Europe in the coming years.

According to him, business from Europe would play a critical role in helping the company evolve as one of the top global IT services company within the next three years.

"The company has a two-pronged approach for growth in the region. One would be to either acquire a local company or by having regional presence," Panda said. "There are few opportunities in the pipeline but at the moment information in this regard cannot be disclosed," he added.

At present, European operations contribute 14 per cent of Satyam's total revenues and for the second quarter ended September 30, 2004 the region contributed 16 per cent of the revenues. Panda said that though the company has not set itself any specific targets, they were looking at optimising the revenues from the region in the coming quarters. Panda said that the company would be employing 70 people over the next 12 months in the Hungary centre. Currently, Satyam has 57 customers across several verticals in 14 countries in Europe. Satyam has 700 associates working on European projects out of which around 40 per cent work as on-site employees.

"The company is looking at local talent and we would also be exploring the possibility of employing resource persons from Romania, Poland and Czech Republic," Panda said, adding that studies show that European IT spending is slated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2 per cent to $495.6 billion by 2006.

The outsourcing market is slated to grow from the current €1.1 billion to €3.6 billion by 2009.

Panda said that the outsourcing trends showed that around 78 per cent of the jobs are outsourced to India and thus it was important to have presence in major cities in Europe.