Wipro sees pickup in large deal wins

Indian software services major Wipro on Monday asserted that the overall demand environment was stable and it was seeing pickup in large deals wins.

"The large deals are competitive with high-pricing pressure and are being partially offset through higher use of automation and artificial intelligence technologies," Wipro chief executive T.K. Kurien told reporters here.

Though the IT firm took a huge hit in the energy sector during third quarter of 2015-16 following a crash in crude oil prices, Kurien said the mood in the US was positive on domestic demand and corporate were in a cost-reduction mode.

"While clients are finalising their IT budgets, we expect to see strong momentum in this geo. Continental Europe has a lot of potential and our acquisition of Cellent will enhance our capability in the Dach region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland," Kurien said after declaring results for quarter under review.

Cellent AG was acquired on December 2 for Rs.518 crore (Euro 74 million) on December 2 from Landesban Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany to offer IT solutions in the Dach region.

"We are looking at targetted acquisitions that would augment our capability from a market access or skills perspective. We acquired Cellent to have access to local talent and strengthen our footprint in the Dach region," Kurien said.

The company also bought the US-based back-office Vitteos group on December 23 for $130 million (Rs.861 crore) for alternative investment management industry.

Headquartered at Somerset in New Jersey, Viteos provides customised straight-through-processing and integrates post-trade operations across asset class, currency, border or structure for the alternative investment management sector in the US, Europe and Asia.

Buoyed by seven digital wins in third quarter, the company is moving into strategic direction as its vision of the digital business around design and technology was bearing fruit.

The company is training about 10,000 employees in digital technologies to make up for lagging behind in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and healthcare sectors and saw four percent revenue in energy and utilities sector on oil prices crashing.

"Our competitors did better in BFSI and healthcare. There is a market discontinuity as enterprises go digital and security becomes dominant. Execution has also been an issue with us, as the industry is looking for integration than differentiation," said Kurien.

Flooding in Chennai also impacted the company's operations as it has a large development and back-office centre.

"Though we managed to minimise customer disruption, our operating margin was hit 40 basis points because of Chennai floods and moving work to other locations in the country," said chief financial officer Jatin Dalal.