'Indian IT growth outpaces global biggies'

At least two India-centric service providers are expected to figure among the global top 10 by 2010, predicts a study by global research and analyst firm Gartner.

The total market share of the top-10 global firms (includes IBM, EDS and Accenture) in 2006 was 26 per cent. However, while Indian IT companies are yet to measure up to IT global giants, they are growing fast, states the report.

The top-six, Indian-centric IT services provider "" Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and HCL Technologies (referred to as SWITCH) "" accounted for 1.9 per cent of the total $672 billion IT services market in 2006.

In 2001, they accounted for a mere 0.5 per cent of the $554 billion IT services market. The average annual growth rate of the SWITCH companies was 42.4 per cent in 2006 compared with a 4.3 per cent growth of the market leaders during the same period. 
 

THE INDIAN JUGGERNAUT Global top-10 IT services companies
Rank		Market share (%)
2001	2006	Company	2006
1	1	IBM	7.20
2	2	EDS	3.20
3	3	Fujitsu	2.70
4	4	Accenture	2.60
-	5	HP	2.40
5	6	CSC	2.20
7	7	Lockheed Martin	1.60
-	8	Capgemini	1.40
9	9	ADP	1.40
-	10	Northrop  Grumman	1.30
		Total	26.00
Top-six India-centric providers
Rank		Market share (%)
2001	2006	Company	2006
68	35	TCS	0.60
125	43	Infosys	0.40
130	49	Wipro	0.30
212	73	Cognizant	0.20
153	79	Satyam	0.20
160	86	HCL	0.20
		Total	1.90
*Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and HCL accounted for 1.9 per cent of the total $672 billion IT services global market in 2006 Source: Gartner (August 2007)

Partha Iyengar, vice-president, analyst and regional research director, Gartner, said, "From being relatively unknown brands a decade ago, leading India-centric providers now offer formidable competition to the global players. Large outsourcers are now re-evaluating their preferred vendor rankings to include Indian companies, especially for multi-vendor engagements. If the India-centric IT service providers continue to grow at the current pace, at least two companies will be a part of the top-10 companies globally."

Allie Young, vice-president and analyst, Gartner, said, "Some may argue that the reason for high growth rate is the smaller revenue base. While percentage growth on a smaller revenue base is easier to achieve, the India-centric providers are outperforming (in dollar terms) larger organisations. These companies are making headway with key clients, often beginning with smaller, project-based or staff augmentation work."

For instance, despite IBM's $48 billion IT service revenues, its dollar growth year on year was less than $1 billion. TCS, on the other hand, increased its revenues by over $1.2 billion in 2006 and achieved this increase from a revenue base that was 1/18th of IBM's revenue base.