Bangalore's IT eco-system is hard to replicate

Tackle infrastructure woes faster; says Infosys CFO

Bangalore's bad roads and crazy hotel rates notwithstanding, it is hard to beat the city's eco-system for technology firms, Mohan Das Pai, chief financial officer of Infosys Technologies, told reporters here on Tuesday.

Without discounting the infrastructure problems, which for instance has caused the Electronics City based IT firms to ask for a dedicated elevated highway, Pai said replicating Bangalore's success would be a tough act.

"There are a quarter of a million IT engineers here," Pai told reporters on the sidelines of an earnings press meet, "including BPO staff". Any company "can walk into the city and find 100 people doing work on some exotic technology", he said.

Infosys itself, is building its consulting business on a model that relies on specialists in the US and the operational people at its Indian development centres, headquartered in Bangalore. Said Stephen Pratt, managing director of Infosys Consulting, "our competitors' business models rely on increasing their technology people onsite."

The US subsidiary of Infosys, "relies on onsite consulting but offshore delivery of technology, with some onsite technology as well," Pratt told Business Standard.

Customers, "wary of handing over the keys of their IT to others" were shifting to a modular approach to IT, "based more on strategy." They "recognised the benefits of our model," he said.

Infosys Consulting was aiming to be cash positive by the end of this fiscal year. In the quarter to June 30, it grew 120 per cent, Pratt said. The firm had 25 clients and 120 staff and "we are ramping up fast", including hiring from larger competitors such as Bain and Co., Accenture, IBM and McKinsey. By "effectively leveraging every consultant at Infosys in India, we are just south of 2,000 consultants," he said.

Infosys is also adding more office space for its main business - IT services. It aims to add some 34.5 lakh sq.ft., mostly in Bangalore, to accommodate an additional 21,105 staff. It now has slightly over 75 lakh sq ft, excluding subsidiaries, capable of taking 34,711 staff.

To add 13,500 more staff

Infosys will add 13,500 staff, gross, in the remaining nine months this fiscal, COO, S Gopalakrishnan, said. Over half of this, at 7,000, will be added in the quarter to September 30.

During the June quarter, gross addition to staff was 4,537, including 1,521 lateral entries. Net addition was 3,056 staff, including 773 for its BPO subsidiary, Progeon. This takes Infosys' staff strength to 39,806. Of this, 37,146 staff were software engineers.