NIIT bullish on travel and transport vertical

NIIT Technologies is bullish on the travel, transportation and logistics (TTL) business and sees this as the next growth area for the company, contributing more than 30 per cent to its revenues. This is despite the fact that oil prices and ATF have skyrocketed this year and the aviation industry is undergoing slowdown.

The TTL segment is divided into airlines, airports, travel and surface transport. The revenue contribution from airlines is the highest at 50 per cent, followed by travel at 25 per cent. The company has launched eight solution accelerators that will offer readymade solutions for fleet management, cargo handling and web portals.

“Solution accelerators are basically a gamut of testing related services packaged into one solution. They not only allows us to customise a service, but also provide a non-linear model. This in turn cuts the cost for the customer as it is not people dependent,” said Mahesh Shastry, Global Vertical Head, Travel and Transport, NIIT Technologies. Shastry says that by adopting solutions accelerators, clients can save up to 30-70 per cent in people cost.

The company already has some users for these solutions. One such solution accelerator was recently used to automate the cargo facility at the new Bangalore airport and another was employed to ramp up the website of British Airways. NIIT has tied up with SITA–providing air transportation communication and IT Solutions– to offer solution accelerators in airports for renewal, car parks’ management and check-in kiosks.

In the domestic market, the company along with Deutsche Bahn is among the bidders for the time-table management, track management system and commercial portals project of Indian Railways, worth $600 million (Rs 2,535 crore).

“Our biggest emphasis is to bring a non-linear focus in all our offering and with these solutions, we are aiming at cutting the people cost for our clients as well,” Shastry said.

The revenue contribution of TTL in the June quarter was 28 per cent, while its share in the last quarter was 25 per cent. In the first quarter, NIIT Technologies posted a flat growth of Rs 35.1 crore in profit after tax for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.