Wipro's million-dollar initiative pays off

The initiative launched by Wipro to identify existing clients that could eventually become multi-million dollar accounts has started yielding dividends for the country's third largest software exporter.

During the third quarter ended December 31, 2007, the company got its first $100 million (Rs 400 crore) account, which it had bagged almost four years ago as a $200,000 (Rs 80 lakh) per annum account.

About a year ago, the company began an initiative to identify some of the new accounts that have growth potential.

Clients that have the potential to fetch it a $100 million annual revenue run-rate in three years have been labelled "Mega" accounts. Those that have the potential of $50 million (Rs 200 crore) annual revenue in three years, are called "Gama" accounts.

"Earlier, we were not doing enough on account mining like some of our peers in the industry," said Sudip Banerjee, president of Wipro's enterprise solutions division.

"Within a year of our starting the initiative, one account has already crossed a run-rate of $100 million a year. We have identified many Mega accounts that may give us revenue in the range of $10-30 million today and are capable of $100 million in a year."

A dedicated team of marketing and sales people along with the country head of the respective geographies work on identifying the accounts that promise traction for the company. Such accounts are given in the charge of a dedicated account manager, who works on strengthening and growing the partnership.

The company has identified about 50-60 Mega and Gama accounts in verticals such as telecom, BFSI and retail. Girish Paranjpe, president of Wipro's finance solutions division, said, "With the launch of this initiative account mining has become more scientific and systemic. Everybody in the organisation understands that this is a Mega or Gama account and so everybody pays the same level of attention."

Wipro had 718 active customers as of December 31, 2007, of which 12 were over $50 million accounts and 35 in the range of $20-50 million per annum.