 "Wipro's Chief Executive Officer, Abidali Neemuchwala")
India’s third largest software exporter, Wipro, has taken the design and user experience capabilities from Designit, the Danish design firm it acquired last year, in the so-called digital space to larger customers globally. Now, it wants to replicate this model in other acquisitions such as HealthPlan Services and Appirio.
Wipro bought Designit for $94 million last July. Since then, the Bengaluru-based information technology services firm has merged its smaller digital technology team with the design-focused unit. It has expanded the workforce to 450 from 300.
“(Under Designit) we decided to leverage the brand to attract the skills that we want to attract and continue to command the pricing and the customer differentiation that it has. We have successfully executed it, at the same time leveraging revenues (to be) able to get those capabilities into some of our large accounts’ key client portfolios,” Wipro’s chief executive Abidali Neemuchwala told investors on Friday.
Designit provides strategic design, user experience, and interaction design services to global brands in health care, banking, automotive, and retail segments.
“That model has worked quite well for us. We replicated that kind of integration for HealthPlan Services and the whole idea for Appirio is also that it will be our cloud application services practice,” he added.
Since Neemuchwala joined Wipro as its chief operating officer from larger rival Tata Consultancy Services, the Bengaluru-based IT services firm has spent $1.13 billion in acquiring global firms to fix the gaps in its new strategy. Two of these acquisitions – HealthPlan Services for $460 million and the $500 million buy of Appirio last week – have been under Neemuchwala’s stewardship as CEO in February this year.
Wipro has been the most aggressive among Indian IT services firms to look at acquisitions as a strategy to buy the capabilities it lacks. It says the smaller firms it acquires will be exposed to other customers that Wipro has for its services.
“For example, the managed service and support capability that we have for ERP (enterprise resource planning) and enterprise applications could further enhance Appirio’s share of the market that it can get. And, we plan to execute on that strategy,” said Neemuchwala.
Wipro, he said, was earlier struggling to hire talent in emerging areas such as digital, but with Designit, it has been able to address the challenge. At the time of acquisition in July 2015, Designit had around 300 engineers.
“At last count, about 450 designers are within the Designit umbrella,” said Neemuchwala. “So we feel quite comfortable replicating that acquisition integration strategy for HealthPlan Services, for Appirio, and another acquisition that we did.”
Wipro bought Designit for $94 million last July. Since then, the Bengaluru-based information technology services firm has merged its smaller digital technology team with the design-focused unit. It has expanded the workforce to 450 from 300.
“(Under Designit) we decided to leverage the brand to attract the skills that we want to attract and continue to command the pricing and the customer differentiation that it has. We have successfully executed it, at the same time leveraging revenues (to be) able to get those capabilities into some of our large accounts’ key client portfolios,” Wipro’s chief executive Abidali Neemuchwala told investors on Friday.
Designit provides strategic design, user experience, and interaction design services to global brands in health care, banking, automotive, and retail segments.
“That model has worked quite well for us. We replicated that kind of integration for HealthPlan Services and the whole idea for Appirio is also that it will be our cloud application services practice,” he added.
Since Neemuchwala joined Wipro as its chief operating officer from larger rival Tata Consultancy Services, the Bengaluru-based IT services firm has spent $1.13 billion in acquiring global firms to fix the gaps in its new strategy. Two of these acquisitions – HealthPlan Services for $460 million and the $500 million buy of Appirio last week – have been under Neemuchwala’s stewardship as CEO in February this year.
Wipro has been the most aggressive among Indian IT services firms to look at acquisitions as a strategy to buy the capabilities it lacks. It says the smaller firms it acquires will be exposed to other customers that Wipro has for its services.
“For example, the managed service and support capability that we have for ERP (enterprise resource planning) and enterprise applications could further enhance Appirio’s share of the market that it can get. And, we plan to execute on that strategy,” said Neemuchwala.
Wipro, he said, was earlier struggling to hire talent in emerging areas such as digital, but with Designit, it has been able to address the challenge. At the time of acquisition in July 2015, Designit had around 300 engineers.
“At last count, about 450 designers are within the Designit umbrella,” said Neemuchwala. “So we feel quite comfortable replicating that acquisition integration strategy for HealthPlan Services, for Appirio, and another acquisition that we did.”
