Reshuffle Of Business Lines On At Wipro It Group

The Rs 1,650-crore Wipro group is in the midst of a reshuffle of its various lines of business in the information technology sector.

The company will shift the manufacturing of personal computers (PCs) from Wipro Infotech to Wipro Acer, the 55:45 joint venture between Wipro and the $ 6-billion Acer group. Till recently, Wipro Infotech was manufacturing PCs at its Mysore plant. From July onwards, Wipro Acer will start computer manufacturing at its Pondicherry plant. The full-fledged manufacturing activity at the Wipro Acer facility is likely to commence in April 1998.

Wipro Acer will, thus, evolve as a company involved in marketing Acer's products to one which will undertake manufacturing of computers.

 

Wipro Infotech, which till now was carrying out the manufacture of computers at its facility in Mysore, will now focus on providing solutions and systems integration services to Wipro Acer's customers. "Wipro Infotech will, thus, become a business partner to Wipro Acer making available its solutions and systems integration expertise to the company. It will also be involved in the distribution of Sun Microsystems and Acer's products," Suresh Vaswani, chief executive of Wipro Acer, said.

Wipro Acer is likely to notch up a turnover of Rs 250 crore in the current financial year. "Next year, our revenues are targeted to grow by almost 40 per cent to Rs 350 crore," Vaswani said.

Vaswani, who has recently taken over as chief executive of the company, added that from July this year, the manufacturing operations would begin at a rented facility at Pondicherry. Full-fledged manufacturing would be undertaken at the company's own premises in Pondicherry from July this year, he said. The plant will have a capacity of 60,000 to 70,000 units a year. The plant will be based on the 'Uniload' system of production, in line with Acer's facilities across the world.

The system provides for the incorporation of the latest developments in the central processing unit (CPU), drives and motherboard technology which will cut down cycle time by a considerable extent.

The Indian operations come under Acer Computer, the Singapore's Asia Pacific regional business unit, which generates business worth $ 1 billion for the Acer group.

The Wipro information technology group, with a combined turnover of nearly Rs 850 crore, accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the Wipro group's revenues. It has two joint ventures in its fold, Wipro Acer and Wipro BT, the 50:50 alliance with British Telecom for providing very small aperture terminal (VSAT) services and other value-added services.