With the first signs of recovery in the information technology (IT) sector, the three biggest IT companies — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro Technologies and Infosys — are not only hopeful of bagging more overseas deals but have also modified their strategy to focus on near-shoring, where employees work at customer premises.
These companies are also reinforcing their product line, changing product offerings, focusing on ‘recession-proof’ sectors like pharma and healthcare, education, telecom and utilities to tide over the dip in volumes.
Wipro, for instance, is expecting a few big-ticket outsourcing deals — each valued upwards of $100 million — in the second quarter of 2009-10, in areas like IT services, consulting, remote management and business process outsourcing (BPO).
Suresh Senapaty, executive director and chief financial officer of Wipro, said, “Despite the slowdown, we expect to bag a few good deals in the second quarter, especially in the $100 million-plus range.”
Wipro had reportedly added 26 new clients in the first quarter (April-June 2009). “The total value of the new deals bagged in the first quarter works out to around $700 million, where a few are in the range of $30 million plus,” Senapaty said.
Likewise, Infosys, which posted a 17.3 per cent rise in first quarter net profit, is pursuing 12 to 15 deals worth $1 billion in the second quarter.
“We are pursuing deals worth $1 billion. The economy is gradually recovering and so we have 12-15 deals we can pursue right now. Emerging markets are a big opportunity for us, like Latin America, Europe, Japan, West Asia and Australia,” said S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD of Infosys.
TCS, on the other hand, is tweaking its product offerings for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
