Wipro may soon bag big-ticket outsourcing deals

6 Aug 2009,ET Bureau


KOLKATA: Wipro, the country’s third-largest software services exporter, expects to close a clutch of big-ticket outsourcing deals — each valued upwards of $100 million — in the second quarter of 2009-10.
The company claims it has a good funnel of potential clients who prefer end-to-end solutions in areas like IT services, consulting, remote management and BPO.

Confirming this, Wipro executive director & CFO Suresh C Senapaty said: “We expect to win some good clients this year despite the slowdown. It is true that bids are getting complex and taking longer time to conclude. However, we are optimistic of closing few large deals, especially in the $100-million plus range,” Mr Senapaty told ET.

Wipro had added 26 new clients in the first quarter (April-June 2009). “The total value of the new deals bagged in Q1 is around $700 million, with quite a few in the $30-million plus range. Clients are now looking for long-term deals and prefer end-to-end processing,” Mr Senapaty said. The company also indicated that hiring could become robust in the months to come.

“The newer spate of deals are much more stabilised on pricing and are volume-oriented. By virtue of their nature, we would require more people for servicing them. However, we will go for just-in-time hiring,” said Mr Senapaty. Wipro will also focus on near-shoring as a future strategy.

“Clients now prefer near-shoring as a concept. Bulk of our people outside India are working at customer premises. We plan to open several new near-shore centres in Latin America, eastern Europe and the APAC region. The idea is to expand into low-cost destinations,” said Mr Senapaty.

As part of this, Mr Senapaty said Wipro plans to double headcount at China from the present 400-odd people and also open a facility at Russia.

“The future growth verticals will include energy, utilities, telecom, healthcare and government. We intend to expand business in India and Middle-East, which currently contributes less than 10% to our revenue,” he said.

Wipro is also eyeing acquisition opportunities in Japan, Australia, Latin America and Europe, Mr Senapaty added