Patni to grow domestic markets
SOURCE: The Hindu
DATE: Sept 1st, 2008
Mohit Soapbox:
Add another name to the aspirants IT firms looking to tap the domestic Indian markets. Given the world wide slow down and clients dragging decision making, focusing on anything where there is a potential to grow is what all firms are after.
Patni has had trouble growing and like other mid size firms will have trouble in the near term. The Indian markets are growing but will not offer an alternative to long term growth replacement for the firms. It is another market to tap and does have it’s own set of unique challenges. Firms who have been providing services to global clients are finding that the same model does not work for domestic service offerings. A number of the larger firms like Infosys, Wipro have created special, separate groups to penetrate the local markets. Another player in the mix now!
ARTICLE
City-based Patni Computer Systems has joined the list of IT firms aspiring to capture a major slice of the domestic IT outsourcing market. The country’s sixth largest software exporter expects revenues from servicing India-based clients to double by 2011, Mr Deepak Khosla, Senior Vice-President and head- Asia Pacific, told Business Line.
In the next two and half years, India would account for approximately 12 per cent of the company`s overall revenues from six per cent as of now.
Late entrant
Patni is a very late entrant in the domestic IT services market, which is considered to be the epicentre of growth in the Asia Pacific IT Services marketplace. “Our dedicated focus on the Indian domestic market began just 2-3 quarters ago.
“The beauty about the Indian market is that going forward, you will see many traditional competitor companies joining forces, especially when it comes to systems integration kinds of deals,” he said
Focus on three
In the first phase, Patni has identified three main industries that it will service: financial services, telecom, e-governance. The company is currently chasing about four deals in the $100-120 million range in India.
IBM is currently one of the largest players in this space; recently, the US-based company announced that it has secured deals worth $1.4 billion in a single quarter in India.
According to a research from Gartner Inc, the Indian IT services market is pegged to grow to $10.73 billion by 2011 at a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 23.2 per cent.
Team rejig
With a view to make Patni more nimble as a company, it has rejigged its management team. Mr Surjeet Singh, Chief Financial Officer, has been elevated to Chief Financial & Operations Officer.
Mr Neeraj Gupta, Executive Vice-President, has been promoted as Chief Delivery Officer and head of global client relations.
Patni has been grappling with the issue of declining profits (as per Indian accounting standards) for the last two quarters
