Infosys launches Flypp mobile application platform

Infosys Technologies Ltd today announced the launch of Flypp, an application platform, which it said, would empower mobile service providers to "delight" digital consumers through a host of ready-to-use experiential applications across the universe of devices.

According to Subhash Dhar, Member Executive Council and Group Head, Sales & Marketing at Infosys, "Smart applications are now making it possible to deliver a personalised and interactive user experience. Mobile service providers are seeing a steady shift in value from providing connectivity to monetising digital demand. Flypp enables this capability for mobile operators through a plug and play model".

Flypp is a "Ready to Launch" Application platform for mobile operators, the Bangalore-headquartered, NASDAQ-listed firm said in a statement. This "operator centric" platform enables mobile operators to offer a bouquet of applications, including third party ones to its subscribers.

Flypp also provides independent software vendors a "viable and attractive" channel to showcase and monetise their proprietary applications across multiple geographies and service providers, Infosys added.

Pai denies ‘turf war' at Infosys

The news of two Infosys top executives leaving the company due to various reasons, has given air to the rumor that a turf war is brewing in the top echelons of the IT behemoth, however, top brass of the company categorically denied any such thing.Recently, a citizen journalist website, citing sources claimed that there was a “bitter turf war” within the company which puts Infosys at a risk of “losing some of the most respected executives in India.” “There existed two extremely strong factions within Infosys - Nandan Nilekani and Mohandas Pai…A united face to the world, the continuous tension between the two head honchos was a well kept secret restricted to the inner circle.Those in Nandan’s faction (read Amitabh Chaudhary) are slowly being edged out of the inner circle after Nandan left the top post.Latest to hit the bandwagon are Rishi Jain (AVP and Head of Corporate Planning at Infosys BPO) and Purnima Menon (Head - Marketing for Infosys BPO),” the website said.Infosys HR Head, Mohandas Pai told Express, “There is no such turf war. Joydeep is leaving but he had put in his papers three months ago for personal reasons and we would be finalizing his successor shortly.” “Rishi and purnima have not resigned!” he added.The resignation of Joydeep, who heads the Knowledge Process Outsourcing business of the company, was reported by news papers on Thursday.Knowledge services contribute about 10 per cent of Infosys BPO’s annual revenue of over Rs 1,450 crore. Joydeep took over from Ramit Sethi, who quit last year to head the KPO practice at Wipro.Amitabh Chaudhry, who took over as the Chief Executive of Infosys BPO in March 2006, had reportedly submitted his resignation on Tuesday.The BPO arm of Infosys employs about 16,000 staff and offers finance and accounting, human resource and legal services outsourcing.Chaudhry who is tipped to join HDFC Standard Life Insurance to head its business in India as CEO could not be contacted and HDFC Standard Life Insurance spokesperson declined to comment.

Joydeep Mukherjee Quits Infosys KPO

After the recent resignation of Infosys BPO Chief Executive Amitabh Chaudhry, another senior executive at Infosys Technologies' business process outsourcing arm has resigned.
Joydeep Mukherjee, the head of the knowledge process outsourcing services at Infosys BPO, has quit the company, a spokesman said without giving details.
On November 24, Chaudhry had put in his papers to pursue other opportunities. According to sources, Chaudhry is expected to join HDFC Standard Life Insurance to head its business in India as CEO

Infosys to keep off auto engineering biz, focus on aerospace projects

India's second-biggest software exporter Infosys Technologies plans to stay away from top auto customers in its engineering services business and shift its focus from commoditised and price-sensitive projects.

Engineering requires a mix of programming and core engineering skills such as mechanical or civil, depending on the industry being serviced, and is billed at higher rates than traditional application development

and maintenance projects.

"We have chosen to walk away from this (auto) industry because the work has become increasingly commoditised because of high competition. We are a premium services player and our contribution is value-driven," said Valmeeka Nathan, vice-president and head of product lifecycle and engineering, Infosys.

He said the company had chosen to de-risk revenues from this segment and instead focus on segments such as aerospace, which provides stability and visibility of revenues.

Some of the other focus areas for the company in engineering services will be sectors such as heavy engineering, hi-tech, energy generation, medical and apparel. Mr Nathan said aerospace contributed about 40 percent to the company's engineering services revenues, with the remaining 60 percent coming from other sectors.

"The contribution of the auto (sector) to our (engineering) revenues is minor. We do take on projects from auto clients but selectively," he added.

"The nature of engineering services is different from software services, and requires a fairly different talent pool. Vendors have their own niche because it requires a fair amount of competency. It also doesn't offer the same kind of scalability as the rest of the software business," said Sandeep Muthangi, analyst with IIFL.

"Even outside of engineering services, Infosys does not have much exposure to the auto sector," said an analyst with a foreign brokerage.

With auto majors, General Motors (GM) and Chrysler, slipping into bankruptcy, the auto sector has been a trouble spot for IT vendors such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro that service them. Revenues from the auto industry have declined and analysts said they could not comment on the current contribution of GM or Chrysler to the revenues of the IT majors.

However, on the sidelines of the recent Nasscom Global Engineering Leadership Summit, Regu Ayyaswamy, VP (engineering and industrial services), TCS, said that the company was seeing 'some sporadic signs of growth' from the auto industry.

Infosys helps QSI to implement Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009

Quantum Solutions India, a contract research organization, has implemented Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 with the help of Infosys Technologies. The implementation will enable data management, harmonized processes, data security

and reduce delays due to high manual dependence at QSI.

Infosys has also integrated Adrenalin (Adrenalin e-Systems) to address Quantum Solutions's India (QSI) human resource and payroll management requirements. Through this program, Infosys has enabled QSI to achieve process standardization, transaction processing, resource allocation, and reduced manual effort across financial management, sales and marketing, and resource planning.

Infosys claims that following this deployment, QSI was able to reduce the invoice preparation time and improve the data accuracy of invoices, leading to increased revenue and productivity for the company.

Apurva Goswamy, CEO of QSI, said: "For a complex domain like contract research organization (CRO), we collaborated with Infosys to leverage their proven capabilities in ERP and their cross-industry expertise across the Microsoft Dynamics product suite.

"The newly implemented ERP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, has streamlined and standardized our business processes, helping us improve our margins by demonstrating where the slack is, improving productivity, providing seamless information flow, and allowing faster and more accurate reporting."

Infosys Helps Volantis Achieve Significant Cost Savings with Windows Azure

Infosys Technologies Limited (Nasdaq: INFY) today announced that it has successfully integrated Volantis Systems(TM) award winning Ubik.com(TM) service with Windows Azure resulting in significant performance improvements and cost savings. The Windows Azure platform provides an operating system, data storage, and a set of developer services for creating a range of flexible, cost-effective solutions via the cloud.

Volantis, whose solutions help solve the complexity of delivering the true mobile Internet to thousands of unique devices, looked to Infosys to implement Windows Azure in order to increase scalability for its Ubik.com service. Ubik.com is free-to-use and allows small businesses and consumers to quickly create personalized mobile Internet sites, without having to write a line of code. The integration of Ubik.com with Windows Azure ensures a seamless user experience for those accessing Ubik®, supported by an integrated Volantis device database containing information on more than 6,700 mobile handsets. Within just four weeks, Volantis and Infosys were able to create a set of Web services running on Windows Azure that resulted in significant cost savings.

"Infosys worked closely with Volantis to integrate our system with Windows Azure," said Mark Watson, CEO, Volantis. "We want our customers to have the seamless scalability that is available only through the cloud. Infosys was able to quickly and effectively implement our solution on top of Windows Azure. Without Infosys, Volantis may well have had to purchase, deploy and manage new storage infrastructure so this initiative has delivered significant savings."

As a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, Infosys has worked closely with the Windows creator over the past eight years to accelerate customers' competitive business impact through legacy modernization, infrastructure optimization, enterprise collaboration and other services. By delivering Microsoft Corp.'s solutions with speed and predictability, Infosys was a natural choice for Volantis when considering its move to Windows Azure.

As part of Infosys' alliance with Microsoft, the two technology leaders have been offering cloud-based solutions and services for Windows Azure for the past two years. Infosys recently opened a Cloud Center of Excellence (COE) that enables enterprise and ISV customers around the world to adopt cloud-based IT capabilities through strategic consulting, application development and migration, as well as through systems management, integration and monitoring services on the Windows Azure platform.

"With Windows Azure, we're focused on delivering a services platform that provides partners like Infosys with the ability to build and manage highly scalable Web applications and services," said Amitabh Srivastava, Senior Vice President of Windows Azure at Microsoft Corp. "Infosys was able to help Volantis migrate to Windows Azure in just four weeks which is a prime example of how Windows Azure can provide cost savings."

"Over the past two years, Infosys has worked closely with Microsoft to help customers quickly and easily take advantage of the cost-savings, efficiencies and ease-of-management associated with this next-generation computing model," says Subu Goparaju, Vice President and Head Software Engineering and Technology Labs (SETLabs), Infosys. "A usage-based platform enables Infosys to deliver solutions on a transaction-based pricing model to our customers to increase efficiency on a global scale."

• Infosys and cloud computing: www.infosys.com/cloud-computing/
• Infosys' cloud computing blog: www.infosysblogs.com/cloudcomputing/
• Windows Azure: www.windowsazure.com/

Infosys eyes US insurance market with $38 mn buy

India’s second-biggest software exporter Infosys Technologies on Thursday acquired the US-based back-office firm McCamish Systems for
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around $38 million in order to tap into over $5-billion insurance services market in the country.

Atlanta-based McCamish, which counts the Nolan Financial Group, Phoenix Companies and Heritage Union among its top clients, will help Infosys not only to increase its revenues from insurance customers, but also position the Indian offshore firm as a more local company. A local arm will address concerns of anti-offshoring lobbies more effectively.

“This acquisition also gives a good onsite presence, as McCamish is well positioned among the large insurance players as a local service provider,” said Amitabh Chaudhry, CEO of Infosys BPO.

Infosys added in a statement that it will pay McCamish an additional $20 million provided some financial targets agreed mutually are achieved over next few years. With around 260 employees, the BPO firm reported $38.2 million in revenues during the year ended December 2008.
In August, Infosys BPO announced an alliance with financial software company MortgageFlex Systems to offer support services for loan modification initiatives in the US.

nasscom

Indian IT firms reject 90 percent of college graduates and 75 percent of engineers who apply for jobs because they are not good enough to be trained, according to Nasscom.

Wipro employs 95,000, Infosys 1,05,000 and TCS 1,43,000. Of the Fortune 500, only Wal-Mart in America adds more people annually than either Infosys or TCS.



Last year Infosys hired 28,231 people, including 18,000 graduates paid Rs.3 lakh a year. This year they will hire 20,000 at Rs 3.25 lakh. Infosys is hiring though there isn't enough business. Currently, 30,000 people at Infosys are 'benched'.

Why are they still hiring and raising salaries? Because they cannot find competent people and due to this reason, this year Infosys increased its training of employees to 29 weeks. That's seven months of training. Why do they need so much training? And why is the quality of applicants so poor?

Infosys spends twice as much as its American competitors on training, four percent of revenue. Nine half-literates are produced by our colleges, by Nasscom's numbers, for every graduate of passable quality. What is Nasscom's solution to this? It wants government to boost college enrolment from 10 percent of those in secondary school, to 25 percent. Nasscom knows that this will only increase the number of job applicants, not the quality, but there's no other solution.

India produces three million graduates, but Nasscom says that next year it will see a shortage of 500,000 graduates, because incompetents will swamp the rest.

banking

Infosys Technologies, which counts Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN Amro among its top customers, sees more
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opportunities emerge as these banks merge their business and technology systems in order to consolidate their operations and integrate better with the acquired entities.

For Infosys, which derives around 33% of its revenues from banking and financial services (BFSI) customers, consolidation among the top US and European banks is bringing new business, with some of these individual contracts worth around $500 million each, potentially.

“There are six integration projects we are currently looking at,” said Ashok Vemuri, senior vice-president and global head for banking and capital markets business at Infosys. “Fortunately, we have landed on the right side in most of these M&A developments,” he added without offering comments about any specific customers.

While BofA is in the process of integrating its systems with Merrill Lynch, RBS is attempting to consolidate its IT systems with ABN Amro. As these banks merge, they now face a mammoth task of integrating their software applications, consolidating
their data centres and other trading platforms into single entity, so that their customers are able to transact without facing any merger-related issues.

Infosys IT SEZ In Thiruvananthapuram To Open Shortly

According to the reports, the IT Special Economic Zone which is being developed by the Indian software giant, Infosys, in Thiruvananthapuram, is all set to start functioning. The IT SEZ has been developed on a plot of 50 acres, near to the Technopark IT campus at Thiruvananthapuram.

M. Vasudevan, who is the senior business development manager of the Technopark, has told that the SEZ has been built as two different buildings. He added that the work of one of the facilities is almost on the verge of completion where as the other one is under progress.

"Each building has a capacity to seat 1,500 professionals. The first one will open shortly, some last bit of work on common amenities and a food court remains. The other building is also nearing completion," Vasudevan told.

Currently the Infosys development centre in the Technopark campus has more than 1,500 professionals.

But certain officials have revealed that, Infosys will be opening both the building together by the end of this year or by early next year, but the Kerala state government is urging for the opening of the building which has almost been completed as early as possible.

The agreement for transferring land to Infosys for the project was signed in 2006 and the ground-breaking ceremony took place in 2007.

Infosys moving towards result-based pricing

The IT industry
is known for a business model where revenues are directly linked to the number of employees meaning that revenue is a function of effort. Taking a transition in its pricing mechanism, IT major Infosys is now turning towards outcome-based pricing model that pays for results and not performance.

According to Subhash Dhar, senior VP and EC member of Infosys, the outcome-based pricing model is a non-linear model and it will increase efficiency without increasing employee head count.

The model improves revenue per employee as margins for this ranges from 25-35 per cent as against 10-15 per cent for the fixed pricing models, he added.

The new model contributed 3-4 per cent of Infosys’ revenue last fiscal and Dhar plans to take it to 10 per cent of the overall revenue in two years.

“Interestingly, 14 clients have already signed for the new model. If we can pull this off this really will mean a generation change for the kind of engagement models that clients will get from the industry,” he pointed out.

While Infosys is betting big on the new model, analysts say the model is not without risks. The model works only with experienced clients and there are chances of increased number of disputes with clients leading to wastage of time.

Further, as long as Indian companies do not diversify into products and hardware and remain primarily service oriented, the revenue upside would be limited.

“It is a promising model but risky for both parties. It will take some time before people will accept the model as a de fact standard,” said Akhilesh Tuteja, ED, Advisory services of KPMG.

Despite many challenges, Infosys has started deputing specialised consultants with all its sales team to pitch the new model to clients.

Clearly, Infosys’ aggressive plans seem to be working for now.

add add * Infosys most admired Indian company: WSJ survey

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies has been adjudged as most admired Indian company, ahead of Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel, says a survey.

Infosys has topped the list of 10 most admired Indian companies and is followed by IT major TCS at the second position, according to the survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal Asia.

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is at the third spot, engineering major Larsen & Toubro has cornered the fourth place and IT firm Wipro is at the fifth position.

Others on the list are Tata Steel (sixth), FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (seventh), HDFC Bank (eighth), State Bank of India (9th) and conglomerate ITC (10th).

The ranking is based on the Asian 200 survey of subscribers of The Wall Street Journal Asia and other business people.

Infosys to use its internships to attract more global talent

Infosys Technologies, India’s second largest software exporter, plans to use infosys_logothe success of its global internship programme, InStep to attract more global talent to the company. From the launch of the programme in 1999, the company has so far trained 664 people from 41 nationalities.

“The programme, launched almost 10 years ago to create a platform for the brightest engineers from the US to understand India and our (Infosys) business better, has now metamorphosed to cover most other countries globally. Our belief is that sooner or latter InStep will become a good conduit to recruit more and more global talents,” N R Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of the Nasdaq-listed company told here on Monday.

In 2008, about 175 trainees from 27 countries joined the internship programme. This year, as of now, over 100 students have joined the programme. The company says, while at least 15-20 people from every internship batch were joining the company earlier, this number is expected to go up as it is planning to recruit more overseas talent going forward.

According to the company, once they return to their respective countries, the interns work as brand ambassadors for Infosys which helps the company promote itself as a global recruitment brand. “Today if you go to 85 universities worldwide considered the best in those countries, you will see us present there and you will see our ex-interns. It has done wonders to us in terms of building a global brand amongst the global academia,” said Sanjay Purohit, vice president and head of corporate planning.

The duration of Infosys’ global internship programme targeted at young engineers and MBAs is in the range of 8-24 weeks. During the internships, the trainees are being provided monthly stipends.

Infy, Wipro set up units to tap Indian, foreign govt mkt

BANGALORE: Two of the top three Indian tech firms—Infosys and Wipro—are setting up dedicated practices for serving government customers locally and across the globe, as they seek to address over $100-billion market for government IT outsourcing
and compete more effectively with local rival TCS, apart from challenging IBM, EDS and others in their home markets.

Both Infosys and Wipro have started hiring consultants and experts from government organisations apart from investing more in marketing efforts in order to chase government outsourcing opportunities better. According to a recent Nasscom research, governments in developed countries spent nearly $160 billion on technology services last year, which is just next to financial services and manufacturing customers.

A focused solution practice will involve hiring consultants from government organisations , putting together a large team of domain experts in the markets of India, US, UK, Canada and Australia, and develop a new revenue opportunity at par with other established verticals such as retail, telecom and banking
and financial services industry. “We have taken a decision to start government practice in India and other markets of the UK, Australia, Canada and the US,” said S Gopalakrishnan, chief executive of Infosys Technologies .

“We are building expertise by hiring consultants with relevant backgrounds, some from government organisations-we want to make this a multi billion opportunity for us in next few years,” he said. Rival Wipro, which already serves many Indian customers including several government organisations is also fleshing out a much more serious initiative for growing its revenues from this segment globally.

IT majors preparing strategy in line with revival of demand

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).

Infosys BPO inks 5-yr pact with T-Mobile UK

New Delhi: Infosys BPO, the BPO arm of Infosys Technologies announced on tuesday that it has secured a five-year contract with T-Mobile UK.

Infosys BPO has been engaged by T-Mobile UK to support several core processes for their finance directorate which cover customer finance, commercial finance and accounting (F&A), and procurement operations, Infosys BPO said.

“We are pleased to have been selected by T-Mobile UK. Our strong F&A capabilities combined with our understanding of the telecom industry helps us successfully transform businesses of our clients,” Infosys BPO vice president and head (Communications, Media and Entertainment (CME)) Gopal Devanahalli said.

The deal size was, however, not disclosed.

T-Mobile is one of the world’s largest mobile operators with more than 125 million customers worldwide and about 16.7 million customers in the UK itself.

“We were keen to partner with a company that possessed a good understanding of our requirements and business needs. We are confident of gaining immense value through our partnership with Infosys BPO,” T-Mobile UK Head of Customer Finance Tim Spence said.

Indian Railways award ICMS project to Infosys

The railways have awarded a pilot project for an integrated coach management system (ICMS) to Infosys Technologies. The project is likely to cost about Rs 210 crore.

According to a Railway Board official, the success of the project will decide the time frame for the railways to take up this ambitious project from safety point of view.

Under the ICMS plan, the railways intend to automate the maintenance and repair of passenger coaches through improved method of new multiple technologies. The new system is likely to have three different modules including punctuality, stock and time tabling, he said.

IBM’s $1.2B acquisition of SPSS shows importance of software in IBM transformation

IBM scoops up software maker SPSS in $1.2B deal

SAN FRANCISCO — IBM Corp. is bulking up its most profitable division with a $1.2 billion acquisition of business software provider SPSS Inc., a deal that also reflects the power of wealthy technology companies to throw their money around despite the recession.

The all-cash deal announced Tuesday represents a 42 percent premium over Chicago-based SPSS's closing price of $35.09 on Monday.

SPSS's software helps tell companies "what's coming around the corner" and is "a really terrific acquisition" for IBM, said Charles King, analyst with the Pund-IT Inc. research firm.

"This is really a Cadillac-style technology … it's well established and well regarded," King said.

SPSS's technology is used to comb through stockpiles of data to predict things such as how a customer will respond to a particular sales pitch, or where hot spots for crime are and where police should be deployed. The company claims its customers include agencies in all U.S. state governments, top U.S. universities and consumer goods, pharmaceutical and market-research companies.

"With this acquisition, we are extending our capabilities around a new level of analytics that not only provides clients with greater insight — but true foresight," Ambuj Goyal, general manager of IBM's Information Management group, said in a statement.

The deal is expected to close later this year, and is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. SPSS has more than 1,200 employees in 60 countries. The company had $303 million in sales last year and $36 million in profit.

The acquisition fits with IBM's strategy of strengthening its software and services divisions as a critical part of a makeover over the past decade.

IBM has spent more than $20 billion since 2003 on more than 80 acquisitions. Fifty of those acquisitions have been software companies.

One result of the transformation is that IBM, a company known for its mainframes and other computers that have powered back offices for decades, is less reliant now on hardware. Having sold off its personal computer and printing businesses, IBM makes most of its money off services and software.

In the latest quarter — the three months ended June 30 — IBM's software division contributed 43 percent of IBM's overall pretax profit. Expanding its reliance on software is one reason the Armonk, N.Y.-based company is able to keep improving profits even as sales fall because of the economy. IBM recently raised its latest 2009 profit forecast to $9.70 per share, from $9.20 per share.

Separately, IBM also has acquired Ounce Labs Inc., a privately held software company in Waltham, Mass., for an undisclosed amount. IBM said the company makes software that helps businesses reduce the risk and costs associated with security and compliance concerns.

Beefing up the software division was a key reason IBM explored buying Sun Microsystems Inc., a superstar of the dot-com era that struggled with inconsistent financial results for nearly a decade.

The Java technology that Sun invented is a key ingredient of the Internet, and IBM's $7 billion offer for Sun was fueled in part by a desire to have more control over the software's development. The deal collapsed in a dispute over price and other terms.

Oracle Corp. ultimately agreed to buy Sun for $7.4 billion in cash in a surprise twist in the takeover saga. The bidding was one of the first signs that cash-rich tech companies were willing to open their wallets again despite the recession.

Another big tech deal recently was data-storage specialist EMC Corp.'s $2.1 billion pickup of a company called Data Domain Inc., whose technology helps companies cut the amount of information that gets stored multiple times. EMC had been in a fierce bidding contest with rival NetApp Inc. for control of Data Domain.

IT firms speed up patent filing

Stepping up efforts to commercialise their intellectual property (IP), Indian IT services firms have accelerated their patent filing process. The top three firms — TCS, Infosys and Wipro — filed together over 150 patent applications in fiscal 2009.

Such a move is an important part of their non-linear growth strategy, where the companies are trying to de-link their revenue growth from the number of people added. This is expected to improve their profitability in a changing business environment.
Patent figures

While Infosys led rivals TCS and Wipro in terms of filing the highest number of patents in fiscal 2009, TCS was granted the most during the year. TCS filed for 58 patents in fiscal 2009 and was granted five — three in India and two in the US. Infosys filed for some 80 patent applications in the US and India and was granted two by the US Patents and Trademark Office. Wipro filed for 13 patents and granted one during the year.

“We have defined an IP strategy with a view to building an effective portfolio and plan to monetise going forward,” said Mr Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, TCS. Despite setting up its first software R&D centre way back in 1981, TCS filed for its first set of IPs only in the early part of this decade.

However, with an IP strategy in place, TCS has stepped up its efforts. “We filed for more than 30 patents in the June quarter and currently have some 200 patent applications pending in various jurisdictions,” Mr Krishnan said. TCS managed to save $26 million (Rs 125 crore) through its R&D efforts in fiscal 2009.

Infosys has an aggregate of 200 patent applications pending in India and the US. “As part of our new engagement model, the focus has changed to commercialising the IP from merely developing it,” Infosys COO, Mr S. D. Shibulal, told Business Line recently.

The changed economic conditions, where customers have slashed their technology spending drastically, have forced even the smaller IT services firms such as KPIT Cummins to look at patenting their IPs.

“For the first time, we filed for eight patent applications in fiscal 2009,” said Mr Girish Wardadkar, President and ED, KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd. The company is looking to commercialise its IPs and leverage its knowledge assets, Mr Wardadkar said.
Value-addition tool

The start-ups and services companies are looking to use their IP as value addition and attract new customers, not necessarily by converting them into patents.

“We haven’t seen too many cases from the smaller firms, but there’s definitely a growing intention” said Mr Kalyan C. Kankanala, Chief Knowledge Officer and Co-founder of Brain League, an IP services company. Zensar Technologies, which has developed IPs in verticals such as retail, insurance and across SAP and Oracle implementations, earns about 30-35 per cent of its revenues from non-linear initiatives.

“We hope to have 50 per cent of revenue from non-linear initiatives including IP and re-usable components. We have not yet looked at filing for patents. We might look at service patents in the future,” said Mr Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-Chairman and CEO, Zensar.

CISF cover for Infosys and RIL refinery from Friday

In order to protect major India Inc companies from terrorists attack, government has decided to provide CISF security cover to IT major Infosys campus in Bangalore and Reliance Industries Ltd refinery in Jamnagar in Gujarat. CISF cover could also be provided to other major IT firms like Wipro, TCS and others.

Sources say that for CISF cover for Infosys would start from Friday. Around 100 specially-trained CISF personnel would guard the Infosys campus.

It is learnt that centre may provide such kind of cover to some other major companies also. It could not be ascertained that when CISF cover would start for Jamnagar Refinery. The Centre has expanded the role of CISF from guarding government establishment to providing security to private installations in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

Sources say that the need for security cover to vital private installations was felt following intelligence reports that Pakistan-based terrorists might try to target them by launching a surprise attack similar to the one in Mumbai last year.

IT firms spend more on R&D to offer new services

Top-tier IT firms are increasing their research and development spends as they gear up to offer newer services such as cloud computing and platform-based offering as part of their non-linear growth strategy.
Infy leads

Infosys Technologies has stayed ahead of its rivals Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro in investing in R&D. Infosys’ R&D expenditure grew ahead of its revenue growth in fiscal 2009 at 33 per cent to Rs 267 crore, followed by Wipro at 21.4 per cent to Rs 49.2 crore and TCS at 13.25 per cent to Rs 43.92 crore.

For the past four years, Infosys has sustained its R&D spend at over a per cent of its total annual revenues, while TCS and Wipro have maintained it at 0.20 per cent of their total earnings.
Revenues from Solutions

“We are focussed much more on non-linearity of revenue. That includes creating solutions and leveraging them to get better revenue productivity,” said Mr V. Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer at Infosys.

The company is working on creating solutions for different verticals such as retail, financial services and others. However, it would take some time for revenues from such solutions to kick in, Mr Balakrishnan said. The company’s R&D spend would increase going forward, he added without giving specific details.

Besides continuing to invest in its banking solution Finacle, Infosys has stepped up its focus on new engagement models such as the solutions based offering, platform-based Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and software-as-a-solution (SaaS) platform. I

n fiscal 2009, Infosys launched its Digital Convergence Platform that currently powers Airtel Digital TV and ShoppingTrip360, a platform that enables a suite of managed information services to create a 360-degree view of real-time in-store shopper and shelf activity.
plan forward

Infosys plans to collaborate with national and international universities, product vendors and technology start-up companies with increasing focus in areas of software engineering, network and design convergence, mobility, grid computing, cloud computing, knowledge engineering, information management, security and privacy.
Wipro’s Excellence centres

Wipro’s R&D focus is to strengthen its portfolio of Centres of Excellence (CoE), Solution Accelerators and Software Engineering Tools and Methodologies. Through CoE, Wipro incubates new business practices by creating competencies in technologies such as SaaS, Unified Communication and Green IT, the company said in its annual report.

In fiscal 2009, Wipro incubated an Applied Research Group in fiscal 2009 to investigate and analyse the impact of technology in earlier stage of adoption lifecycle and has chosen Enterprise Information Management as current focus area.
TCS’ focus on verticals

TCS, which established its first software R&D centre in Pune in 1981, now has 20 R&D innovation labs with specific focus on technologies and verticals. TCS has also set up 46 CoEs to ensure that all its offerings incorporate the latest products and services capabilities from the company and its alliance partners.

TCS will continue to invest in technologies that enhance productivity and operational efficiency to create savings for its customers.

“Cloud and ubiquity computing will gain focus, while energy, life-sciences and security domains will be of prime importance,” the company’s latest annual report said. Though the R&D investments by the top three firms have seen a year-on-year increase over the past four years, the R&D spends as a proportion of their total revenues have remained flat.

Infosys Finacle bags two major deals for direct banking sol

Infosys' product division, which markets Finacle banking solutions, has launched a direct banking software product and has bagged two
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major clients, including one in Europe.

"We signed up two major deals -- one in Europe and other one in North America," Infosys Technologies (Finacle) Head Haragopal M said.

In this kind of market condition a solution like direct banking is compelling proposition for the advanced market, he said.

Giving a sense of the new product developed by the IT- bellwether, Haragopal said, direct banking is a comprehensive solution for banks to directly acquire, track and service customers, through the Internet, mobile or call center channels, in the complete absence of a brick and mortar infrastructure.

Built on new-generation technology, he said, it provides an platform that supports the full-fledged delivery of a comprehensive range of assets and liabilities solutions, facilitated through direct access to the customer 365 days a year.

The solution opens up an exciting new channel for banks to convert prospects to profitable customers, without the support of a branch, he added.

Haragopal said, there is a great opportunity in the segment and going forward there seems to a good traction in the segment.

Besides adding to the bottomline, the product suite would help banks to provide banking services in a cost-effective manner, he said.

About the June quarter performance of Finacle, Haragopal said the revenues of the company remained flat at USD 45 million.

During the quarter, Finacle added five customers and completed the implementation of six projects.

Indian software exporter Infosys gains 27 clients in Q1

MUMBAI, Jul 13, 2009 (Asia In Focus via COMTEX) -- India's second largest software exporter INFOSYS (BSE:500209) on Friday said it has added 27 new clients during the first quarter ended June 30, taking the total number of clients to 569. "Twenty seven clients were added during the quarter by Infosys and its subsidiaries," Infosys said in a statement.However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis the total number of clients have declined to 569 at the end of Q1, from 579 at the end of January-March quarter of the previous fiscal.

* The number of 'million dollar clients' increased sequentially to 789 at the end of June quarter from 778 in the previous quarter.

Infosys Technologies nets $10-mn Intel pilot project

Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, has awarded a pilot outsourcing contract to Infosys Technologies worth $10 million currently,
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which could evolve into a $100-million engagement for India’s second biggest software
exporter that is seeking to grow its revenues from customers such as BP (British Petroleum ), Intel and Telstra.

“Infosys has been working on this account for more than a year, while it is a small deal now — it surely can evolve into a much bigger engagement,” said a New York-based person familiar with the contract. He requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media about this transaction.

Intel is not alone in pursuing outsourcing contracts with Indian offshore companies. In April this year, world’s biggest software firm Microsoft announced a five-year, $170-million outsourcing contract with HCL Technologies for supporting its online services business
. Large technology companies including Intel and Cisco are under tremendous pressure to reduce operational costs, and outsourcing of non-core activities can result up to 20-30 % savings.

Two leading global banks to power direct banking operations with FinacleT

Bangalore/ London/ New York, June 15 (ANI/Business Wire India): Infosys Technologies today announced the launch of FinacleT Direct Banking Solution, a comprehensive solution that supports the full-fledged branchless delivery of a range of assets and liabilities solutions, through the Internet, mobile or call centre channels. Infosys also offers complete operational partnership along with the solution including consulting, implementation, and BPO.
Two leading global banks have already chosen FinacleT Direct Banking Solution to take advantage of the disruptive direct banking business paradigm.

As more banks across the globe realign their business strategy towards low cost customer acquisition, FinacleT Direct Banking Solution along with surround services presents banks a cost-effective entry strategy for business expansion into new geographies, and network expansion in existing markets. It is also an effective engine for demand generation through online sales enablers, to drive customer acquisition and extend the branchless bank’s outreach.

Haragopal M, Global Head - Finacle, Infosys Technologies Ltd. said, "FinacleT Direct Banking Solution aims to address the growing demand amongst banks of rapid customer acquisition and business expansion at minimal incremental costs. We are delighted that two leading global banks have already reposed their trust in this state-of-the-art offering."

The solution comes with complete pre-configured parameters and supports multi-lingual call-centre operations, helping banks to implement a direct banking offering in a short period of time. Banks will have powerful STP capabilities for shortened processing cycles, reduced risk and lower operating costs, as well as extensive security features and a framework for further integration with specialized security software. Additionally, the versatile ‘alerts’ feature provides multi-channel notifications, ensuring that customers receive relevant information through preferred channels. Its self-service capabilities further empower customers to manage their banking activities better.

As a leader in banking transformation, FinacleT has a global footprint across 62 countries and has been acknowledged among the leaders in the core banking solution space by top analysts including Gartner and Forrester. FinacleT is also the winner of a series of awards for its innovation and implementation capabilities, including The Banker Technology Award, The Asian Banker IT Implementation Award and The Banking Technology Judge’s Special Award for ‘Innovative Use of IT’.

FinacleT from Infosys helps banks by providing solutions and services that enable a shift in their strategic and operational priorities. The offerings address the comprehensive technology-led business transformation requirements of retail, corporate and universal banks worldwide by maximizing their opportunities for growth, while minimizing the risks that come with such large scale transformation.

Infosys defines, designs and delivers IT-enabled business solutions that help Global 2000 companies win in a flat world. These solutions focus on providing strategic differentiation and operational superiority to clients. With Infosys, clients are assured of a transparent business partner, world-class processes, speed of execution and the power to stretch their IT budget by leveraging the Global Delivery Model that Infosys pioneered. Infosys has over 100,000 employees and operates globally from 21 countries. Infosys is part of the NASDAQ-100 Index.

Statements in connection with this release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of US Securities laws intended to qualify for the "safe harbor" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties including those described in our SEC filings available at www.sec.gov including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended March 31 2009 and our other recent filings, and actual results may differ materially from those projected by forward-looking statements. We may make additional written and oral forward-looking statements but do not undertake, and disclaim any obligation, to update them. (ANI)

Smart City should not be delayed any further: Infosys chief

Thiruvananthapuram: Infosys Technologies chief executive Kris Gopalakrishnan Friday asked the Kerala government to take quick steps to solve the hurdles that stand in the way of the Rs.1,500-crore ($316 million) Smart City IT project, to come up in Kochi.
His statement comes days after Smart City Dubai, the developer of the project, gave an ultimatum to the state government to sort out the land dispute surrounding it before the end of the year.


"I am not aware of the project details, but this delay is not going to help the project. The government should soon finalise its decision," Gopalakrishnan said.


He was speaking to reporters after attending a meeting on infrastructure development in the state, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).


The Smart City project, whose foundation stone was laid Nov 16, 2007 by Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, has not seen any progress since then.


Smart City Dubai June 1 demanded the government give a "firm assurance" regarding the free-hold rights on 12 percent of the project land, which amounts to 39 acres.


The Dubai-based company's chief executive, Fareed Abdul Rehman, told reporters in Kochi that the firm would pull out of the project if the issue was not settled before Dec 31 this year.


Gopalakrishnan, however, expressed satisfaction with the government's decision to set up IT parks in all district headquarters.


"This would mean world class infrastructure is created and it would be good not only for the IT industry but also for nano-technology and bio-technology," he said.


According to the Infosys chief, new models of infrastructure development are the need of the hour.


"India is behind in use of technology and a lot of catching up has to be done. Both the state and centre should support infrastructure companies that provide all facilities," added Gopalakrishnan.

Infosys employees sceptical about new HR move

Infosys Technologies has launched a new HR initiative — iRACE (Infosys Role and Career Enhancement) — that is unsettling a section of the employees.
Though the company says that it is a platform that defines roles, competencies and proficiency requirements while linking career movement to performance and business focus, employees are not sure about company’s intentions.
Many employees that FC spoke to said that they are apprehensive about the new programme. According to them it brings in needless intermediate designations in the promotional cycle, thus making the process of moving up the ranks longer for employees.
For instance, with the implementation of this iRACE initiative a programme engineer (fresher) will take more than the current 2-3 years to become a programme analyst. An employee who was awaiting his promotion to the programme analyst level said, “After this new initiative, I will now be given the designation of a senior programme engineer and then after being in that role for 2-3 years I will be promoted to programme analyst.”
The roll-out of iRACE is currently on and is expected to be completed in next three months. Nandita Gurjar, group head — HR of Infosys told FC , “iRACE was initiated in May 2008 to sharpen the relevance of our current role-based career structure with our business imperatives, the company philosophy, the needs of our employees.”
The programme design involved an analysis of feedback from clients and employees, inputs from industry benchmark studies and internal business strategies, the company said. Over 6,500 Infoscions contributed to the analysis, planning and development efforts of iRACE.
However, a Bangalore-based software engineer working with the company told FC that employee response to the initiative is not good. “Apart from the prospect of intermediate levels in promotion coming in, there is lot of confusion about what band level employees will be allotted and if salary will be same or cut according to new bands,’’ he said. Another colleague added that some employees have already begun to update their resumes and apply for jobs.
Queried on promotions in the new programme, Gurjar said, “Our promotion policy depends on the roles which open up due to growth and expansion of business. The new model will also be on the same basis. We have never had the policy of automatic promotions or time bound promotions without the availability of roles.’’
On the apprehensions voiced by some Infoscians, the HR head said she had received very positive comments about iRACE. “Employees are excited about having multiple careers streams and enriched role clarity. Over the next few months, the few cynics will understand more of the programme and convert,’’ she added.

Nigeria: ETB Embraces Finance Banking Application

Equitorial Trust Bank Plc, one of the leading indigenous banks in Nigeria has signed Finacle universal banking application from Infosys Technologies, India to replace their current legacy Globus banking application.

ETB also joins other banks such as Hatton National Bank in Sri Lanka in moving away from the Globus to Temenos upgrade track and pitching tent with Finacle. HNB was an early adopter for T24 but after two years decided to replace T24 with Finacle which went live within six months of implemen-tation.

The selection of Finacle over other applications was for the obvious local 24 X 7 support infrastructures available in Nigeria through Computer Warehouse Group and for strategic business agility which Finacle provides. In addition, the bank's growth potential can only be supported by a robust, stable, and scalable core banking platform such as FINACLE. Finacle has been proven to handle more than 11,000 financial transactions per second. ETB also selected Finacle to support their channel strategy that will see ETB participating aggressively in the ATM, internet banking, mobile banking and other electronic channels.

ETB will be implementing Finacle 10, the latest release of Finacle banking application from Infosys and thus becoming the first Nigerian bank to implement the new Finacle 10.

Finacle 10 is the product of millions of years of man_effort by Infosys culminating in a major upgrade in functionality and performance over the previous versions. Finacle UBS is the award winning Core Banking Software from Infosys Technology, India. Finacle UBS is currently being used by several mega banks in Nigeria including, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Bank of Africa Plc, Oceanic Bank International Plc, First City Monument Bank, FinBank, Spring Bank, and others.

Finacle UBS is renowned for its Flexibility, robustness, and stability. it is perhaps the only core banking application in Nigeria developed using SEI_CMM level 5 certified processes and is also COB IT certified for control and security.

Finacle UBS has been designed from the beginning to be easily supported. It uses standard open technologies and also provides tools and techniques for adapting it to the local environment.
Local Technical Support provided by ExpertEdge Software Ltd, a Computer Warehouse Group Subsidiary, has helped tremendously in localizing Finacle for Nigeria environment and assured users of effective support infrastructures available on a 24 X 7 basis.

Finacle UBS is arguable the only core banking application with extensive local support in Nigeria with a large pool of certified Nigerian consultants employed by ExpertEdge. Local support is a critical success factor for any core banking application and an important decision point when choosing a core banking application as recommended by Gartner Group.

Expertedge is the software subsidiary of Computer Warehouse Group, a foremost ICT company comprising three subsidiaries covering each discipline of Information Technology as follows: CWL Systems, DCC Networks and ExpertEdge Software.

Hospital asked to pay Rs one cr to Infosys engineer

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Nizam’s Medical Institute of Hyderabad to pay Rs one-crore compensation to a software engineer who suffered permanent disability because of negligence by government-owned institute’s staff.

A bench of Justice B N Agrawal ordered the compensation for Prashanth S Dhananka, an Infosys employee working in Bangalore, who was paralysed waist downwards after a surgery at the institute.

The court increased the compensation to Rs one crore from Rs 15 lakh, which was awarded by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Dhananka suffered permanent disability, rendering him incapable of all normal chores after the surgery.

Weatherford drills into global HR with Infosys and Oracle

Infosys and Oracle have completed implementing a global human capital management (HCM) system for oil and gas drilling and production firm Weatherford International. Based on Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise, the system is reported to be transforming Weatherford's processes by streamlining its HCM operations and reducing administration costs.

Neal Gillenwater, vice president of HR at Weatherford, says key benefits include consolidation, standardisation and automation of processes across 800 service bases around the world, in one instance resulting in more than $3 million savings.

He also cites the value of instant access to data relating to capabilities of the company's 42,000 employees doing work in more than 100 countries.

"The key to success in this programme was leveraging the operational and global human resources expertise of our HR team, and combining this with the global implementation experience of Infosys," says Gillenwater.

"From defining global processes to engineering and implementing the HCM solution, Infosys has partnered with us to adopt best practices and transform successfully."

He says Weatherford chose Infosys because of its enterprise software expertise, business consulting and technology knowledge. Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM solution then came top of the list for its ability to adapt to the variety of local requirements around the world.

Infy bags eBiz project from govt

Six-year deal will make IT firm a stronger player in e-governance sector.
Infosys Technologies, India’s second largest software firm, has bagged the prestigious eBiz project of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DPIP) under the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry.

Highly-placed sources said Infosys has won the six-year contract, following a competitive bidding process that saw participation by TCS, HCL and Wipro, among others.

On being asked, Binod H R, Head of India Business for Infosys Technologies, said: “The project is still not signed and the information is not publicly available. Only after the contract is signed, will we be able to give all information.”

It is understood that after the technical bids for the project were opened in December 2008, Infosys was shortlisted for the project, as were TCS and HCL.

However, both TCS and HCL were disqualified in the final round, as they could not meet certain specific criteria, paving the way for Infosys, which is trying to play a bigger role in the domestic market for e-governance. Presently, TCS is the biggest player in the e-governance sector in India, deriving a little less than 10 per cent of its total revenue from here.

It is understood that as a part of the project, Infosys would develop an eBiz portal which will work as a one-stop shop to provide efficient services to investors, businesses and industries. Among others, the portal will facilitate in registration, filing of forms, returns, payments, request for permissions’ approvals, licences, seeking information and records and tracking of services provided by the projects.

The entire process in which applicants have to get their requests (applications) processed through various departments physically will now be done through this portal, for a fee.

For example, if a company is looking for a pollution certificate, instead of approaching the various departments involved -- environment, forest, commerce or industry, etc -- it would apply online through the eBiz portal. which will process the request, connecting all the stakeholders involved in the back-end, thus providing hassle-free service.

It is understood that while the project does not promise a fixed return to the vendor (Infosys), for every transaction done using the portal, a certain amount will go to the company.

Already five state governments – Delhi, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have agreed to participate.

Infosys was not so active in the domestic market until last year, when it announced the formation of a separate business unit to focus on only the domestic market.

So far, it has signed just one e-governance deal, a multi-year contract from the income tax department for establishing back office hubs across four states. In the private sector, the company has about six customers, including Pune-based Thermax. India contributes around 1.3 per cent of Infosys’ total revenues.

The larger part of Infosys’ revenue in India comes from its banking product, Finacle.