Infosys Plans To Move Employees...

Infosys Plans to move 150 of its executives with technical background to sales

Infosys is concentrating on strengthening its commitment with clients by arraying delivery side employees to sales, in what is to be one of the first measures being put in place by new chief executive Vishal Sikka. The country's second-largest software exporter, which seeks to reclaim the IT bellwether's tag, will deploy 150 executives with technical background currently working at the delivery side at Infosys's client locations, said a senior executive of the company.

"Yes, we have identified specific people from our delivery organisation to be positioned at our client locations in order to strengthen our relationships with them," said UB Pravin Rao, chief operating officer. "These individuals are primarily from technical backgrounds, have good knowledge of the client background and have been involved in successful delivery of on-going projects."

Some experts believe this initiative, though in the right direction, is more about the company trying to keep up with its rivals, including Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services and Nasdaq listed Cognizant. "As for the sales push, it is critical to make Infosys less dependent of discretional spend and gain a larger share of comprehensive outsourcing deals to secure recurring revenue streams," said Tom Reuner, an analyst at Ovum, a London-based IT research firm.

"While the company has won some remarkable deals of late such as the Daimler deal, its sales engine is far from optimized. This was recognized by Murthy and Sikka is now continuing this push." Rao said this is a company-wide initiative across regions and business units and will help Infosys to develop existing engagement with clients by adding incremental value to ongoing projects.

"As this effort is aimed at increasing value delivered to our clients, we believe it will result in better revenue growth from existing client relationships," said Rao. This measure by Infosys comes under after the company recorded a flat growth in revenues for the first quarter ended June, leading many analysts to question if Narayana Murthy's measures to boost sales were giving desired results.

BG Srinivas, who quit the company in May, told that Infosys was then instigating a wide-ranging plan to improve sales efficiency, predicting that the benefits of these measures could start showing up before the third quarter of 2014-15. Two of the measures that Srinivas then highlighted were stepping up hiring overseas and enhancing training for all client-facing executives.

The company also re-structured its "go-to-market" in particular verticals where it wanted to expand its presence, including in insurance, life sciences, healthcare, energy & utilities. "This does not mean we will not be continuing with our earlier announced initiatives," said a senior company executive. "This is just one more step we thought we should handle upon as we seek to mine and farm more business from our clients (existing)."

Infosys to Focus On Innovations

Vishal Sikka: Infosys to focus on innovation, new solutions

Infosys' incoming chief executive officer Vishal Sikka signaled the coming technology led changes at Infosys but said that no major transformation is imminent at India's second-largest software company.

Sikka, who will on Friday become the first non-founder to lead Infosys, appeared to prepare the Bangalore-based company's 1.6 lakh employees for change but didn't alarm them unduly about what is to come.

Sikka, who will on Friday become the first non-founder to lead Infosys, appeared to prepare the Bangalore-based company's 1.6 lakh employees for change but didn't alarm them unduly about what is to come.

Sikka, who was head of technology and innovation at SAP and the creator of the company's money-spinning analytic's product HANA, is taking charge of Infosys during a challenging phase for the company. He is faced with the task of helping the company regain growth momentum while at the same time preparing it for the rapid changes brought on by technology innovation.

The big thing I believe is that the world around us is being transformed by software and that gives Infosys a tremendous opportunity," he said. "So if you look at manufacturing, software is making its way into machines, management of machines. So manufacturing is being transformed. In oil and gas, oil exploration is becoming digitized."

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy unexpectedly stepped down as executive chairman last month and made way for Sikka, just a year after returning to take control of company which was lagging industry growth rates for more than three years. The former SAP board member observed that momentum has been imparted to Infosys because of the measure put in place by Murthy.

"There comes a time in a company's phase when the knowledge of founders is replaced by processes, structures and innovation...and it will be Pravin's (UB Pravin Rao, chief operating officer) and my endeavor to do that," said Sikka.

In a nod to Infosys' reputation as an ethical organization with values that emphasize good corporate citizenship, he said, "The Company is built on a very deep-rooted culture of values. So my first order of business is to continue to grow that.

Some experts agree with Sikka's belief that lines between "products" and "services" in the technology industry are getting blurred and that the computing business is inherently many service businesses.

"The upshot is that the current confusions about 'Are we in the software business or Are we in a service business?' simply misses the point (a 50 or more year old point)," said Alan Kay, a computer researcher known for groundbreaking inventions at Xerox.

Hurrahhhhh....

Infosys wins multi-year deal from Daimler AG

IT services major Infosys said it has secured a multi-year deal from automaker maker Daimler AG for the management of infrastructure services and data centres.

Financial details of the deal were not revealed. Infosys said in a statement that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Daimler AG "covering management of infrastructure services and data centres, providing e-collaboration and middleware services as well as overseeing database operations". 

The agreement was signed in the second quarter of Infosys' financial year 2013-14 and the transition was completed and steady state operations started in first quarter of 2014-15, it added. 

Under the agreement, the firm has completed successful transition to take over operation of European data centres of the automobile maker, it said. 

This collaboration lays the foundation for optimising data centre operations using secure cloud technologies and the service will be delivered out of Daimler's Enterprise Operations Office in Bangalore, Infosys added. 

"Radically changing markets and customer demands are making manufacturers relook at their technology backbones to seek solutions that enable rapid response at manageable costs and without disruption," Infosys Associate VP and head of Automotive in Europe Ruchir Budhwar said. 

Such solutions allow companies to react quickly, at low cost and without downtime, he added. 

Infosys will manage the day-to-day data centre operations driven by a shared vision to innovate and transform these facilities, Budhwar said.