Infosys is embedding 'specialists' to push sales in digital space

In a bid to push sales in digital space, India’s second largest IT services company, Infosys, is embedding ‘digital specialists’ to select base of clients who are in the advanced stage of adopting newer technologies for transforming their businesses.

The Bengaluru-based firm, which started this practice last quarter, said it was helping it to be precise on its offerings with greater understanding of the client needs.

“For some of our identified clients, we are embedding what we call as ‘digital specialists’ in each of these accounts. They are experts (in various digital technologies) and understand digital transformation.

They can be architects or people with strong domain background who work closely with our sales people and help in shaping the conversation with clients,” U B Pravin Rao, chief operating officer at Infosys, told Business Standard.

Infosys in JV with Temasek for cloud, AI tech, expanding SE Asia presence

India’s second largest IT services company Infosys has formed a joint venture with Singapore's state fund Temasek that will help the Bengaluru-headquartered firm increase its footprint in South East Asia by offering services in areas like cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

As part of the agreement, Infosys will invest up to $8.7 million to acquire 60 per cent in the joint venture entity, while Temasek will hold the rest. Around 200 of Temasek’s employees who were part of its wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore Trusted Source Pte Ltd, will be part of the joint venture, while Infosys’s staff will join over time.

Trusted Source currently delivers IT services to Temasek and a number of other clients in the region.

"Infosys gains significant capacity in terms of the workforce as it focuses on strengthening its footprint in Southeast Asia, while Temasek will see a rapid enhancement of its IT services through the JV entity," Infosys said in a filing with the exchanges.

Most companies, barring a few, can withstand ongoing rupee fall: Report

Most domestic corporates, barring a few, can withstand the ongoing rupee plunge as the share of their dollar-linked earnings largely balance the share of their greenback-denominated debt, says a report.

The rupee fell beyond Rs 70 to the dollar, closing at an all-time low on Thursday at 70.15, while today the market was closed. So far, the rupee has lost close to 9 per cent, making it one of the worst performers among the large currencies.

"A weaker and more volatile rupee would likely result in increased hedging costs for companies, while the same may benefit exporters," an S&P report said on Friday.

"Most corporates can withstand the rupee plunge as the share of their dollar-linked earnings largely balance the share of their greenback-denominated debt. A few of them will be negatively affected, but not severe enough to impact their credit ratings," S&P said.

Time to privatise state-owned banks in taxpayers interest: Nandan Nilekani

Infosys chairman and Unique ID project architect Nandan Nilekani on Tuesday said the "original rationale" for bank nationalisation has ceased to exist and that privatisation is the way forward the public sector lenders citing the taxpayers' interest.

Nilekani, who contested the last Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket, said banks were nationalised over five decades ago because they were focusing only on big industries and ignoring smaller ones. The 21 state-run banks had suffered reverses because of lending to large companies.

Introduction of technology-based solutions also makes it possible to cater to the requirements of the smaller borrowers, who were neglected in the pre-nationalisation era, the technocrat said.

"The original rationale has gone away and so let most banks function on market principles owned by the general public," he told reporters, adding privatising them is also in the interest of taxpayers.

Infosys plans to set up design hub in Rhode Island, recruit 500 Americans

Global software major Infosys on Monday said it would hire 500 Americans in US' Rhode Island state in the next 5 years.

"We will hire 500 American workers in Rhode Island over the next 5 years where a design and innovation hub will be set up in multi-year partnership with its state,a said the city-based $10 billion firm in a statement here.

Welcoming the IT firm, Governor Raimondo said the people were equipped and prepared to compete for the Infosys jobs.

"Infosys joins a growing local market of innovative, advanced industry firms that have chosen to plant a flag in Rhode Island where we have invested in higher education and job training," he said.

The hiring in Rhode Island is part of the company's announcement on May 2 to recruit 10,000 Americans by setting up four such hubs across the US to focus on new technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, user experience, emerging digital technologies, cloud and big data.

"The partnership with Rhode Island marks another important step for us in the US, as the state's educational institutions, design-rich environment and economic development tools have positioned it competitively," said Infosys President Ravi Kumar, as per the statement.

The new hires will include designers, design architects, specialists in information design and experts to accelerate the digital transformation of the company's clients in the area.

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IT woes: Indian engineers to lose 2 lakh jobs annually, says Head Hunters

Executive search firm Head Hunters India said the job cuts in IT sector will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

"Contrary to media reports of 56,000 IT professionals to lose jobs this year, the actual job cuts will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh per year in next three years, due to under- preparedness in adapting to newer technologies," Head Hunters India Founder-Chairman and MD K Lakshmikanth told PTI, analysing a report submitted by McKinsey & Company at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum on February 17.

McKinsey & Company report had said nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be "irrelevant" over the next 3-4 years.

McKinsey India Managing Director Noshir Kaka had also said the bigger challenge ahead for the industry will be to retrain 50-60 per cent of the workforce as there will be a significant shift in technologies. The industry employs 3.9 million people and the majority of them have to be retrained.

ALSO READ: Carnage in Indian IT: Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant slash jobs

"So, when we analyse these figures, it is clear that 30 to 40 per cent of the workforce cannot be retrained or re- skilled. So, assume that half of this workforce can continue to work on old skills, then balance will become redundant.

"So, the number of people who will become redundant in the next three years will be about five to six lakhs. This will work out to, on an average, between 1.75 lakh to 2 lakh per year for next three years," Lakshmikanth explained.

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Indian IT eyes crores of rupees in revenue as firms rush to get GST-ready

India's information technology (IT) industry is likely to benefit in a big way as the goods and services tax (GST) roll-out leads to companies spending a few thousand crores of rupees in becoming GST-ready.

While many large businesses, with thousands of partners and customers spread across the country, are spending “significantly” to upgrade their IT infrastructure, the Union government will also invest in setting up the technology infrastructure for GST and its maintenance.

GST is slated to be rolled out from July 1 and will replace the existing tax compliance system for businesses.

“For the GST regime, businesses and organisations will have to upgrade the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and billing systems. It will be a very large and complex transformation and, therefore, it will create a huge opportunity for the IT services companies,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief executive, Greyhound Research.

Gogia believes that it would not only bring in opportunities for technology services, but also for professional services to simplify the taxation and compliance processes for various organisations. In fact, technology services, professional services and necessary hardware upgradation put together, businesses may spend, Gogia added, few thousand crore rupees.

Infosys, India’s second largest IT services firm, bagged a five-year contract worth Rs 1,380 crore in 2015 to implement the GST Network — the nodal agency that will implement the technology and the IT backbone for the unified tax regime, along with the maintenance for it.
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Infosys management did not make timely disclosures: Mohandas Pai

Latest News - Even as Infosys management denies allegations on corporate governance deficit, its former chief financial officer T V Mohandas Pai on Tuesday accused it of not disclosing necessary details on Rajiv Bansal's exit with a high severance package of Rs 17.3 crore.

"In October 2015, they had a press release saying the CFO is going, and both the CFO and CEO said nice things about each other. They did not disclose (the severance package)... They didn't disclose after the December quarter (results)," Pai told PTI on the sidelines of an event here.

The tussle between some of the Infosys founders and the management comes at a time when the (Read More)

Markets at day’s low, Nifty fails to hold 8,800; Coal India down 2%

Latest News - Benchmark indices pared gains to turn flat after opening on a higher note today following Asian markets and Wall Street hitting record high on Friday.

Investors awaited CPI and WPI inflation data which will be released later today after the factory output contracted 0.4% in December.

At 12:05 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 28,258, down 75 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,768, down 25 points.

In the broader market, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap fell 0.3% and 0.4% respectively.

"Though volatility had dominated last week’s trades, lower ranges were held on (Read More)

Sikka to Infosys staff: focus on coding, beware of media speculation

Latest News - Scoffing at media speculation on boardroom battles or spat between promoters and management on salaries, Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka on Thursday told his nearly two lakh techies to focus on coding software.

"As we head into the second half of Q4 (fourth quarter), let us focus on the execution of our strategy and not get distracted by media speculation that is designed to stir up gossip or rehash old rumours or speculate on the unknowns," said Sikka in an e-mail to the IT major's 199,763 employees worldwide.
Cautioning his techies over media reports on H-1B visas or anything that questions the company's commitment to governance, integrity and values to generate headlines and create buzz, Sikka said the management was dedicated to transform the company even in the (Read More)

Infosys ex-CFO Pai backs founders over Sikka's 'excessive' salary issue

Latest News - Amid reports of founders raising concerns over corporate governance and "excessive" pay packages at Infosys, former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) T V Mohandas Pai on Wednesday said the board should give a detailed answer and not take shelter under "bland" statement that decisions were taken in the interest of the company.

"The founders who have built the company and created a value system have raised serious issues. As far as I know, no CFO in India has got a 24-month separation," said the former Infosys board member.

Pai was referring to ex-CFO Rajiv Bansal's severance package of Rs 17.38 crore, equalling 24 months of pay.

"And (earlier) CFOs have left the company and they have not got any separation. There is no case for a special treatment for anybody. And the management cannot be (Read More)

Infosys invests over $62 mn in start-ups; Unsilo, Trifacta, Cloudyn in list

Latest News - Infosys has invested a little over $62 million from its $500 million innovation fund in start-ups covering areas like IoT, automation and drones.

The fund was set up in 2013 with a corpus of $100 million for start-ups and other innovative businesses outside the company. The size of the fund was expanded to $500 million in January 2015.

"The start-up world is incredibly exciting. We have been investing in companies there. We have been bringing these companies to our clients and that rate at which we bring these companies to clients is just exploding. So that's very exciting," Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka said.

He added that $62.18 million has been spent from innovation fund so far.

Infosys has invested in a (Read More)