Indian Shares

Microsoft announced today that it will distribute free software to nonprofit groups to boost charity in India. The software donation will be routed through a technology assistance program that India's NASSCOM Foundation is offering in partnership with TechSoup.

Genovate Solutions Pte Ltd of Singapore, a provider of business IT solutions today announced the establishment of five new offices in India, increasing the company's total presence to 12. Genovate's major lines of business at present includes, SAP solutions training both Instructor led and e-learning, SAP Consulting/ Implementation & Maintenance Services for Mid Markets, RapidStart (Integrated Retail and Business Management software) and Knowledge Window Asia Pacific (KWAP) Training Centre.
Revenue from International Operations are expected to contribute up to 70 to 80% of Genovate's total annual Revenues, with 40% of this from the Indian market alone. To support the growing market demand for business solutions in India, these new offices will be established in Hyderabad, Thane, Bangalore, Baroda and Lucknow, to further increase Genovate's ability to provide better information technology solutions, sales of products and services, information technology training and education, as well as consulting and implementation services in respect thereof.

 

In a detailed article on Multinationals investing in India and the growing variety of service which can be performed from India the BBC highlight some interesting facts.

• More than 500 major international companies have IT operations in Bangalore alone
• India, exports $25bn per year worth of BPO services, a figure that is expected to rise to $60bn by 2010
• Foreign IT investments in India over $1bn during 2006 were made by IBM, Intel, SAP, Accenture, Cisco Systems, AMD, Microsoft and Dell

Read the full BBC article here and here.

The main stock market in India for Indian shares closed at a record high today as it passed the 13,000 mark. The SENSEX has risen 36% during 2006 despite a turbulent patch earlier in the year. The rise is attributed to strong earnings from key banks and technology firms like (InfoSys, Wipro, Satyam and TATA Consulting).

New research has found that shares in the major India-based IT services providers have vastly outperformed their western rivals so far this year, despite falling sharply in May and starting from valuations based on much higher multiples of earnings and revenues.

Full Article

"India’s overall rank of 43 demonstrates remarkably high scores in capacity for innovation and sophistication of firm operations.This is especially true of the quality of scientific search and the number of scientists and engineers, which are increasingly supplying highly skilled professionals to the private sector. Firm use of technology and rates of technology transfer are high, although penetration rates of the latest technologies are still quite low by international standards, reflecting India’s still low levels of per capita income and high incidence of poverty." - WEF 2006

India recieves a positive but details assessment of it's strengths and weaknesses, whereas the review of China is more critical in the World Economic Forums (WEF) Global Competivitiveness Index Ranking report for 2006.

Indian IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro, and TCS are having to respond to the increase rate of staff turnover by increasing salaries by upto 20%. The trigger being the likes of IBM and EDS investing heavily in India and luring staff to new positions. Some analysts are predicting that India will see more and more work move to countries like China and Vietnam as the wages of Indian IT staff increase.

Andy Mukherjee at Bloomberg takes a closer look at the issue.

With over 70% of India’s population not having access to fixed line telephone services according to Maravedis there are significant possibilities for WiMax in India.

The WiMax forum defines WiMax as a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL. WiMAX with a range of up to 30 miles. The technology is ideal for India and explains why big telecoms companies like Nortel, Alcatel, BT and AT&T are getting involved.

Source: Maravedis predicts WiMax subscribers to reach 13 million in India by 2012

Source: WiMAX in India: Opening New Frontiers Through Broadband Connectivity

IBM is looking to provide small and medium businesses with pre-packaged solutions which have a fixed price and quality driven. IBM will be providing the following packages:

• IBM e-Mail Security Services
• IBM Security Assessment Service
• IBM Site Assessment Services

IBM has launched the latest version of its DB2 database product, and Version 9 contains a significant input from IBM India. IBM India Software Labs is acknowledged as having made a significant contribution to the 5 year development of DB2 9 (aka Viper) and in particular the products testing.

IBM DB2 V9 is a major update to provide further capabilities for handling XML data and building SOA environments.

It is being reported that Telstra and Optus are looking to outsource work to India from Australia to reduce costs. Optus is an Australian leader in integrated telecommunications, delivering cutting-edge communications, information technology and entertainment. Telstra provide a range of fixed phone, mobile, Internet and Pay TV solutions.

Optus is looking to increase the size of its Indian call centre and Telstra is looking sign a major deal outsourcing deal with Wipro. In 2004 Telstra outsourced parts of it's business to IBM, EDS and InfoSys.

NASSCOM have announced the top 20 IT service and computer software exporters in India for 2005-06.
During the period exports rose by 32% to US$17.3 billion.
  
The top 5 companies are:

1. TATA Consultancy Services (TCS)
2. Infosys
3. Wipro
4. Satyam Computer Services
5. HCL Technologies

See the Full NASSCOM list.

The data does not include contributions to the Indian economy by US listed companies like IBM, HP, and EDS.

To meet growth targets and manage costs Wipro is opening a new Business Process OutSourcing (BPO) centre in Vietnam. Wipro is looking to take advantage of the countires lower operating costs. Vietnam will join Romania as an international BPO center in the Wipro service portfolio.

Wipro have successfully been audited by the Automotive Group and have been granted SPICE Organisational Maturity Level 5 certification. The certification recognises Wipro's automotive process capability.

The Automotive Group includes car manufactures such as Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Volkswagen and Volvo.

Press Release: Wipro

AMD is looking to increase its market share in India over the next 12 to 18 months. As part of this it will be doing the following:

• Doubling AMD's engineers in India to 200
• Be a partner on e-Government initiatives
  
• Taking advantage of the 1 billion people in India for whom more and more will want a PC. Upto 5 million PCs were sold in India during 2005-06
  
• Partner with HP, IBM and other enterprise server vendors
• Work closely with IT companies such as Wipro and Infosys, plus western companies out sourcing to India.

India IT giant Wipro has recently been on a European shopping spree aquiring 2 companies to bolster its portfolio and skills.

Wipro has purchased Enabler Informatica SA in a cash deal. Enabler Informatica will add to Wipro's retail industry offerings. Wipro has also purchased Finnish Saraware Oy also in a cash deal. Saraware operates in the telecoms industry, offering software development and software testing services. Saraware recently became a Microsoft Certified Partner.

IBM have announced that the company will be tripling it’s investment in India over the next 3 years. The company will invest a further US$ 6 in its software development, support, call centre and BPO activities in India; in addition it will use Indian talent to further its research.

• IBM Chairman and CEO Announces Plans to Triple Investment in India over Next Three Years (IBM)
  
• IBM plans big India investment (BBC)
  
• IBM plans $6B investment in India (CNN)
  

The further investment follows on from the purchase of Daksh, Indian’s third largest business outsourcer in April this year.

InfoSys have announced that for the first time they are actively seeking to hire graduates from Universities in the US and UK in 2007. The company is looking to fill 300 graduate jobs in the USA and 25 graduate jobs in the UK.

The initiative is part of the steps it is taking to diversify its work force.

Read the Official InfoSys Press Release for more details.

InfoSys (INFY) announced today that they are acquiring a further 23% stake in Progeon from CitiCorp for cash. InfoSys is the majority owner of Progeon a Business Proccess Outsourcing (BPO) and Business Process Management (BPM) specialist operating in India, Czech Republic and the Philippines. Progeon implements BPO, BPM and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) in the following industries:

• Banking
• Capital Markets
• Communications Service Providers
• Healthcare
• Insurance
• Manufacturing

 

When Google decided to hold a coding competition in India for the surrounding region it got a big response with 14,000 software developers taking part. The exercise was an excellent way for Google to identify some of the top coders in the region.

Microsoft is also holding a similar competition to identify software development talent and promote more secure coding practices amongst the estimated 650,000 software developers in India.

As mentioned earlier the Indian Domestic IT marketplace has massive potential for IT Consultancy and System Integrators. An example of the type of projects being implemented can be found in the case studies provided by Microsoft India.

Some of the projects undertaken in India using Microsoft Technologies include:

SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited : Deployed a cost effective ERP sploution using Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta, where the deployment of Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta helped streamline business processes.

ICICI Lombard : Used Microsoft Consulting Services to implement a variety of solutions using BizTalk 2004, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft .Net technologies

Chembur Nagarik Sahakari Bank : Migrated from a legacy system to a Microsoft .Net and SQL Server based solution

The Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank (SVCB) : Implemented a BizTalk 2004 solution to allow the banks systems to interface to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

NCDEX : Migration from Microsoft SQL 7.0 to Microsoft SQL 2000

Ashok Leyland Finance Limited (ALF) - Implementation of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 within enterprise

NSE.IT : Visual Studio .Net and .Net Framework used to build an application for brokerage firms to provide online to key customers

ICICI Bank : Used BizTalk 2002 as an enterprise application integration solution

Further information about these and other projects can be found at Microsoft India Banking and Finance Case Studies

When thinking about India and Information Technology projects most people currently think about the projects being off shored from America and Europe to India. However with a population of 1.2 billion and a significant section of that population rapidly gaining in wealth, many Indian companies and government departments are facing similar IT projects as there European counterparts.

Research by IDC highlights the growth within the Indian Domestic IT market:

IDC India: Domestic IT Market to be Driven by Dynamic IT in the Enterprise, Space and Digital Drive the Consumer Space

It is expected that as part of honouring a clause in the contract when Indian Airlines purchased new Airbus aircraft last year, Airbus will be outsourcing and estimated $400 million of AEROSPACE work to India. The work will go to a consortium of Indian companies headed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and will include Wipro, Tata Consulting Services (TCS) and InfoTech.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is a public company backed by the Indian Ministry of Defence, who have manufactured planes and components under license. At present Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) builds under license the Sukhoi Su-30MKI is preparing to start production of the British Aerospace (BAe) Hawk.  

Sun Microsytems and Wipro have announced that the two companies will be opening a Java Centre of Excellence in India. The centre will specialise in Grid Computing and Portal Technologies using the Sun Java Enterprise Sytem.

With a relatively small population base speaking Danish, Norwegian or Swedish some wonder how outsourcing from these countries would work. However there are a growing number of examples of success stories in this field. Where companies such as Wipro and Kring are leading the way.

An interesting discussion on outsourcing to India from Norway is captured in the minutes of a meeting help at the India embassy in Norway between IT professionals.

A further example of how the outsourcing model can work is provided by KRING, to whom Telia have recently outsourced work on an internal knowledge management system. The KRING outsourcing model provides the development resource for this project in India put keeps the project management aspect within Denmark

Further examples of growth in the level of outsourcing from Scandinavia to India are that during 2005 Kring:

• Increased their office space in Denmark
• Opened an office in Oslo Norway
• Expanded there facilities in India

Wipro Scandinavian Case Studies:

• Barwil (www.barwil.com)
• The Norwegian Directorate of Taxes 
• JD Edwards in Sweden
• Streamlining the sales order process for a telecom service provider

The importance of the accuracy of data filed to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was highlighted a couple of years ago by the cases of Enron and WorldCom. After Sarbanes-Oxley as part of a series of steps to combat this the SEC announced at the end of March that 17 companies would be taking part in a pilto program to use interactive financial data in their filings. Amongst the 17 corportaions named was InfoSys.

The 17 companies taking part in the SEC pilot are:

• 3M Company
• Altria Group
• Brazilian Petroleum Corporation
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
• The Dow Chemical Company
• Gol Intelligent Airlines
• Infosys Technologies Limited
• Microsoft Corporation
• Mobile Reach International
• Net Servicos De Comunicacao SA
• Old Mutual Capital
• Pfizer
• R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company
• South Financial Group
• United Technologies Corporation
• Xerox Corporation
• XM Satellite Radio Holdings

 
The eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) XML format will be used to submit the data.

The Business Standard and The Hindu newspapers are both reporting that TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) are eyeing significant parts of the IT work Boeing intends to outsource to Indian companies as part of the re-investment from the recent Air India order for Boeing aircraft.

InfoSys (INFY) is expecting to open a Infrastructure Management Centre in Prague next month, to provide a bridge between its operations in Europe and its off-shore services. The new infrastructure management centre will be situated in the Progeon¹ offices. Setting up centres of operations in Eastern European countries is an activity that has been carried out by many of the other players such as IBM, EDS, Cap Gemini and HP.

¹ = Progeon is the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) subsiduary of InfoSys.

When Air India placed an order for 68 Boeing aircraft earlier this year it was announced that US $2 billion would be invested back into the Indian economy. An example of this re-investment and outsourcing of work back to India was illustrated with the announcement this week of collaboration between InfoSys and Spirit AeroSystems, a Boeing contractor.

The two companies will set up an aerospace engineering centre in Bangalore.

 

General Motors (GM) announced on the 2nd Feb 2006 the award a IT contracts to a variety of IT System Integrators. Electronic Data Systems (EDS) received $3.8 billion dollars of the General Motors contract, HP $700 million, awards were also made to Cap Gemini, Covisint and IBM.

Wipro received a contract for a reported $300 million from General Motors. Wipro will integrate the companies Middleware Systems and Information System and Services software tools.

Satyam Computer Services are reported to receive $150 million from work for HP and Cap Gemini. Satyam Computer Services will set up an Automotive Centre of Excellence in Detroit.

AMR Research, a leading supply chain research company has published a report identifying  InfoSys as being in an ideal position to deliver Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions to clients.

Source: An Executive Guide to Selecting Retail Service Providers

India and Saudi Arabia have signed an energy co-operation deal. The deal referred to as the ‘Delhi Declaration’ was signed during a visit by King Abdullah to India. The deal will see both pubic and private companies in the two countries co-operating on projects. As part of the deal Saudi Arabia will invest in oil handling facilities in India. The declaration will also see the two countries work together on Information Technology, Energy, and bio-technology and education.

The energy agreement follows on from a similar deal signed between China and Saudi Arabia earlier in the week.

InfoSys released the company's Q3 results for the 3rd quarter ending 31/12/2005 today.

Resulting in a near 10% fall in the company's stock price.

Following on from InfoSys, Wipro has been given permission to construct buildings taking up a further 30 acres at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park (RGCTP). This expansion is part of the second phase of the RGCTP.

The RGCTP is a Special Economic Zone approved by the Government of India and has considerable backing from the Union Territory of Chandigarh.