BANGALORE, INDIA: Considering the slow rate of recovery in the main European markets, Infosys Technologies is now looking at the Continental European region, especially Germany and France, for growth.
It is increasing the investments and has appointed a country manager for the two regions, while keeping the options of inorganic growth open.
S. D. Shibulal, chief operating officer and Member of the Board, Infosys Technologies, said that the European economy was growing at a comparatively slower rate than others and therefore the company worked on a new strategy.
“Our focus is to increase the revenues from that region irrespective of how faster the economy is growing. So we shifted the focus from UK to continental Europe. Percentage-wise, our revenues this quarter grew because of this focus and investments in the region,” he said.
“We have chosen two countries for serious investment, that are Germany and France. We have also recruited local capabilities like local sales and consulting etc. This is a new strategy for us, having a country manager is entirely a new concept. Originally, we had a single sales team for the entire region, no country manger in Europe, and the team comprised largely Indians who spoke English. Now we would have around 80 per cent local people in sales and consulting for these regions.”
He shared that Infosys would watch the market response to this new strategy for next six months and would replicate it in other regions.
According to him, another way forward is inorganic growth. He said that an acquisition would speed up the processes, but the company was seeking for the right candidate who got the right value and was ready to be acquired.
B.G. Srinivas, senior vice president - manufacturing; product engineering; product lifecycle and engineering solutions, Infosys Technologies also the executive council member, said that the company got more than a hundred clients in the region. It is basically eying upon top 200 customers for focused growth. Srinivas also looks after the European market.
However, there does seem to be a dynamically new shift in the market approach from Infosys, rather in the same lines as the competition. As already observed by Forrester, to capture more work in Europe, Indian firms are making several moves and investments to become more relevant to markets such as Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordics, and Switzerland.
A report by Sudin Apte, principal analyst dated February 2010, stated, “They (Indian firms) are recruiting local country-level or practice-level leadership, ramping up and opening new nearshore centers, starting language and cultural training centers offshore to train delivery staff, and tweaking business models to accommodate lower offshore ratios. They believe these initiatives coupled with client education programs will help them become a more attractive option for Continental European clients.”
The coming six months would determine how well the strategy worked for the company.