Infy to invest in SaaS to retain clients

BANGALORE, INDIA: Though the global slowdown has impacted the growth of Infosys, the company is still in a strong position and they are able to sustain their margins, said S. Gopalakrishnan, CEO and managing director, Infosys Technologies.

“The amount of uncertainty is unprecedented in the current scenario and this is the first ever given de-growth in our lifetime. But we are in a strong position and able to sustain the margins,” he said while addressing the media here today, after announcing the Q4 results.

Declining business volumes, challenging pricing, significant movements in the currency, and tight budgets have been a few factors that has stagnated growth for the company, he said.

“Clients' budgets have gone down because of which the growth has gone down. But we believe that the growth will start with the recovery of the economy,” said Gopalakrishnan.

Considering the tough situations faced by their clients, the company is planning to invest in latest and upcoming trends like Software as a Service (SaaS) models, which would help in reducing costs.

“Budgets of our clients are important to us, we want to deliver value to them as well as give them a choice to reduce Capex,” reiterated Gopalakrishnan.

“We want to take advantage to the latest trends like SaaS, which would help us in leveraging lower costs in this tough economy,” he added.

Binod H R, senior vice president and head, India Business Unit added, “There could be areas where the clients would not wish in investing on a whole basis. Pay as you use models would be helpful for those.”

Infosys reported an addition of thirty-seven clients for the quarter ended on March 31, 2009, but its top clients have reduced to 5.11 per cent compared to 6.2 per cent last quarter and 10.3 per cent last year.

The company added fifteen clients in India, which consist of a project from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan Power Corporation and a project of establishing a central processing center with the Income Tax Department.