Satyam to add 3,000 people this fiscal

BANGALORE: India's fourth largest exporter of software services, Satyam Computer Services, will be adding 3,000 professionals for its operations as against 1,500 announced earlier. The company reported a profit of Rs 148 crore on a total revenue of Rs 636 crore for the quarter ended September 30^th 2003, a rise of 25 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively over a year ago period.

The Hyderabad based company raised its full-year revenue growth forecast to 26 to 28 percent in dollar terms from 18 to 20 percent estimated earlier. "In order to achieve this growth and to prepare for the coming year, our net addition of employees in the current financial year is expected to be 3000 compared to 1500 indicated earlier," said the company's Chairman, Ramalinga Raju in his letter to the investors while announcing the quarterly results.

With more than 10,000 professionals in its roll and servicing 300 clients, Satyam added 27 new customers in this quarter including five Fortune 500 customers. The number of customers with an annual run rate of a million dollars has increased from 64 in Q1 to 72 in Q2. With regard to challenges, Raju says, "prices are progressing towards stability. The main issues, which continue to engage us, relate to attrition, cost management and unabated appreciation of the rupee. These will have some effect on near term margins. Even so, we have decided to enhance associate salaries selectively, based on performance, effective October 1, 2003."

Satyam will be investing in customer relationship management, domain competency, breadth and depth of service offerings, increasing global presence and brand building.