Infosys has hired Jan Erik Aase, a banking industry veteran and one of the top analysts at research firm Forrester, to increase focus on large outsourcing contracts and compete better with rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant.

According to an updated profile of Aase on networking site Linkedin, he has joined Infosys as associate vice president to be based in the US. An MBA in operations management from Brigham Young University, Jan Erik has joined India’s second biggest software exporter as member of the strategic global sourcing (SGS) team, reponsible for research, increasing new client pipeline, sales advisory and support, and client advocacy, according to Linkedin.

Infosys had not replied to an email query seeking confirmation of this development at the time of writing this story.

Last week, Infosys reported 33% rise in its net profit to Rs 2372 crore for the December quarter aided by a weakening rupee but scaled down its annual forecast signalling weak demand ahead for the country’s IT sector. The company revised its Dollar revenue forecast for the full year ending March 2012 to 16.4% compared with 17.1 to 19.1% growth it expected to achieve.

The more immediate problem for the company is that its main clients are worse off than their competitors. This means that financial firms like Bank of America and UBS-the biggest customers of Infosys-are spending less than the rest on technology. On the other hand, financial firms like Citigroup and JP Morgan that work with Infosys’ rivals, are not crimping on technology spending. This partly explains why Infosys has been sounding woebegone.

This is not the first time that a top IT firm has poached senior industry analyst.

Cognizant, which overtook Wipro last year as the third biggest software exporter from India, hired Paul Roehrig who was principal analyst at Forrester Research to lead the company’s cloud computing strategy two years ago. Last year, Cognizant also hired Benjamin Pring who was a Vice President at Gartner.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/infosys-hires-forrester-analyst-and-former-ameriprise-cio-to-increase-focus-on-large-deals/articleshow/11520701.cms

Quarterly profits at Infosys beat expectations, but the outsourcing bellwether said Thursday that the global economic slowdown and chaos in Europe would hit growth going forward, disappointing investors.
Profit for the December quarter was 23.7 billion rupees ($458 million), up 15.4 percent in dollar terms from a year ago, beating expectations.
Revenues were 93.0 billion rupees ($1.8 billion), up 13.9 percent in dollar terms.
The company said that while slowing global growth and the crisis in Europe could ultimately spell opportunity for Indian outsourcers, in the short term growth will be less than expected. It said revenue and earnings growth this quarter, in dollars, would be flat and cut its guidance for the year.
It said it expects revenues for the fiscal year ending March to grow 16.4 percent in dollar terms and earnings per share to grow 14.5 percent. In October, it had said revenue growth could be as high as 19.1 percent and earnings per share could rise as much as 16.8 percent in dollar terms.
Nearly two-thirds of the company’s revenues come from the United States. Europe is its second-biggest market, accounting for another 23 percent of revenues.
Executives expressed hope that companies, especially in Europe where levels of offshoring are low, eventually will send more work overseas as cost pressures intensify. In the short term, however, the failure to resolve Europe’s deep debt problems has hurt sentiment and made clients cautious.
“There is no definitive answer to the Eurozone crisis at this point. Client confidence is down,” chief executive S.D. Shibulal told CNBC-TV18. “Spending is going to be choppy.”
Revenues from European clients grew 13.7 percent from the prior quarter, executives said. The company added 49 new clients, including 6 Fortune 500 companies and closed several $5 million plus deals, including one in Europe, executives said.
“Investment has become very challenging in most of the markets where we operate,” chief financial officer V. Balakrishnan told reporters. “We are seeing clients much more cautious in their spending.”
He said volumes grew 3.1 percent and pricing ticked up 5 percent from a year ago. Executives said they expect pricing to remain stable this quarter, even as client budgets remain flat or shrink slightly.
Operating margins grew 3 percent during the quarter, as extreme rupee depreciation made up for higher costs, executives said.
Earnings in rupee terms were helped by the weakness of the Indian rupee, which plunged 11 percent during the December quarter from the prior quarter.
Balakrishnan said managing such extreme currency volatility going forward would be a challenge for the industry.
The stock plunged, closing down 8.4 percent.
“The body language and tone seem to suggest that clients are not confident because of the challenging environment in Europe,” said Manish Sonthalia, a fund manager at Motilal Oswal in Mumbai. “Extending into next year’s guidance we could look at 16 to 17 percent dollar revenue growth, which is lower than what the street has been expecting.”
He said that over the next five to 10 years, Indian outsourcers like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services — both stocks Motilal Oswal owns in its funds — could benefit from cutbacks in developed markets.
“Austerity is the buzzword happening in Europe,” he said. “If you are looking to cut costs, you can do that through offshoring.”

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5je4mOSxZY6YS3OY9RYR-IrY4tYpA?docId=ebfe0a896ed44bdd9c1d3dd4ae4d6729

Infosys Ltd. (INFO), India’s second-largest software exporter, reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as customers outsourced more work and the rupee’s decline boosted the value of repatriated earnings.

Net income rose 33 percent to 23.7 billion rupees ($458 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from 17.8 billion rupees a year earlier, Bangalore-based Infosys said today. That compares with the 22.8 billion-rupee median of 44 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Infosys shares fell after the company cut its full-year forecast for sales in dollar terms, citing weaker growth in developed economies including Europe, which together with North America accounts for more than 80 percent of revenue. The company joins Accenture Plc in posting better-than-expected quarterly earnings as clients outsource information-technology services to reduce costs.

“They beat some estimates because of forex, not because of improvements in their core business,” said Pralay Kumar Das, an analyst at Elara Securities Ltd. in Mumbai. “What the market looks at though is the future.”

Infosys dropped as much as 7.7 percent, the largest intraday decline since Nov. 11, and traded 7.4 percent lower at 2,618.50 rupees as of 9:16 a.m. in Mumbai. The stock was the biggest contributor to the the benchmark Sensitive (SENSEX) index’s 0.6 percent decline.

Dollar Sales Outlook

The company, which designs software programs, maintains computers and provides IT and outsourcing services for clients including BT Group Plc, said sales in the year ending March 31 will range from $7.029 billion to $7.033 billion, down from the $7.08 billion to $7.2 billion it forecast in October.

“The global economy, driven by slower growth in developed markets coupled with the European crisis, could impact the growth of the IT industry,” Chief Executive Officer S.D. Shibulal said in the earnings release.

Sales in the fourth quarter may range between $1.806 billion and $1.810 billion, Infosys said today.

The company raised its outlook for sales in rupee terms. Full-year revenue will range from 342.7 billion rupees to 342.9 billion rupees, higher than the October projection of 335 billion rupees to 340.9 billion rupees.

The rupee’s 7.7 percent decline against the dollar in the three months ended Dec. 31 would have boosted margins at India’s software exporters, Pratik Gandhi, an analyst at IDBI Capital Markets Services Ltd. in Mumbai, said before the earnings were released.

Third-quarter revenue rose 31 percent to 93 billion rupees, exceeding the 91.7 billion-rupee median of 48 analyst estimates.

Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-12/infosys-profit-beats-estimates-as-outsourcing-weakening-rupee-lift-sales.html