Rishad Premji, the older of the two scions of Wipro Ltd’s billionaire chairman Azim Premji, inched closer to the top job at India’s third largest software exporter.

On Wednesday the junior Premji stepped into a new role as the chief strategy officer of the company’s information technology business-the cash cow of the multi-billion dollar Wipro empire. He is slowly making his way into the crucial decision-making circles of the group.

The 33-year old Harvard graduate will work with incumbent K.R. Lakshminarayana and fine-tune his skills to decide business strategies for both Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech–the global and local IT arms of Wipro which account for about 88% of Wipro’s revenue—before taking over the post on his own in January.

Mr. Premji joined Wipro in June 2007 as a business manager at the company’s banking, financial services and insurance business. Last year he moved into the post of general manager of treasury and investor relations. Analysts and Wipro insiders have long considered him next in line for the crown.

His father, once India’s wealthiest man and still among the most moneyed in the world, took his family’s business, which was originally just a vegetable oil trading company and turned it into an IT behemoth.

If Rishad wants to run the family business he has to be ready to deal with the ongoing struggles in the competitive software and outsourcing industry, analysts said.

“The challenges at the top position would mainly be in capturing market share, dealing with currency fluctuations and increasing protectionist sentiment,” said analyst Harit Shah of Mumbai-based Karvy Stock Broking.

With some years under his belt working with the rank and file, he looks set to dive straight into the boardroom and guard the family jewels-Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech, analysts said.

Source:http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/09/02/wipro-crowns-its-prince/

Mid-sized enterprises in the US, Europe and Africa, which until now never outsourced to India, are looking at offshoring due to cost pressures in the post-recession period.

Many enterprises in the Fortune 500-2000 bracket are in talks or signing deals with smaller Indian IT service providers, which will help boost their revenues in the medium term. IT CEOs hold the view that new outsourcers will add to their company’s volume growth, further strengthening the Indian IT industry’s recovery.

Top officials of IT firms and analysts told FE that the new outsourcers include Unity Bank of Nigeria and First Community Bank (FCB) of Kenya. Unity Bank is one of Nigeria’s leading retail bank with 222 business offices. It is already in JV with 3i Infotech.

A few Indian service providers are believed to be in advanced discussions with an insurance firm in Egypt, and also in talks with New York Commercial Bank, SWIFT, CLS Bank and Deutsche Post, Germany’s postal services provider.

SWIFT is a Belgian firm providing secure financial messaging services while CLS Bank provides multi-currency cash settlement systems. CLS has already partnered with IBM to develop and manage its IT applications and infrastructure.

Confirming the new trend, mid-tier IT firm MindTree said first time outsourcers boosted its June quarter revenues by 1.5%. The firm acquired 31 customers during the period, four of which were new ones. Sonata Software added nine clients during the quarter, two of them being first time outsourcers. 3i Infotech spoke of a strong pipeline from enterprises which were once off-shoring shy. The firm is pursuing three deals in the UK and five in the US.

“Mid-sized enterprises who have survived the recession believe they need to drive more efficiency. Lot of first time offshorers are coming to India and they are a lot more comfortable working with mid-tier IT players,” CEO & MD of MindTree Krishnakumar Natarajan said.

Companies in Germany and France are under cost pressures, said Som Sarma, global IT services head of 3i Infotech and former European operations chief of Satyam. “Traditional German firms have outsourced some work but have not taken the advantage of offshoring in a big way. Language was a major factor. These firms are now realising that their existence will be sustainable if they come up to global cost capabilities,” he said.

“We are seeing first time outsourcers in the Outsourced Product Development (OPD) space. A customer wanted to modernise his product offerings and star.

Source:http://offshoresoftwaredevelopmentodctestingoutsourc.blog.com/2010/08/09/mid-size-firms-eye-indian-bpos-for-outsourcing/

Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East IT Business of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services, has announced that it has been named the leader in the Managed IT Services market by Springboard Research, a leading Market Research firm. The report titled “Indian Managed IT Services Market,” provides comprehensive insights and practical outcomes for the Indian managed IT services market from an end-user and supplier perspective.

According to the report, the IT managed services market in India is expected to reach US$3.8 bn in 2013 from US$1.6B in 2009, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 22.8% — higher than the growth rate of overall IT services market. As per the report, Wipro has the highest market share in India.

Wipro’s significant focus on large customer acquisitions with specific domain centric solutions has catapulted the company in to the leadership position in Managed Services. Wipro has built a healthy pipeline across industry verticals and strengthened its presence by winning strategic deals and launching new solutions.

The year 2009 saw some marquee wins and multi-year deals being signed by Wipro, the most visible of them being, a multi-million dollar outsourcing contract from Unitech Wireless (A Unitech Telenor company) and another from Lavasa for developing India’s first and complete e-city. In October last year, Wipro also won a 10 year total outsourcing deal from Delhi International Airport (P) Limited (DIAL) to provide world class IT Infrastructure and Services for Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), New Delhi.

In the government space, Wipro won a large e-governance contract from Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for automating healthcare administration benefiting millions. Some other key wins include two mission mode projects under the National e-governance plan (NeGP) for Maharashtra and Gujarat State Data Centers.

“These significant and transformational deals, demonstrate Wipro’s growing maturity in the domestic market.. We are pleased with the findings of Springboard Research which is testimony to our superior delivery capabilities, process maturity and governance frameworks in managing large, complex and multi technology environments, effectively,” said Vice President, Managed IT services, Wipro Infotech, Kiran Desai.

Source:http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Wipro-Infotech-leads-the-Indian-Managed-IT-Services-market/4854722257