The income-tax department has ordered attaching land and buildings of information technology (IT) consulting and outsourcing company Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computer Services).

Satyam, once the country’s fourth-largest software exporter, on Friday said it had received a provisional attachment order on January 30 from I-T additional commissioner, Hyderabad, under Section 281B of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

“The I-T department was not allowed to encash the bank guarantee we had furnished, hence, the order was issued. This is a provisional order and the department should seek court’s permission before issuing the final notice. We are currently taking legal advice and will take appropriate action,” said a Mahindra Satyam spokesperson.
The I-T department had, last August, slapped a demand notice seeking liabilities (Rs 1,037.69 crore and Rs 1,075.73 crore for the 2002-03 and 2007-08 assessment years, respectively) under the previous management.

Subsequently, the company had deposited a bank guarantee with the department as directed by the Supreme Court.

The guarantee was valid till December 31.

The company got a breather from the Andhra Pradesh high court, which directed the bank guarantee furnished by Satyam may not be encashed by the I-T department until further orders.

Satyam’s shares closed 0.54 per cent down at 73.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Source:http://business-standard.com/india/news/provisional-i-t-order-to-attach-satyam-properties/463711/

IT firm Mahindra Satyam today posted a 10-fold growth in profit-after-tax to Rs 238 crore for the second quarter of the 2011-12 financial year.

The company’s profit-after-tax stood at Rs 23.31 crore in the July-September quarter of the 2010-11 fiscal.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Mahindra Satyam’s profit-after-tax was up 5.77 per cent from Rs 225 crore in Q1, FY’12.

The company’s consolidated revenues surged by 27.01 per cent during the quarter under review to Rs 1,578 crore from Rs 1,242.4 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

On a Q-o-Q basis, Q2 revenues were up 10.04 per cent from Rs 1,433.93 crore in the first quarter of the 2011-12 financial year.

Commenting on the results, Chairman Vineet Nayar said, “Our growth momentum continues for the fifth consecutive quarter. As we come toward the end of our three-year transformation journey, it is indeed satisfying to see that all our key business performance indicators, such as growth, profitability and talent retention, are on course.”

“We have shown significant improvement quarter-on-quarter in spite of an uncertain macroeconomic environment,” he added.

The company added 36 new customers during the quarter. The total headcount of the company stood at 32,092 as of the quarter ended September 30, during which net addition of 654 personnel took place. Attrition stood at 15.6 per cent during the quarter.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/earnings/earnings-news/mahindra-satyam-posts-10-fold-growth-in-q2-pat-to-rs-238-crore/articleshow/10676808.cms

CP Gurnani is a man in a hurry. It is nearly impossible to catch up with him. He’s either in Delhi, where his home is; or in Hyderabad, at the headquarters of Mahindra Satyam, known till not too long ago as Satyam Computer Services; or in Pune where Tech Mahindra (TechM), the flagship IT outsourcing company of the Mahindra group is based; or in Mumbai where the auto to software conglomerate is headquartered.

When Gurnani isn’t in any of these cities, he’s likely to be on a flight headed overseas to meet clients. Gurnani, a former head of TechM’s global operations, took over as CEO of Mahindra Satyam in June 2009. That’s two months after the Mahindras won the race to acquire the beleaguered IT services firm for a little under Rs 2,000 crore.

The sale was triggered after founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed in early 2009 to fudging the books of the then fourth largest software exporter. So if Mahindra Satyam, like Gurnani, is in hurry, you know why: the market value of the company, which in better times stood at over Rs 12,000 crore, crashed to Rs 2,700 crore after Raju confessed to the scam. Today that figure is a more respectable Rs 8,300 crore, but Mahindra Satyam still has a long way to go.

GROWTH PHASE

With its books in order and two major lawsuits settled – a class action suit slapped by US shareholders and a lawsuit by Upaid Systems – the company now has its agenda cut out: to go after large projects and win back customers. The management is also banking on a merger with TechM to get the full benefits of the acquisition.

“The lawsuits were at the back of clients’ minds. Some of them were demands for $1-1.5 billion and, if we couldn’t pay, we would have had to declare insolvency,” says Vineet Nayyar, the company’s 72-year-old chairman and strategy lynchpin.

Areport by technology research firm IDC flatteringly describes Mahindra Satyam’s journey as the Rise of the Phoenix, but Nayyar, Gurnani and the A team know it’s still early days yet as the company steps up the pace. “We see it (the journey to recovery) as three phases: resurrection, rejuvenation and getting back into growth. Now we are in the growth phase,” says Gurnani.

“There is a sense of speed, relentless hunger and pressure on all to perform, which wasn’t there earlier,” adds AS Murty, CTO, describing the mood in Mahindra Satyam.ASM, as the soft-spoken CTO is known, was briefly the CEO when the government took control of the company after Raju stepped down.

He and T Hari, chief marketing and people officer, are two old Satyam hands Gurnani retained in the core team. Rakesh Soni, COO, and Atul Kunwar, global head of sales, came in from TechM. Vijayanand Vadrevu, chief strategy officer, joined from Wipro in 2009.

Manish Malhotra, who is chief vertical solutions officer, re-joined Satyam from Patni Computer a few months ago. The good news for Mahindra Satyam is that many employees are now willing to come back. Sriram Papani, who spent 13 years in Satyam and who started the enterprise business services practice, re-joined in February as head of that practice. Some 750 people who left the company have returned, says Hari.

In the past two years, the company has recruited over 10 senior executives mostly in client-facing and senior sales roles to fill the gaps created when several leaders quit after the new management took over. One big hurdle was ensuring the fusion of the old with the new.

As an insider puts it: “There were two tsunamis. The first happened because of the scam and the second because of the cultural divide.” A senior executive at a southern IT services firm explains the Mahindras may have been a bit hard on the old guard.

“They alienated many senior leaders with their approach when they took over. These leaders carried a lot of credibility with customers. The culture in companies in the South is softer and you need to respect it,” he says. Perhaps the larger goals ensured the team worked as one. “In fiscal 2010, the focus was on keeping existing customers. A year later the focus, while still on keeping customers, was on adding new ones, says Vadrevu. “Now it is time to kick-start the US growth engine.”

FIRING ON ALL FOURS

The best indicator of Mahindra Satyam getting its act together lies in the numbers. Over the past five quarters, sales have climbed, operating margins have pushed ahead into double-digit territory and the company is in the black (see On the Mend). Growth in revenues has been achieved by hanging on to existing contracts and squeezing out incremental business from existing customers.

The top brass relied on Operation Win Room, a war-room initiative of sorts, to win orders in the range of $5 million. This helped keep the cash registers busy at a time when Mahindra Satyam lacked the bandwidth to chase larger deals, of $25 million and more.

For Satyam’s recovery to continue playing out in the near term, the manufacturing segment has to fire. Manufacturing clients contribute about 30% of Satyam’s revenues, making it the most important segment. Similarly, in terms of service lines, EBS, which has historically been Satyam’s strength, is its soundest bet bringing in about 42% of revenues.

“EBS is a still a differentiator for us,” says Papani. Engineering services has also been a strong area. “Because stickiness in this service line is high, it saw the least customer attrition,” says Karthikeyan Natarajan, who heads engineering services for Satyam.

“Today Mahindra Satyam is perceived by customers as re-energised, and gaining in a competitive market. They are reclaiming some lost customers,” says Jan Erik Aase, principal analyst, Forrester Research. Some 10 customers have returned so far. Vadrevu says it is unrealistic to expect a dramatic comeback because many projects have already moved to competition, and Satyam cannot win them back unless there are fresh tenders.

“There is no hurdle that prevents them from getting back to industry growth rates. A key will be to attract those large deals,” says Pankaj Kapoor, an equity analyst with Standard Chartered who tracks the company. “They will need to bring back customer confidence in order to bag deals worth $50-100 million,” he adds.

To win more and bigger deals, the company took the help of consulting firm Bain to build a model to evaluate the full business potential of key customers. Initially Satyam did this exercise for its top 50 customers but it now plans to extend it to its top 100 customers. The top team has also begun work on correcting a rather skewed organisational mix. At most IT services firms, junior employees constitute two-fifths or more of the total work force.

At Mahindra Satyam, just one-fifth are at the lower levels. Consequently, its manpower costs are much higher – 75% of revenues as against 56% for Infosys, wrote Standard Chartered’s Kapoor and his colleague Apoorva Oza in a recent report. The company is now trying to fix that. Soni says the exercise will take another year to complete. Industry rivals, however, point out that young IT workers are still reluctant to join up with Mahindra Satyam.

“Satyam is still struggling and they have not yet come out of all the legal tangles. Till all the legal issues are sorted, it will be hard for them to attract employees at junior levels,” said a top level IT industry executive, requesting anonymity.

Soni also reckons that Mahindra Satyam can increase revenues by 50% with only a marginal increase in SG&A (selling, general and administrative) costs. And having a crack senior team also has its advantages. According to Hari, there is sufficient leadership bandwidth for the company to grow revenues by 20-30%. The company has multiple leadership teams that power it across different levels.

At the very top is the management council consisting of seven CXOs directly reporting into the CEO. One level below and more broad-based is the leadership council consisting of 60-65 leaders such as sales and delivery heads, who meet once a month. The management council meetings happen every Monday no matter which part of the world the executives are in.

In the early days of the crisis, these meetings played a crucial role in speeding up decision-making instead of using e-mails, say officials. Then there is a shadow board and a global leadership cadre (GLC). “Experience versus experimentation is what shadow board and GLC are about,” says Hari.

The shadow board is given mandates from time to time; one of its recent mandates was to come up with ways to reduce attrition. The GLC is usually deployed in high impact roles or those requiring unconventional thinking; it is currently working on generating $100 million revenue ideas.

THE WAY FORWARD

Slowdown or no slowdown, Gurnani is going after business in the US and Europe as these markets are too large to ignore. “We are talking about temporary setbacks,” he says. The US is the world’s largest IT market and contributes nearly 70% of revenues for most of Satyam’s peers compared with only half for Satyam. Similarly financial services, which is the largest spender on IT, has slipped from being the second largest contributor to Satyam’s revenues to just about 18%.

For most peers, financial services clients contribute about 40% to the top line. To get to scale in this segment, Satyam plans to invest in building platforms in areas such as finance and accounting and claims management, and then go after larger services projects. It will also consider acquisitions and joint ventures to come up to speed in financial services, healthcare and retail.

“We are looking at approximately $300 million for acquisitions. And we’re a zero-debt company. Nobody says I can’t leverage it,” says Gurnani. Opportunities in BPO and in Latin America are also on the radar. Analysts point out that Mahindra Satyam needs to be more aggressive in going to market – invest more in branding and in reaching out to clients with its new identity as well as in clientfacing activities.

One sourcing advisor, requesting not to be named, says a few clients are still confused about its association with the scam. “In a way that perception was not completely changed by advertising, marketing and branding. Look at what Accenture did and how quickly they moved out of the association with Tiger Woods,” says Sridhar Vedala of QS Advisory, a sourcing advisory firm.

“They have managed a huge exodus but they can do better. They need to strengthen client management – not just sales,” adds Sudin Apte, principal analyst and CEO of Offshore Insights, a technology research firm. Apte is bullish on enterprise mobility, one of the areas Mahindra Satyam is investing in with a long-term horizon.

Other emerging technologies being focused on include cloud computing, software-as-a-service, green computing, and smart grid (or digitisation of the electricity grid).

ONE PLUS ONE

To build solutions for enterprise mobility, Mahindra Satyam will work closely with Tech Mahindra, which is focused on software for telecom clients. The initiative is part of what it terms ‘M-cube’, which aims to leverage strengths of all Mahindra group companies, including auto & farm equipment flagship Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).

Under this initiative, Satyam has clinched a win with a South African firm to design and manufacture boat engines – Satyam will design the engines and M&M will make them.

“In the longer term, customers are looking for fewer suppliers but are seeking those that can be strategic partners and can differentiate themselves. With Mahindra Satyam, TechM and M&M, they are well-positioned to provide a combination of IT, communication, engineering and BPO services,” says Apte.

Eventually Mahindra Satyam wants to merge with TechM. This has been the stated intention ever since the Mahindra group acquired Satyam. “There are a lot of cross-selling possibilities. For example, all of Satyam’s enterprise solutions can be sold to the big telcos, and TechM can do all the networking that Satyam’s enterprise clients require… One plus one can make three,” says Nayyar.

Some Satyam shareholders are opposing the merger because they feel valuations can improve further, and Nayyar is trying to reassure them that it will be done by a third party.

“There are synergies that we want to capture in terms of marketing, selling and in terms of cost management. A lot of overlap can be reduced in premises, security, finance, facilities management,” says Nayyar. The plan is to take the merger proposal to the boards of both companies by November and to shareholders by March.

Going by this, the two companies should be a single entity with revenues of about $3 billion by 2012-13. The two have already started working closely as a precursor to the merger. The first task of Sanjay Seth, a Wipro veteran, who was hired by Satyam in April, was to come up with an integrated marketing plan for both entities. A few key people have also been identified to provide leadership across both entities.

Sujit Bakshi leads the BPO business and Atanu Sarkar heads legal across both companies. Both are from TechM. From Satyam, Hari spearheads marketing across both companies, Papani the enterprise business services, and GS Raju testing services.

“If there is anything this management has proved, it is the ability to take something small and scale it up,” says Nayyar. When he and Gurnani joined TechM, it was still Mahindra British Telecom and at about $ 120 million in revenues. Business from its key customer, British Telecom, was only about $90 million compared to $450 million today.

“The same company is now going to be $ 3 billion. I don’t believe there is any other company with this kind of track record,” says Nayyar. A former bureaucrat turned IT head honcho, Nayyar was prevailed upon to stay at least till 2013 by M&M group VC & MD Anand Mahindra.

Nayyar now hopes to see the merger through before bidding goodbye. “I will then be able to leave the ship with some sense of satisfaction,” he says.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/special-report/rescaling-satyam-few-milestones-achieved-in-long-journey-back-to-recovery-and-respect/articleshow/10163834.cms?curpg=1

The merger entity of Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam may emerge as a formidable competitive force in the Asia-Pacific region, especially for Indian IT service providers and other regional players, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

IDC, a premier global provider of market intelligence and advisory services, further said the joint go-to-market initiatives between Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam as the foundation for future integration proved to be a success model that clinched 10 new clients for Mahindra Satyam last year.

“A combined revenue base in excess of USD 2 billion with approximately 20 per cent coming from emerging markets (Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East) will give the merged entity a strong growth story,” the report said.

The IDC Insight is based on presentations and discussions at a Mahindra Satyam analyst meet held on July 8.

“In addition, the merged entity will have a well-balanced split in revenue from the United States and European markets where its immediate competitors (ie Indian IT players) have found it difficult to maintain the balance,” IDC said in its latest report.

Commenting on margins, the report said in order to maintain margin levels, it will be essential to leverage Mahindra Satyam’s intellectual property and product delivery model.

Potentially, the next stage of consolidation after the Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra merger would be to bring Mahindra’s business process outsourcing (BPO) services into the fold to build up the scale of its operations in domestic and global markets.

The joint initiative resulted in 10 new wins for Mahindra Satyam over the past year, including a transformation services deal for a telecom operator in Australia, transportation management solution for a major telecom operator in the United States, customer analytics for a major Canadian telecom operator and a cost reduction as well as compliance solution based on Oracle for GE-Energy.

“Going forward, the two companies have identified 20 telecom accounts for further focus across operational and billing support systems (O/B SS), decision support systems (DSS) and extended EBS,” the IDC report said.

“In the EBS space, focus areas will include business analytics, point of sale (POS) solutions for telecom retail stores and property management for telecom operators,” it added.

IDC also opined that in order to make the joint initiatives taken up by Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam — which it dubbed the ‘M-Cube Advantage’ — work, it will be crucial to take the ongoing integration of Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra to its logical conclusion.

At the customer panel in the analysts meet, representatives from leading corporates spoke highly of their experience with Mahindra Satyam and their commitment to continue further their relationship, IDC said in its report.

Source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/tech-mahindra-mahindra-satyam-may-be-major-it-player-idc_579893.html

Satyam Computer Services Ltd. has received an 18-month technology consulting contract worth about $5 million from U.S.-based EMC Corp., two people familiar with the matter said, indicating improving customer confidence in the Indian company emerging from the effects of a 2009 accounting fraud.

The recently signed deal is one of the first consulting contracts since the information-technology company’s founder and former Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju confessed in January 2009 to overstating profits and cash balances.

Several clients had left the company following the fraud. A government-appointed board sold a controlling stake in Satyam to Tech Mahindra Ltd. in April 2009 through an auction and the company is on a recovery path since.

The EMC contract requires Satyam to offer ways for the cloud-computing and security-services provider to integrate different services running on multiple devices on a single software platform, one of the people said recently.

The consulting contract may pave the way for a wider technology services deal in future, the person added.

Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity. Spokespeople at Satyam and EMC declined to comment.

India’s IT companies earn higher margins on technology consulting deals compared with usual outsourcing contracts which rely more on cost-cutting measures by clients. In certain cases, a consulting assignment allows an IT company to offer outsourcing services as one of the solutions to improve efficiency.

Since the 2009 developments, Satyam has received the highest number of big contracts, worth at least $50 million each, in the current quarter, a senior executive said on Monday.

The executive had also said that though decisions on giving large contracts were taking more time following the U.S. credit downgrade, it doesn’t foresee any impact on its business.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576527891520715076.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Information technology (IT) outsourcing company Mahindra Satyam is likely to sign a large global deal with Formula 1 (F1) at the forthcoming Indian Grand Prix scheduled to be held in Delhi on October 30.

“We are in the final stages of signing the contract. It is a global and a very visible deal,” Dilbagh Gill, head (sports, media and entertainment vertical) at Mahindra Satyam, told Business Standard from Boston.

F1 is the highest class of single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the Federation Internationale deRs Automobile. Gill declined to reveal the size and services of the deal. A large deal, in IT parlance, is anywhere between $50 million (Rs 223 crore) and $100 million (Rs 446 crore).
Mahindra Satyam, the first Indian company to sign with the world soccer body FIFA as an official IT sponsor for the 2010 and 2014 editions of the football World Cup, is currently providing IT solutions for the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, besides the Under-17 World Cup in Mexico.

“There is always some activity happening in the sports group of Satyam. At the end of July, the World Cup 2014 draw will take place in Rio, where all the 208 participating countries will come to know who will play whom for the qualifiers, which we are currently managing with our sports technology,” Gill said.

The company, which incorporated its sports vertical in 2006 to demonstrate its technology capabilities globally, spends $40 billion every year on IT. It is now trying to leverage the Mahindra Group’s capabilities in the arena of sports and make it a 360-degree relationship with its clients.

“The Mahindras have signed a contract with North America’s men’s professional basketball league National Basketball Association (NBA) to promote and get the sport into India. Now, we are getting involved in that in certain areas of IT solutions,” he said, adding that Mahindras had now consolidated the sports verticals across their group.

“We are integrating across the Mahindra Group level in terms of mobility and live video streaming solutions. For instance, Tech Mahindra (the parent company) has been associated with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since August 2006 to provide solutions for delivering match contents directly to mobile devices across the world. We have embraced that now for our solutions. We will also integrate some of our media and entertainment elements with our sports technology to give associations and fans a single, seamless experience,” he said.

Looking beyond football, basketball and motor racing, Mahindra Satyam is now exploring opportunities in more sports disciplines including tennis and cricket. Gill said the company was evaluating certain solutions for tennis at this point.

“Cricket is one sport, where we are in discussions with academies. Cricket is a very unique area and now the National Cricket Academy has come up in Bangalore, we would be interested in working with them, in terms of academic growth,” he said.

He said Mahindra Satyam’s sports vertical currently employed 200 professional, a number which fluctuated depending on the events, and the company was looking at approximately a two-time growth in the headcount on an annual basis.

“On the revenues part, it is more of an intangible value as sports give an exposure to our brand and creditability in bringing in more clients. Putting these two together (brand building and credibility), the sports vertical brings us a substantial return on investment,” he said, adding the company would soon launch its cloud-based sports solutions shortly.

Source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/satyam-all-set-for-big-ticket-f1-deal/441707/

Mahindra Satyam, a leading global Consulting, IT and Business services provider today announced its consolidated financial results under Indian GAAP for the fourth quarter and year ended March 31st, 2011.

Financial Highlights for the Quarter ended March 31, 2011:

* Consolidated Revenue was INR 1,375 crores, up 7.5% QoQ
* EBITDA before exceptional items was INR 178 crores
* Profit After Tax (before exceptional items) was INR 245 crores, up 118% QoQ
* The extraordinary item pertains to the Class Action settlement reached during quarter
* EPS (before exceptional items) was Rs 2.08 per share in Q4
* PAT (after exceptional items) was INR -327 crores
* EPS (after exceptional items) was Rs -2.78 per share in Q4

Financial Highlights for the year ended March 31, 2011:

* Revenue was INR 5,145 crores, down 6.1% YoY
* EBITDA before exceptional items was INR 455 crores
* PAT (before exceptional items) was INR 494 crores, up 69% YoY
* EPS (before exceptional items) was Rs 4.2 per share For FY11
* PAT (after exceptional items) was INR -147 crores
* EPS (after exceptional items) was Rs -1.25 per share for FY11

Financial Highlights in USD (per Convenience Translation) :

* Fourth Quarter Revenue was USD 304 million, up 7.2% QoQ
* Q4FY11 Operating Profit (EBIDTA before Exceptional items) was at USD 39 million
* Q4FY11 PAT (before exceptional items) was at USD 54 million
* Revenue for full year was USD 1,128 million
* FY11 Operating Profit (before exceptional items) was USD 100 million
* FY11 PAT (before exceptional items) was USD 108 million

Other Highlights

* Our total headcount stood at 29,266 as of March 31, 2011, a net addition of 434 for the quarter and 1,729 for the year
* During the quarter Active Customer count stood at 230
* Attrition down to 22% in Q4 as compared to 25% in Q3FY11

Vineet Nayyar, Chairman, Mahindra Satyam, said, “This year has been a very satisfying one, given the impressive progress we made on various fronts such as minimizing the legal overhang, fortifying governance mechanisms, and restoring customer and employee confidence”. He also added – “Q4 is yet another quarter that demonstrated continuing progress on Growth, operational efficiencies, high delivery standards and investments into capability building.”

Speaking at the occasion, CP Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam, said, “At the end of the second year of our 3-year journey, we are very pleased with our achievements so far. Throughout the last year, we had many high points to cherish; new engagements, new logos, better than ever appreciation for our work and acknowledgement for our capabilities by customers and analysts”.

Looking forward, he adds – “We are acutely aware of the challenges that lie ahead in this transformation journey. Accelerating profitable growth and building capability to deal with the scale are our key focus areas. Our three-axes focus on Verticals, Geographies and Competencies continue, along with two-in-a-box customer centric engagement model would continue.” Key wins Mahindra Satyam continues its growth trajectory with multiple deal wins during this quarter.

* Roche, a global life sciences major headquartered in Europe, partnered with Mahindra Satyam for their IT lifecycle support services
* Qatar University selected Mahindra Satyam for Oracle EBS R12 implementation

In addition Mahindra Satyam announced many key deals during year that include

* Strategic partnership with BASF IT Services to enhance BASF’s capacity to provide managed services for the company’s extensive installed base of SAP, messaging, groupware as well as user administration
* SAP ERP implementation contract by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA)
* Multi-million, multi-year contract from Aspire Zone Foundation, Qatar. The foundation will also utilize Mahindra Satyam’s expertise in event and venue management technologies as part of its ambitious sports event and venue management solution roadmap

Operational Highlights Delivery

* Mahindra Satyam established a Windows Azure Center of Excellence (CoE) in partnership with Microsoft to provide Azure consulting, development and migration services to enterprise customers transitioning towards cloud
* Launched of Delivery xPress – a service delivery framework for accelerated service delivery
* Launched a single-window ‘Art-to-Part’ engagement model for partners in Aerospace and Defence. This partnership model covers both design and manufacturing areas to provide a seamless engagement experience for partners, covering the complete product development lifecycle including after-market services
* Mahindra Satyam BPO announced Partnership with Direct Channel Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Both the companies will exclusively co-operate in unlocking BPO (business process outsourcing) and KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Infrastructure

* Mahindra Satyam commenced SEZ operations at Hyderabad, India. The SEZ is spread across 26 acres, will have a built up area of 4,00,000 square feet. The first phase of the campus is now operational and will seat around 5,000 associates
* Mahindra Satyam achieved CMMI Level 5 Version 1.2-Development model certification for its development centres at Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. The assessment led by KPMG as per the SCAMPI methodology evaluated Mahindra Satyam on stringent parameters including implementation of Process Performance Models

New appointments

* Mr. Sriram Papani as Senior VP & Global Head, Enterprise Business Solutions. He re-joins the Mahindra Satyam family to handle some key responsibilities including partner relationship management, fostering leadership within the organization to sustain growth and to incubate and nurture emerging competencies
* Kunihiko Higashi appointed as Country Manager, Japan. In his new role, Kunihiko Higashi will be responsible for spearheading the overall operations, including sales, marketing, professional services and support. He will drive the company’s revenue and market share growth through the implementation of aggressive sales and marketing strategies and building the company’s channel programs in this market
* Mr. Srirama Srinivasan appointed as Vice President – Healthcare & Life Sciences. His core focus areas will be working on growing business in USA and Latin America for Mahindra Satyam. Srirama has 23 years IT industry experience with focus on Sales and Practice Management & Development

References and Recognition

* Mahindra Satyam featured in the ‘Challengers’ category in the report titled “Magic Quadrant for SAP ERP Implementation Service Providers, North America” published by Gartner
* Mahindra Satyam featured in “The Forrester Wave™: Global IT Infrastructure Outsourcing,Q1 2011″.
* Was profiled in a Gartner Research report “Who’s Who in Business Process Management Consulting and System Integration”,
* Zinnov acknowledged Mahindra Satyam as leader in providing automotive engineering services. The practice has been ranked in “Leadership Zone” by Zinnov in their annual Global Service Provider Rating (GSPR) 2010-2011
* Mahindra Satyam BPO honoured as ‘India’s Most Customer Responsive BPO Company’ at the ‘AGC Networks Customer Responsiveness Awards 2010′
* Announced as a Winner in 2010 NOA Awards: ‘BPO Contract of the Year’. Mahindra Satyam wins prestigious industry award in recognition of its BPO work, at 7th Annual NOA Awards Ceremony in Central London
* Won Oracle APAC FY10 OPN Enterprise 2.0 Partner of the Year Award

Source:http://www.auto-mobi.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=171832&Itemid=55

Tech Mahindra, India’s fifth largest software exporter, today announced consolidated financial results for its fourth-quarter and Year ended March 31, 2011. The fourth quarter revenue was at Rs. 1,261.5 crores; up 4.2% QoQ and Full year Revenue was at Rs. 5,140.2 crores; up 11.1% YoY. Tech Mahindra’s Net profit after tax (PAT) before share of profit/loss in associate was at Rs. 206.5 crores, up 0.5% QoQ.

For the Quarter, Tech Mahindra’s associate company Mahindra Satyam reported improved results with operating margins improving from 6.4 % in third quarter of FY11 to 13.0 % in the fourth quarter of FY11. Mahindra Satyam also announced the successful settlement of the US class action suit at a cost of USD 125 mn. Including this exceptional cost Mahindra Satyam reported a loss for the quarter. Tech Mahindra’s PAT including share of associate Company’s loss of Rs. 114.4 crores for the quarter was at Rs. 92.1 crores.

Source:http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Tech-Mahindra-enters-billion-dollar-league/5164355735

Mahindra Satyam has selected Appnomic Systems as their technology partner for introducing automation capabilities in its Unified Service Management Platform (USMP). As part of the agreement, Appnomic’s IT process automation solution – OpsOne will now be embedded in USMP which is Mahindra Satyam’s unique managed services platform for delivering IT infrastructure outsourcing services.

USMP is designed for automated, high quality and centralized delivery of IT Infrastructure Outsourcing services. After a detailed evaluation of key features of OpsOne – IT process automation with integrated visual designer, document management, script repository and fine grained SLA reports – Mahindra Satyam found the solution to fit the automation requirements of USMP.The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 27 April 2011.

Source:http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Mahindra-Satyam-selects-Appnomic-as-technology-partner-for-service-delivery-automation/3666046692

Satyam Computer Services is witnessing renewed investor interest. After sluggishness over the past four quarters, the stock rebounded last week on news that the company has settled yet another lawsuit in the US courts. The development is expected to provide more credibility to the current management, which took over in the middle of 2009 following fraudulent practices of Satyam’s previous management.

We had recommended the stock at Rs 80 in October 2010 after the company, which now uses Mahindra Satyam as its brand identity, restated previous financial numbers. In the subsequent period, the stock has underperformed our expectations, mostly trading range-bound below Rs 70. With reducing exposure to lawsuits and improving demand traction across geographies, we believe that the worst is over for the company. It is expected to return to normal business growth and profitability in the next 6-8 quarters.

BUSINESS AND GROWTH PROSPECTS:

Satyam offers IT services and solutions, infrastructure management, and business process outsourcing to global clients. It grossed nearly Rs 3,770 crore in revenue in April-December 2010 by selling its deliverables to customers across verticals, including banking and finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and telecom.

In mid-2009, Tech Mahindra through a special purpose entity took over the management control of Satyam after its earlier board confessed to financial manipulation. Since then, the new management has struggled to bring the company back on the growth track. The company has so far been able to report a gradual improvement in its operating profitability. This will improve further since the proportion of uncertain cash outflows towards meeting prior period obligations and settling legal claims are expected to go down.

The company reported a 2.5% growth in business volumes measured in terms of billed man hours in October-December. Though this is lower than 3-6% growth shown by its bigger peers, what could offer some relief is the fact that Satyam’s billing rates are stable. This reflects that the company is no more facing pressure to retain clients. Moreover, it has begun to grow its client base, adding seven customers in the past quarter. The company has picked up momentum in Australia, Europe and West Asia, which are expected to drive its growth in the near term.

Satyam has settled most of the lawsuits after the new management took over. In the past two months, it has gone for out-of-court settlement, which would result in outflow of around Rs 570 crore. At the last count, the company had cash of Rs 2,900 crore, which would be utilised to pay for these settlements. Therefore, such legal issues will not stretch its balance sheet. Settlement of legal issues would also help reinstate the credentials of the management, thereby improving saleability of its services.

VALUATIONS:
The company’s earnings in January-March 2011 would be a crucial indicator of its future prospects. The company is expected to report operating margin in higher single digits. Given strong outsourcing demand and possibility of higher billing rates, the company is likely to report a 10-12% profitability and a similar revenue growth by FY12. Considering this, the stock trades at a forward P/E of over 15 at the current level of Rs 75. Investors with a horizon of at least two years may stay invested.

Source:http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-11/news/29406507_1_mahindra-satyam-satyam-computers-new-management

Satyam Computer Services and its former auditor PricewaterCoopers (PwC) have agreed to pay a combined $17.5m (£10.7m) in fines in the US after one of India’s biggest corporate scandals.

Satyam, an outsourcing company, will pay $10m for falsely reporting more than $1bn in profits over five years.

The company’s chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted to the fraud in 2009.

Satyam’s shares were indirectly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as well as in India.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it had fined the Indian affiliate of PwC $7.5m, describing it as the largest American penalty against a foreign firm.

The SEC said the auditor failed to independently verify cash balances in Satyam bank accounts.

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12981738

Small investors have asked Indian outsourcer Satyam Computer Services not to rush its proposed merger with its parent company Tech Mahindra.

Satyam should be stable and allowed to grow first, the small investors said at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

A key concern of the investors is that a merger of the company with Tech Mahindra at this point will result in low valuations for them. Satyam investors took a hit after company founder B. Ramalinga Raju said in January last year that the revenue and profit figures for the company had been over-stated for several years.

In the wake of that scandal, a government-nominated board decided to bring in a strategic investor in the company. Tech Mahindra, an Indian outsourcer that has BT as a key investor, acquired a 43 percent stake in the company.

Satyam reported last month that it had returned to profit in the quarters ended June 30 and Sept. 30. Profit for the quarter ended Sept 30 was however lower than in the quarter to June 30, because of salary increases. The company’s revenue was also marginally down in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to the previous quarter.

The company’s drop in revenue and low margins indicated a performance that was far lower than that of other Indian outsourcers, which are benefiting from a recovery in offshore outsourcing, according to analysts. The billing rates that the company can get from customers are lower than those of its competitors, said Sudin Apte, principal analyst and CEO of Offshore Insights, a research and advisory firm in Pune, India.

A comparison with the company’s revenue and profit figures last year is not available as the company was exempted by India’s Company Law Board from publication of financial results for the quarters ending from Dec. 31, 2008 to March 31, 2010.

A merger between Satyam and Tech Mahindra will create a company which by current revenue levels will have combined revenue of over US$2 billion. That would make the combined entity far smaller than some of India’s top outsourcers. Satyam officials have said that after the merger, the intention is not to compete head on with the big players, but to instead focus on a few vertical markets.

Tech Mahindra, which is focused on the telecommunications sector, hopes to benefit from synergies between the two companies, particularly from Satyam’s expertise in providing services in the area of enterprise applications like enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence.

Tech Mahindra had so far not been able to tap the demand from its telecommunications customers for enterprise applications like ERP and business intelligence, Vivek Kalra vice president for the Americas at Tech Mahindra, said in an interview earlier this month.

Satyam will also use Tech Mahindra’s expertise in telecommunications to offer mobility technology to its enterprise customers, Kalra said.

A merger will not bring significant benefits to customers as Satyam’s strengths are mainly in ERP implementations, Apte said recently. Customers will look for application development and maintenance services and business process outsourcing (BPO), which are small businesses currently for both Satyam and Tech Mahindra, he added.

Tech Mahindra has not indicated a final date for the merger of the two companies. A company official said on condition of anonymity that it would take some time, as the company has to still settle some outstanding issues including finalizing its results according to U.S. accounting practices, and continuing investigations into the alleged misdeeds of the former management of company, including Ramalinga Raju.

The company, after restating accounts, has so far announced its results only according to Indian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles).

The company official said that a merger was inevitable, and even the small investors had not objected to the merger, but only asked that it should not happen too soon.

Source:http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/214543/investors_urge_caution_on_satyam_merger.html

India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd. expects revenue from the U.S., its biggest market, to show growth from the second half of next year as the beleaguered software company starts cashing in on increased technology outsourcing spending, an executive said.

“Right now is a period where we are investing selectively in focus areas,” Atul Kunwar, president of business development and customer relationships, told Dow Jones Newswires in a recent interview. Growth in revenue “will start coming in from the second half of next year which will be significant.”

Satyam, based in Hyderabad, is in the midst of recovering from one of India’s biggest corporate scandals. In January 2009, the company plunged in turmoil after its founder and then chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, confessed to overstating the company’s profits for years, using a fictitious cash balance of more than $1 billion.

After the scandal, Tech Mahindra Ltd., a joint venture between India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and U.K.-based BT Group PLC, bought a controlling stake in Satyam in April 2009 and rebranded it as Mahindra Satyam.

The company became eligible to bid for several deals that required the firm to declare financial details after it reported quarterly results earlier this month for the first time since reporting July-September 2008 earnings.

Mr. Kunwar said the company’s recent investments in employees and technology will help it get large contracts.

This should also help Satyam receive contracts where revenue won’t depend on the number of people working on each project, thereby helping to improve the company’s operating margins.

Once India’s fourth-largest software exporter by sales, Satyam hasn’t been able to take advantage of the strong rebound in demand for outsourcing services which its rivals have been able to cash in on, because of the scandal that has tarnished its reputation. In October, top technology companies Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Infosys Technologies Ltd. posted strong July-September quarter results as business volumes continued to rise.

“We do encounter this problem [of tainted image] when we are bidding for new deals,” especially large IT contracts, Mr. Kunwar said.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Satyam posted a net profit of 233 million rupees [$5.1 million], or 0.20 rupees a share, on revenue of 12.42 billion rupees. The U.S. accounted for 58% to 60% of Satyam’s total revenue in the just-ended quarter.

In the current quarter ending Dec. 31, new contracts will diminish after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, said Kunwar. However, before Thanksgiving, the company saw “a lot of action in the U.S.,” in terms of deal proposals, which the clients will consider in the next month, Kunwar said.

“Some more deals are going to come into the pipeline starting January,” said the executive.

The company said it is chasing multiple large contracts worth more than $50 million over three to five years, and several smaller deals in the $10 million-$30 million range with some below $10 million.

The large deals are mainly in the media, technology and entertainment space, manufacturing and banking, as well as financial services and insurance segments, he said.

“It takes roughly six to nine months for business to start getting realized [into revenue],” Mr. Kunwar said.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704700204575643670201560234.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Mahindra Satyam, the brand identity of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., a leading global consulting and IT services provider, today announced that it has been awarded the BPO Contract of the Year at the 7th Annual National Outsourcing Awards (NOA) Ceremony held in central London. Mahindra Satyam received the award, sponsored by NelsonHall, in recognition of its BPO work with one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

Mahindra Satyam BPO’s relationship with the client is over five years old, and it currently provides high end artwork and design services to the pharmaceutical company. The Regional Service Center (RSC) at Mahindra Satyam BPO provides creative logo, production and promotional graphic artwork services to a global customer base of the client, serving over 120 countries in the customer’s global footprint. The engagement with the client has recently been renewed for an additional period of five years.

The NOA Awards are presented to companies and individuals that have demonstrated best practice in outsourcing. The awards were judged on the basis of organisations’ ability to deliver both initial and ongoing business benefit to the client, incorporating both best practice and ongoing service innovation. John Willmott, NelsonHall CEO, said, “In addition to achieving a very high level of benefits realization for the client, this contract exhibits excellent application of Lean Six Sigma both to improve client service and also to improve employee motivation and retention”.

Speaking about the achievement, Vijay Rangineni, CEO, Mahindra Satyam BPO said, “Our engagement with the client is a perfect example of what a client-service provider partnership should be. Both organisations share a passion and focus towards maintaining excellent quality, engaging proactively with customers, and delivering first time right, every time. Additionally, we share a deep understanding and respect for each other’s cultures, and appreciate the work being put in by Associates across both organisations to achieve the desired objectives.”

Currently, Mahindra Satyam BPO has a dedicated RSC in Hyderabad and manages Design and Artwork Shared Services, Supply Chain Management and Logistics Support. Mahindra Satyam BPO also offers multilingual services to the customer in French, Spanish and Arabic as well as English.

Source:http://www.prlog.org/11026262-mahindra-satyam-announced-as-winner-in-2010-noa-awards-bpo-contract-of-the-year.html

Mahindra Satyam has been signed to provide document management system for the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s child support system.

The document management system to be designed is for Kentucky’s Cabinet of Health and Family Services. According to the press release, the system will be a Microsoft Sharepoint portal and enable accessing applications, court orders, and insurance documents.

In a statement from Mahindra Satyam’s president, Atul Kunwar, he said, “Our experience of working on various technology platforms enables us to offer a wide range of services to our clients. The document management solution to the Commonwealth of Kentucky will enable us to bring forth the experienced leaders to deliver the best possible product to the customer. Being Microsoft’s gold partner ensures that we are abreast with the latest updates from Microsoft.”

The people involved with Child Support Enforcement are set to benefit from the system. Jamie Miller from the Kentucky Health and Family Services said, “These improvements make it easier for non-custodial and custodial parents to get their questions answered and ultimately increase access to more resources in the care of their children.”

While the state of Ohio made plans to ban outsourcing, it seems the state of Kentucky decided to get India’s Mahindra Satyam onboard. The deal does help soothe the nerves back in India due to the anti-outsourcing rhetoric in the States.

India’s External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna has said that outsourcing will be a topic on the agenda when President Obama tours India early next month.

Source:http://www.zdnet.com/blog/india/mahindra-satyam-to-develop-it-solutions-for-kentucky/211

Recently when Mahindra Satyam restated its financial statements for the years FY09 and FY10, after a gap of almost two years, industry watchers couldn’t help but wonder how far the company had come in its quest to escape its disastrous past. The key question was whether the company, which once was the preferred business partner for more than a third of the Fortune 500 companies, manage to regain the trust it lost when it committed the country’s greatest corporate scam?
The answer is that Mahindra Satyam today is in a much better shape to bid competitively in the market. The company’s balance sheet and financials are expected to boost confidence among clients going forward. For the last two years, the company couldn’t request for big proposals as large organisations look for strong financial disclosure and steady balance sheet for their outsourcing partners so that they know the company can handle bulk deals. Having the results out will now allow Mahindra Satyam to compete in the market with other players.
Sanjeev Hota, senior research analyst, Sharekhan, says, “Future looks much brighter for Mahindra Satyam now. The situation is definitely going to improve with the company announcing results. Now it can more openly pitch for big projects and clients.”

Analysts feel Mahindra Satyam, which has a predominant market in the US and APAC region, will continue to drive their major business from these regions. Business is expected to come from sectors like BFSI, retail and manufacturing, the anchor verticals for the company. “North America will generate the highest chunk of volume for the company and will be the major growth driver,” says Hota. In FY10, Mahindra Satyam got its largest account from North America. It also added clients in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare and public sectors.

The company has also planned investments in infrastructure and cloud-based applications to attract more clients. “Technology will be the differentiator for us. We will continue to invest in infrastructure management, BPO, enterprise management and manufacturing,” says CP Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam.

“The company has competencies in enterprise management and by investing into it further to scale up its vertical expertise will help it to participate in end-to-end transformational engagements across various industries,” says Srishti Anand, IT analyst, Angel Broking.

However, pricing model will be a difficult task for Mahindra Satyam and getting quality clients at the right price will be a challenge. “To retain clients either they have to offer discounts compared to competition or clients should have trust in their domain expertise. They have to leverage their Tech Mahindra expertise to get big clients,” says an analyst. After the scam broke, the company offered huge discounts to their clients to retain them. Industry experts are confident of Mahindra Satyam adding large deals to their kitty, but how they do it is a question that needs to be answered.

After Tech Mahindra took over the reins of Satyam Computers in April 2009, the management started restructuring the business to get the company back on track.

However, it was not an easy task for the company. Post the scam in January 2009, the company experienced heavy churn in clients asking for outright termination.

The company lost 194 clients resulting in a 38% drop in revenue year on year. Mahindra Satyam lost majority of its clients in the BFSI space where it holds strongest domain expertise. “It appears that client loss was in the key account and it will take another two to three years to scale it back to FY09 levels,” says Anand. However, it managed to add 44 new clients across sectors in FY10, with major chunk coming from the BFSI segment. The company bagged the largest deal from the BFSI sector, one of its core vertical. As one of the new account, it added the largest bank from Australia. “For any IT company, the new client relationship begins with small engagements typically in the range of $1-5 million or even less. Thus these new client accounts will take time to add incremental value to Mahindra Satyam,” adds Anand.

Mahindra Satyam, the then Satyam Computers, had 500 active clients before the scam broke out in 2009. Currently, it has been able to hold on to 350 clients. It’s not just client attrition, the company had to battle with high employee attrition rate of 40% year on year too. Scam-hit Mahindra Satyam is struggling to retain their employees at all levels. The employee count has declined from 45,000 in FY09 to 27,000 in FY10 indicating the severe ramp-down mode that the company was in through FY10.

Analysts feel that rising attrition will be a major issue for the company and supply chain constraints will be a challenge to deal with. To curb attrition, the company has planned a significant campus hiring and has also started a buddy-referral programme. “We have hired about 3,000 people and mostly at entry level. They have almost finished their training and now the plan is to hire some more,” says Hari T, chief people officer, Mahindra Satyam.

Satyam, which provides back office support and IT services to hundreds of companies, has Cisco, General Electric and GlaxoSmithKline among its top-listed clients. However, going forward industry watchers feel the company’s current financial position will be truly reflected in its recent quarter performance, which is due to be out in mid -November. “We await those numbers to decide on the future trajectory,” says Anand.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mahindra-satyam-comeback-trail-on-track/695382/0

Many social media experts strongly believe that the corporate blogs or blogging is a very effective tool to build good and transparent relationship between the top management and their employees, investors, customers, general public as well as media.

“Corporate blogs serve the purpose of sharing information such as business decisions, change in management or any other events that happen within the organization. It helps to keep the employees in loop and integrate them with the top management in a transparent and well-informed manner,” says Beth Kanter, a renowned social media expert.

While the IT industry runs on developing software applications, technology and solutions for business purposes, one could vouch for the tech sector to be highly blog-savvy compared to other verticals.

Though Indian IT firms, to some extent, have added a few elements of social media such as podcast, webinars, Facebook page and Twitter links on their company websites, they still lag behind their foreign counterparts when it comes to corporate blogging.

Take Mahindra Satyam, the beleaguered IT services firm which unveiled financial results for 2008-09 and 2009-10 last week. As the company’s website has a blog section, one could have searched for blog post from top management – like the chief executive officer’s (CEO) message addressing its employees post the results. But there was no such blog posts related to the company’s financial output on its portal.

While the media reported and analyzed the results in different ways, it’s obvious that such news reports could play on the minds of the company’s large workforce in terms of job security and future growth.

Ideally, in such situation, a blog post or message from CEO or top management could boost employees’ confidence and put an end to any speculations evolving from external world.

“Corporate blogs should be seen a key tool for getting genuine information about companies, its projects and businesses, its employees and customers. It should help to establish interaction with employees, investors, media and others,” says Sandip Dhedia, Blogsdna.com’s Editor-in-chief from Mumbai.

But it’s contrasting, how the Indian tech firms are pursuing corporate blogging.

Interestingly, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the IT services and outsourcing giant, doesn’t have a blog section on its website. On HCL website too, the blog section is absent.

“In India, corporate blogging is lagging behind as it was seen more as a personal or individual writing. Though corporate blogging is very important today, companies still have the legacy mindset as far as blogging is concerned. They don’t share the company’s day-to-day information, business and project updates on the blogs, even for their employees’ knowledge,” points out Dhedia.

Wipro Technologies, on the other hand, has a quiet active blog section, called Wipro blog, which shows the recent blog posts from top executives like Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani, the joint CEOs and board members of Wipro.

In addition, top tech experts like Anand Padmanabhan, senior vice president – Energy & Utilities, Anurag Behar, Wipro’s Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and others keep the company’s blog section active and updated regularly. These blog posts talk about key issues and topics such as new technology and business trends.

Even Infosys Technologies has a well-maintained blog section with regular posts contributed by the CEO and managing director Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys China’s chief operating officer (COO) Rangarajan Vellamore and other top executives.

Global tech and software enterprises like Oracle, Hewlett Packard (HP) and Dell have already set a trend in corporate blogging which not just talks of their own organizations but also tries to create dialog with other firms and leaders.

This makes their corporate blogs more informative, interesting and insightful for readers including both their employees and general people. However, Indian tech firms still need to learn a lot to gain maturity in order to fulfill the real purpose of corporate blogging.

Source:http://www.ciol.com/News/News/News-Reports/Corporate-blogging-yet-to-grow-among-IT-firms/142055/0/

Employees of Mahindra Satyam, the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services, say they are not worried about the financials of the company. Last week, Mahindra Satyam reported an aggregate loss of Rs 8,300 crore (Rs 83 billion) for 2008-09 and 2009-10.

“The results were a very honest statement that the company has given. And keeping in view the liabilities they had, I feel it was a very good exercise that they had done, considering the complexities involved. It was a fruitful projection of the status of the company,” said Varun Kumar (name changed), an employee for over 10 years.

Two days after Mahindra Satyam announced its restated financial accounts, most employees Business Standard had a chance to meet at the company’s Madhapur campus, Satyam Infocity, were brimming with confidence. A few who had gone through the turbulent times after Ramalinga Raju, the founder and chairman of Satyam Computer Services, confessed to fudging the books, say they feel confident and stable in the hands of the new management.

“The financial disclosures have eased the concerns among clients. And in fact, we have started to enjoy respect in the market after the results’ announcement and now we are feeling more safe in the hands of the Mahindra & Mahindra group,” Kumar said.

For Hardesh, a B1 band (leadership position) associate (the satyam term of a staffer), it’s work as usual. A large US-based customer that his 500-odd technology team has been working with is more confident now about delivery. Hardesh feels the employees had not expected the results to be ‘jazzy’ and that the company management is in the process of reinforcing the ‘bench’, which was cut to half as part of a rightsizing exercise undertaken a year ago.

“The current facility (Satyam Infocity, which also houses the company’s headquarters) is full to its 5,000 capacity and the company is coming up with a new 3,000-seater building within the same campus. Besides, with enquiries from new clients from various geographies and extended contracts from existing customers, the company is enhancing its bench to a sizable strength,” Hardesh said.

On the service delivery front, some clients are not satisfied, feels Satyen Gupta, an associate from the delivery practice. “From day one, customers left. It’s not because the delivery was bad. Earlier, it used to be appreciation. Today, it is for granted. Because during any change, there is always a challenge. There is some kind of stabilisation that still needs to happen. However, the M&M leadership are putting all these things together,” he said.

Sowmya Rao, an associate, feels though the Mahindra management had not disturbed the overall fabric of human relations, fear in terms of job cut still persist among some Satyamites, as the employees are called at the information technology (IT) outsourcing company, after the proposed reverse merger happens. This is likely after the announcement of the Q1 and Q2 results of 2010-11 on November 15.

“In the event of merger, my gut feeling is that there will be some job cuts, as there will be some multiple elements clashing in terms of expertise. Like, we are strong on the engineering side, while Tech Mahindra is strong at telecom. Job cuts are bound to happen. but largely in the senior level. Uncertainty on job losses among the entry and mid-level employees will gradually wafer out after the merger,” she said.

After the restatement of accounts, Mahindra Satyam employs about 27,000 associates, including its BPO arm. The Mahindra Satyam management had made it clear that the merger would happen after November 15.

Employees, however, feel the merged entity would certainly be in a better position to go out in the market and compete with other top Indian IT services firms and global companies.

Source:http://www.mynews.in/News/huge_losses_at_satyam_employees_not_worried_N96922.html

Indian IT supplier Mahindra Satyam seems to be steadying its ship. In 2009 it made massive losses of £1.241bn following the billion dollar fraud, known as India’s Enron, committed by its chairman B Ramalinga Raju.

Its books have now been audited and it has cut its losses to £17m for 2010. So you could even say it almost broke even.

I have written virtually hundreds of articles about the fraud and then Satyam’s eventual take over by Tech Mahindra and rebirth as Mahindra Satyam.

It is good news for the company and its loyal staff if it gets back on its feet. One of the things that stood out to me about Satyam was that the fraud was an isolated case and its customers and industry analysts had a lot of good things to say about it.

At the time of the fraud Satyam had more than 600 customers in 66 countries receiving services such as software development, business process outsourcing, as well as support for suppliers such as Oracle and SAP. Customers included Unilever, Sony, Tesco, Boots, Nestle and Fifa.

I was also impressed about how open the company was with the press following the fraud.

I am interviewing the head of Europe at Mahindra Satyam tomorrow. I will ask Vikram Nair about the year ahead and blog about it tomorrow.

Source:http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/inside-outsourcing/2010/09/mahindra-satyam-has-cut-its-losses-as-ship-steadies.html

Indian outsourcing firm Satyam Computers was set Wednesday to report its first earnings results in nearly two years after a massive false accounting scandal rocked the firm, threatening its future.

Satyam’s shares rose as much as 3.6 percent to a day’s high of 102.45 rupees on Wednesday, outperforming the broader market, ahead of the announcement of earnings data, due after the market closes.

Now rebranded Mahindra Satyam after a takeover by the mid-sized software outsourcer Tech Mahindra, the company was due to report figures for the financial years 2009 and 2010.

The company is also in the process of restating its accounts for the last half dozen years to give a precise picture of the firm’s past performance.

Investors dumped the stock and clients melted away after Satyam’s former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju admitted overstating profits for years and inflating the company’s balance sheet by more than one billion dollars in January 2009.

Raju’s revelations marked India’s biggest corporate fraud and have been likened to the US energy giant Enron, which collapsed in 2001, also over false accounting.

Raju, who faces a slew of charges including conspiracy, cheating and forgery over the scandal, is free on bail after being released on health grounds by a court in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Analysts are divided on Satyam’s future, with some saying the worst is over for the fraud-hit firm while others argue it could take a “few quarters or even years” of uphill struggle to fully emerge from the scandal.

Citigroup expects Satyam to post net profit of 6.18 billion rupees (137 million dollars), on revenue of 52.14 billion rupees for the 2010 fiscal year ended March 31.

Satyam’s stock plunged more than 90 percent when the scam broke but recovered when a government-appointed board took charge and later chose Tech Mahindra as the new owners through a bidding process.

Satyam’s shares, however, are still 45 percent below their pre-crisis levels.

In April, Tech Mahindra, a unit of the tractors-to-holidays conglomerate Mahindra and Mahindra, paid nearly 600 million dollars for a majority share of Satyam.
Investors have been waiting for signs of recovery, particularly after the firm said last week it would delist from the New York stock exchange over fears it might not meet US reporting deadlines for its restated accounts.

Satyam has struggled to retain staff in the face of stiff competition from rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, which have both ramped up recruitment as demand for outsourcing increases.

“With predatory competition, client and staff attrition, and a damaged reputation, the combined entity faces an uphill struggle over the next few quarters, if not years,” CLSA analysts said in a recent report.

Satyam, ranked as India’s fourth-largest outsourcer by revenue when the scandal broke, acts as a back office for some of the world’s biggest companies including Nestle, General Electric and General Motors.

The firm operates in nearly 70 countries, with 690 clients including 185 Fortune 500 blue-chip companies and provided key logistics for this year’s World Cup football tournament in South Africa.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gTlPEN23eU_k8Mq4BbAXLAVJEXjQ?docId=CNG.1ac7f0fdd081ded87e06e0276f2ee21c.101