Wipro expects uptick in investment for IT services
Bengaluru, Jan 25 (IANS) Software major Wipro is betting on more investments for IT services worldwide, as the demand environment was interestingly poised, said its Chief Executive Abidali Z. Neemuchwala on Wednesday.
"We believe the demand environment for IT Services is well poised and expect an uptick in the change investment in the current year," Neemuchwala told reporters here.
Admitting that investment in the change side did not pick up at the same pace as expected due to caution over the US elections and Brexit (Britain voting to exit from the European Union market, Neemuchwala said the focus in 2016 was on cost-saving on the run side.
"We do not, however, expect customary budgets to change drastically but expect more momentum on the change spends, although it is a bit early to call it out," he said.
Indicating that the funnel (deal pipeline) was quite healthy, he said the company was monitoring the decision-making cycles of some large deals, especially in the healthcare business, which is going through a transition phase and spends were soft till clarity emerged on policy direction.
"We are also restructuring our India and Middle East business, which will be a headwind in the near term," said Neemuchwala.
Asserting that the company was making strategic bets to get disproportionate share of the change business, he said investments in digital, artificial intelligence platform and cloud application services had enabled the company to offer differentiated value proposition to its global clients.
With fears over curbs on H1-B visas and increasing protectionist measures by the new US administration under President Donald Trump, the IT major intends to hire locally and invest in delivery and innovation centres across the US.
"We focus on localisation. We have been investing in the US, increasing hiring, setting up delivery centres and focusing in education," reiterated Neemuchwala.
Commenting on the performance in the third quarter of 2016-17, he said a leading American financial services firm had selected the company to architect a cloud-based solution to improve the engagement of its clients across functions and business units.
"Similarly, a leading bank in APAC selected us to design and deploy its front office applications using a leading cloud application platform," he said.
The outsourcing major also assisted six major Indian banks and Fintech (financial technology) clients in handling the regulatory change and increased transaction volumes after the November 8 demonetisation.
The flagship IT services business got a customer in the $100-million bucket and had seen better quality of pipeline in strategic accounts.
The company filed 140 new patents for intellectual property during the quarter, taking the number of total applications to 1,353.
--IANS
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