Indian outsourcer plans expansion
Tuesday, 29 July 2003, 19:30 IST
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WASHINGTON: As millions of white collar jobs continue to be exported overseas, one of India's largest IT outsourcers has decided to buck the trend and will be expanding in Massachusetts and other places in the world. Patni Computer Systems Ltd. plans to add 2,000 employees to its 6,000-strong global workforce, said Mrinal Sattawala, the company's senior vice-president, sales and marketing. Up to 15 percent of the company's expansion would take place in the countries where client companies were situated and the rest would be in India, Sattawala said. The goal was to improve outsourcing relationship by giving customers more local interaction, said Sattawala. "This is our largest marketplace," he explained. "In order to provide clients the full spectrum of services and in order to properly manage an offshore process as well as to add to the industry... more local expertise is also required. Close to 80 percent of its revenue comes from U.S. business," Sattawala was quoted as saying in the American City Business Journal. Patni, one of the largest software companies in India, specialises in custom software development and maintenance outsourcing, according to Hoovers.com, an online business directory. Up to 40 percent of its global revenue comes from the Connecticut-based General Electric Co., Sattawala said. The expansion is already under way after a recent $7 million acquisition of a Boston IT firm, The Reference Inc, with 44 employees. Privately owned Patni employs about 400 people in Massachusetts, 120 of whom are spread between its U.S. headquarters in Cambridge and a Woburn development-and-sales centre that opened a year ago. The Reference purchase was possible in part because Patni agreed to a $100 million investment in the company by General Atlantic Partners LLC of Greenwich late last year in return for a minority ownership stake. As part of the expansion, Patni may be snatching up other companies soon, potentially in Massachusetts, depending on its needs over the coming months, Sattawala said. "We're always looking for companies that give us the right mix for our business and create the right market focus. We are scanning other companies in Massachusetts and outside Massachusetts," he said. Patni also has sizeable operations in Britain, Japan and parts of Europe though the bulk of its business is in the U.S. Declining to give details on the company's plans, Sattawala said it would grow "a little bit north of 25 percent this year" to $240 million in revenue for 2003. In 2002, it earned $188 million, he said. Patni's decision to expand domestically as well as in India represents a need for outsourcers to better manage their IT contracts, the Journal report said.
Source: IANS
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