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INDIA
BUSINESS WORLD -
JANUARY 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS
HCL INFO BAGS RS 250-CR DEALS IN 8 WEEKS
In the last eight weeks HCL Infosystems has bagged Rs 250-crore orders in the domestic market. These include deals won in telecom, education and government verticals.
The orders are primarily for the computer business, including system integration and hardware, Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems said. When asked about the domestic market opportunities, he said: ``the domestic market is largely unexploited. If we are talking about an annual GDP growth of 8%, it can't happen without an increase in IT penetration in the domestic market.''
In the recently announced results, HCL Infosystems posted a 6.1% increase in consolidated net profit for the second quarter ended December 31, 2005 to Rs 63.77 crore against Rs 60.1 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year. It has seen significant revenue increase from computer systems business, office automation and the telecom business.
Despite opportunities in the local market, the focus of most of the Indian IT companies has been on exports, delivering a range of services from applications development, maintenance and testing. The domestic market for hardware, services and products is estimated to be about $5 billion. IDC estimates that the domestic market is growing at 19% a year. The technology products services will contribute the largest chunk, about 24% to the Indian IT services market, while the server shipment will cross 100,000 units this year predicts IDC.
Companies like HCL Infosystems and Wipro Infotech, focused on the local business face competition from MNC majors like HP, IBM and Accenture for the domestic pie. In fact, IBM India saw a 45% growth in its India revenues in 2005 over 2004. On the strategy to take on the MNC competition for the domestic pie, Mr Chowdhry said: ``we create solutions around hardware, be it in banking, telecom, healthcare or any other vertical. For instance, in banking we offer billing solutions while our healthcare solution could comprise hospital information system as well.'' |
