INDIA BUSINESS WORLD OCTOBER (1^st - 20^th) 2007
The Month that was ...

PATNI ENTERS INTO $200M DEAL WITH UK CO

In one of its largest deal wins, Patni Computer Systems said it has entered into an agreement with the UK-based The Carphone Warehouse (CPW) that could result in contracts worth around $200 million over five years covering a wide range of consultancy, software and maintenance services. The agreement ranks alongside deals of similar size it got as ABN Amro's preferred vendor in a $2.2 billion contract and its engagements with General Electric.

However, while the ABN Amro contract is in the traditionally strong area of ADM (application development and maintenance) services, the CPW agreement in more in a nature of partnership and covers multiple service lines. Patni's executive vice-president Neeraj Gupta and head of Europe Brain Stones termed it a breakthrough and an instance of where a client relations has blossomed into a partnership.

The Carphone Warehouse is a large mobile phone retailer with over 2,100 stores in 11 countries.

The consulting portion of the agreement will involve redesigning some of CPW's business processes to help them reduce costs. "Patni will become a key technology partner providing services across consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance. In addition, Patni will also be a key partner to The Carphone Warehouse for developing next generation systems for its global telecom and retail operations," the company said.

The services will be delivered from locations in Europe and from Patni centres in India. Recently, the Indian firm had acquired the worldwide rights to CPW's proprietary technology enabling communication service providers to offer customer management, retail point of sale and billing services for a variety of products and services. The technology had been co-developed by Patni and CPW and Patni.

Services to customers in the telecom industry contributes to around 14% of Patni's revenues. A few months ago, it had acquired telecom consulting firm Logan Orviss International.