The Hindu Business Line : GM is single largest client for Wipro

GENERAL Motors (GM) has replaced Transco as the single largest client of Wipro Ltd during the third quarter ended December 2003. GM accounted for 5.3 per cent of Wipro's revenues compared to Transco's 5.8 per cent in the second quarter.

Till recently, Transco had been the single largest client of Wipro for almost four consecutive years. Its contribution to Wipro's earnings has declined from nine per cent in the last quarter of the previous fiscal to 5.8 per cent in the second quarter this year as the momentum of workflow slowed down after it was merged with National Grid.

Meanwhile, GM's relationship with Wipro has seen significant growth after the former went in for vendor rationalisation early this year. The growth in GM account for Wipro is despite the former setting up its own design centre in Bangalore.

Wipro recently signed a master service agreement with GM and the umbrella contract encompasses all of Wipro's existing efforts with GM and gives licence to all its divisions to bid for the latter's projects independently.

Wipro added 24 new clients during the third quarter, which included several large deals.

Mr Vivek Paul, Vice-Chairman, Wipro, said: "Customers are willing to spend more and have accepted the offshore model as an established model. Large deals are happening after a long time, they are also looking at more big deals."

He added: "However, customers don't want to talk about it in public. One has to respect request for confidentiality especially in a election year where outsourcing could become a election topic."