The Hindu Business Line : Wipro plans to hire 14,000 freshers

INTERESTING INTERACTION: Mr Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Britain, having a word with the Wipro employees during his visit to the company's campus in Bangalore on Wednesday. - G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Jan. 17

Continuing with its belief in running software development in a factory style, Wipro plans to hire more entry-level employees. Wipro plans to add about 14,000 freshers in 2007-08 and has already issued some 10,000 campus offers, said Mr Suresh Senapaty, Chief Financial Officer, Wipro.

In the current financial year, a total of 6,600 campus recruits have joined Wipro till date. Wipro is also planning to enhance the intake at Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) — where it converts science graduates into software professionals through in-depth technology training — to around 4,000 in the coming year from the present 1,700, Mr Senapaty said.

Lowering Costs

Wipro feels that de-skilling of services would broaden the potential recruitment pool, thereby lowering the costs. Increasing wage inflation by an estimated 13-15 per cent annually has been a cause of concern for Indian companies in recent years and firms such as Wipro among others are trying to keep a tab on their wage costs through a higher intake of entry-level employees.

In the recent years, Wipro has absorbed about 7,000 science graduates. In fact, the company's utilisation rate during Q3 declined by 2 per cent to 62.2 per cent because of the high number of rookies. Revenues from Europe, which grew 39 per cent, accounted for 34 per cent of Wipro Technologies' revenues, while the US, which grew 34 per cent accounted for 61 per cent.

Billing Rate

Mr Senapaty said that the company charged new customers about 5 to 6 per cent more than the billing rate for the year-to-date, although the average rates dipped by some 0.3 per cent overall in Q3 due to lesser working days. Wipro, Mr Senapaty said, had bought forward contracts worth $188 million as of December.

Dr A.L. Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Wipro Technologies, said the company would see an upside in the telecom business as about four to five deals signed towards the end of Q3 will start yielding revenues in the next few quarters. Talks with telecom equipment vendors have restarted with the Alcatel-Lucent merger going through, Mr Rao said. "We are still keenly watching the proposed Nokia-Siemens merger," he added.

Larger Acquisitions

The Chief Strategy Officer, Mr Sudip Nandy, said the acquisitions in recent quarters, except for that of NewLogic, had worked well. NewLogic, which faced client side issues, would turn profitable in the next one or two quarters. Confident after successfully integrating the recently acquired firms, Mr Nandy reiterated that Wipro would look for slightly larger acquisitions in future. "Wipro is actively chasing about a dozen companies," he said.

Revenues from Wipro BPO services grew 24 per cent to Rs 235.8 crore, while the profit before interest and tax increased 82 per cent to Rs 55.4 crore from a year earlier. Mr T.K. Kurien, Head of Wipro BPO, said the processes offered by the company increased to 115 during the quarter from 101 earlier, which it plans to rationalise going forward.

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