The Hindu Business Line : Steria keen to expand Indian client base

New Delhi, Nov. 12 Even as it plans to double India headcount to nearly 10,000 in three years, European IT services firm Steria said it will look for contracts in Indian telecom, banking, financial services and retail markets in 2009.

“Telecom is a growth sector for India, and large telecom companies here are looking at infrastructure to support their expansion plans. Globally, we have been serving large telecom clients and we will be keen on getting some of the solutions to Indian market. We hope to see some action in the first quarter of 2009. In addition, we will also look at banking, financial services and retail space for specific IT solutions,” Mr Mukesh Aghi, Chief Executive Officer of Steria told Business Line.

Steria offers IT services, including consulting in core business processes and development and operation of information systems. In October 2007, Steria acquired British firm Xansa. The Group currently employs 20,000 professionals in 16 countries.

The Paris-headquartered Steria’s revenue stood at €1.9 billion as on December 31, 2007. The company is listed on Euronext Paris market.

Hiring on track

“In India, we are also in talks with various state administrations for our traffic management system,” Mr Aghi added.

Earlier this year, Steria had said it plans to double the headcount in India in three years to 10,000 professionals.

“We are on track as far as hiring is concerned. We have already scaled up from 4,800 to 5,500 people between June and November. We hope to ending the year with 6,000 employees in India. We are hiring entry level system engineers and focusing on domain expertise,” he said. Steria has facilities in Noida (3,000 professionals), Chennai (1,400 professionals) and Pune (1,100 professionals).

Innovation centre

The company is also launching a ‘retail centre of innovation’ in Noida shortly. “We will be showcasing our retail solutions and also build new solutions based on the research and learning from existing global clients. The centre would be in place in one month,” he added.

At present, close to 36 per cent of the company’s global revenue comes from public sector, 26 per cent from financial services, 24 per cent from utilities, while manufacturing and retail contributes 8 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.

“The Xansa acquisition gave us legroom in India from a delivery perspective. India is strategic to Steria,” he pointed out.

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