The Hindu Business Line : ‘Europe emerging key market for IT vendors’

Mumbai, Feb. 15 Europe is emerging as an important geography for the Indian information technology vendors, but the Indian industry must adapt itself to the European market to further increase its presence.

Mr. Francois Enaud, Chief Executive, Steria, a European provider of IT-driven business services, said the Indian IT vendors would have to adapt their sales model, way of contracting, and even content to suit the various European countries.

Citing France as an example, he said the French clients look for more fixed price contracts.

The Indian vendors must be prepared to manage the risks associated with these contracts if they wanted to be in France.

Mr Enaud said there should be more exchanges between engineering and business schools in India and Europe. This would ensure the graduates have a multi-cultural training, which would help them to understand the cultural diversity in Europe.

He said the way the bigger companies in Europe perceive Indian IT vendors is changing.

The small and medium companies in Europe would begin outsourcing to Indian , Mr Enaud said. The Indian players have become unavoidable in Europe, headded.

Steria to expand

Mr Enaud said Steria, which acquired Xansa in 2007 for about €700 million, plans to significantly increase its presence in India. He said they are looking at the India operations as a client-facing organisation, and not as a back-office centre. They are also planningt o make India an innovation centre. India would be a bridge between Europe and the increasingly important Asian markets, he added.

Mr Ajay Kela, Chief Operating officer and Managing Director, SymphonyServices, said the mindset of the European clients is very different from that of the clients in the United States. “They take longer, but go deeper," he said.Americans tend to jump into a relationship, and then try to make things work. But the Europeans are more cautious and need time to be convinced. They would probably begin with pilot projects, he said. But the Indian companies can expect high-end work from Europe, Mr Kela said.

“What happened in the United States five years ago is now happening in Europe now,” he added. He said for Symphony Services, Europe is the fastest growing region. In 2007, the company gained three very large clients, he said. But the Indian service providers would have to be patient, because it takes awhile to penetrate the European markets, he said.

Mr Kela said countries such as Japan and Korea could be a good market for embedded software. He said these countries are manufacturing hubs, and are not that good at making software that go into the devices they manufacture.