The Hindu Business Line : Patni eyes Japan market to double revenues in 3 years

Mumbai/Chennai, Feb. 21 IT solutions vendor Patni Computer Systems expects to almost double revenues from Japan within the next three years. Patni is confident of making further inroads into the Japanese market, as most Japan-based companies are moving away from their exclusive dependence on Chinese vendors for IT off-shoring needs, Mr Deepak Khosla, Senior Vice-President-Asia Pacific, Patni told Business Line.

“Currently, five per cent of overall revenues for Patni comes from Japan; we expect this to go up to nine per cent by 2011,” Mr Khosla said.

Japan is the second largest economy in the world. According to some estimates, the ICT market in Japan is worth about $160 billion. Though it is one of the most advanced nations in information and communication technology, Japan still remains a market to be tapped for Indian off shoring providers, mainly due to the language barrier. Traditionally, Japanese companies have been outsourcing their IT requirements to Chinese vendors.

Change in trend

However, this trend could change soon as most Japanese companies are expanding their presence into overseas geographies, according to Mr Kholsa. “Chinese IT vendors do not have significant servicing capabilities in these new geographies. So Japanese firms are looking to engage with IT partners who have a global footprint; firms such as Patni perfectly fit the bill,” he added.

Though Chinese IT companies are staunch competitors for Indian counterparts in the contracting market, Mr Khosla believe that Indian companies are better when it comes to process maturity and the ability to handle work outside China.

Japanese multinationals such as Melco and Toyota, earn anywhere upwards of 40 per cent revenue from overseas markets, analysts feel.

But how does Patni work around the language barrier? Explains Mr Khosla, “We employ Japanese trainers who educate our workforce in Japanese culture and language. So this gives us a ready pool of about 420 professionals who are well equipped to service Japanese clients.” Patni has two global development centres that cater exclusively to Japanese clients.

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