Infosys is open to acquisition in the product space while at the same time it has put together a 600-strong team to create new software products.
Addressing reporters on its annual Infosys Innovation Day, Chief Executive Officer S. D. Shibulal reiterated that “to attain revenues from products to this level of growth, we will look at acquisitions”. Its product business contributed 6.1 per cent of its revenues for the first quarter of this fiscal.
‘core’ areas
This team that Infosys has set up will work in ‘core’ software engineering areas that will span its service lines in banking and financial services, retail and other verticals, according to Sanjay Purohit, Senior Vice-President and Global Head of Products, Platforms and Solutions. The products, platforms and services business employs 16,000 people and includes its flagship product Finacle.
Infosys, which is increasingly experiencing growth pangs in its traditional IT outsourcing environment due to a global slowdown and change in technology consumption, is betting on products and technology platforms to contribute 60 per cent of its revenues in the next five years.
In line with this, the company has launched a product experience centre in London which aims to show clients different ways to reduce costs. “For a UK client, we eliminated 1,000 servers for the company, which resulted in additional savings through reduced carbon footprint,” said Shibulal.
Through all these initiatives, Infosys has $308 million in Total Contract Value (TCV) booked on its technology platform business. Some IT companies such as Infosys use TCV as a metric to increase visibility in its business.
New products
Infosys also said it is working on 10-12 products in areas such as social media, cloud computing, mobility and big data that are opening new doors for businesses globally as companies are looking at ways to build flexibility and bring products faster to the market.