Infosys gets call from Satyam clients

New Delhi, Feb 6 : Infosys Technologies today said some of Satyam clients have approached it, but the company will examine the proposals whether they bring any value to the firm before taking a decision.

"Some of them (Satyam's clients) have reached out to us.. We have said if any of the Satyam's client approaches Infosys, we will examine it and if it fits what we want to do then we will go ahead... Clients have a right to go to anybody of their choice. We have not pro-actively gone out and poached," Infosys HR Director T V Mohandas Pai said today.

The IT major, which is braving the slowdown is also taking a number of steps to hold on to the profit margin which include no or subdued salary increase, cut in variable pay, reducing onsite work and increase employee utilisation rates.

"Wages increase for next year is going to be subdued if at all there is a wage increase. About 11,000 people are on the variable pay structure. 90 per cent of the variable salary is paid in advance, which has been reduced to 80-85 per cent.

"Utilisation is low at 73 per cent...we can go up to 82 per cent. Our onsite work is about 32 per cent now. We can bring it down by pushing more work offshore by 2-3 per cent. So we have many levers," he said. "The variable salary depends on revenue and profitability of the company and as the revenue and profit growth slows, the salary would be correspondingly shaped up," Pai said, adding Infosys has a limited tolerance policy for non-performers.

He said India's software export growth rate could be less than the forecasted 16-17 per cent (by Nasscom) during the current fiscal due to the economic downturn.

"The industry is going through turbulent times. The probability that the growth rate will be lower than the 16-17 per cent is higher," he said.

So there is pricing pressure and vendor consolidation will happen, he said adding that for the three quarters, the company has been able to keep margins intact and it will wait for this quarter.
(Source AJ)