Growth on Mind

We had called it the Growth Machine last year. Between April 07 and March 08,
the period considered by Dataquest for its ranking, Cognizants total revenue
grew 45% in dollar terms, which translated to about 29.5% in rupee terms.
However, its India IT exports revenue (estimated by Dataquest based on work
delivered out of India, and which excludes BPO revenue) grew 38%, thanks to a
higher offshore ratio. Though there is a huge drop from last years growth, it
is highest among the services companies in the DQTop20.

And this growth took place despite its over-dependence on America (with 82%
revenue coming from there) and a traditional heavy tilt toward ADM, even in
comparison to other offshore players.

Higher growth in all new areastesting, infrastructure management, and BPOhelped
even while it made a conscious effort to grow European revenue. In FY 08, it
contributed 16% to Cognizants revenue, as compared to 13% in the previous year.

Recognizing that most offshore players have struggled to grow their business
in Europe beyond UK, Cognizant took a strategic decision to go for partnership
with existing European players, providing them offshore capability. The first
was a partnership announced last year with Ordinam a Dutch IT provider. It was
followed in JFM by another strategic alliance with Germanys T-Systems, taking
1,150 employees of T Systems India to its fold.

Rank-8

l Start-up Year: 1994
l Products & Services: IT services
and BPO l Employees: 48,000 (India)
l Address: #5/35, Old Mahaballipuram Road, Thoraipakkam,
Chennai-600097

l Tel: +91-044-42096000
l Fax: +91-044-42096060
l Web: www.cognizant.com

size=1>Highlights

size=1>Strengths

p
Strong depth because of verticalized approach


pHas
gone aggressive on partnerships in tough geographies
which may help to penetrate markets faster

size=1>Weaknesses

size=1>q
Still takes conservative
approach to new areas size=1>

q
Still over-dependent on
the American market

Francisco DSouza, CEO


Rajeev Mehta, COO

R Chandrasekaran, president and MD

Gordon Coburn, CFO

Malcolm Frank, sr VP, Strategy and Marketing

T Sridhar, chief people officer

DK Sinha, head, Sales

Cognizant signed a five-year SAP applications outsourcing
contract with Kimberley-Clark, and a multi-year infrastructure
management service contract with publishing giant, Simon & Schuster.
It strengthened its hold in the pharmaceutical space by signing a
multi-year contract with Merck and followed it with another $95 mn
deal with AstraZenecca. It also acquired marketRx, a KPO focused in
pharma sales and marketing outsourcing.

While Cognizant has built depth at the cost of breadth in all areasservices,
verticals, and geographiesit faces challenges of an uncertain market in some of
its core constituencies. Most offshore players out of India have at least begun
to offset the US slowdown by looking at India domestic market. Cognizant is yet
to take a decision on that, let alone developing the market.