|
Patni has entered the premier league of software exporters–inching
up the software exporters’ ladder, the company stands at #7 in the rankings
for financial year 2001-02. The year also marks Patni Comptuer’s debut into
the DQ Top 20 roster. A growth rate of 43%, well ahead of the industry average,
has seen the company notch up revenues to the tune of Rs 741 crore in the period
under review.
|
Patni attributes its success to its strong and stable customer base, with 80%
of revenues coming in from repeat business. As of December 2001, the company had
a base of over 130 active clients. The company has been investing heavily over
the last two years in building up its sales and marketing teams, and this has
started paying off now–with a nearly 20% increase in long-term multi-year
assignments every year. Realizing the need to spread itself beyond insurance,
banking & financial services, and manufacturing, Patni has identified four
new verticals to target–retail, energy and utilities, hospitality, and
possibly healthcare. Patni Computer has already signed up significant clients in
these verticals. Also, there are plans to scale up operations worldwide with the
aim of gaining a reasonable marketshare in these segments.
Having showed consistent growth in the late nineties, the company’s climb
hit a plateau by the millenium year. In mid-2000, McKinsey & Co was brought
in to restructure the business and ramp up future growth. This exercise resulted
in the formation of nine special business units, some focused on industry and
the others on technology.
Business from General Electric, the largest account that the company has–and
this has been running for 14 years now–was hived off into a separate SBU.
Nearly 84% of the company’s revenues come in from the United States, and
efforts are on to reduce the heavy dependence on this market geography. Patni
Computer’s business model is such that nearly 50% of revenues come in from
fixed-price contracts. And as has been the trend in the industry this year, 67%
of overall revenues came in from onsite projects.