Wipro Calling...

EQ is the ratio between the image and visibility points. Greater the index, higher is the ratio of positive coverage in relation to total coverage received

It has been a fascinating race amongst the IT companies for the Cir rus Top

10 during the last five months. January 2002 was a decisive month, with Infosys

moving full steam ahead of Microsoft to emerge #1 on the cumulative Cirrus image

index during October 2001-January 2002. And while the company continued to hold

its position in February, there has been some amount of excitement for the

second and third slot –Wipro managing to overtake Microsoft by a very slim

margin of 104 Cirrus image points (CIP) to notch the second slot. Interestingly,

however, the monthly CIP for various IT organizations has a different story to

tell.

The CIP gathered by different IT companies during February 2002 are a clear

indicator of their intent and aggression. Wipro, Microsoft, HP, Cisco and TCS

moved ahead during this month, while Infosys, IBM, Satyam and CMC actually saw a

drop in their CIP over January. On a month to month basis, Infosys posted a

negative growth of 81% to score 961 CIP as it slipped from #1 slot to #4. Satyam

also dropped significantly from #3 to #7 with a negative growth of 66%. TCS, on

the other hand posted an impressive 96% growth and moved up from #7 to #3 slot

during February. Microsoft also moved two notch ahead to capture #2 slot even as

Wipro emerged leader of the pack. HP and Cisco also have moved ahead by one

notch to #5 and #9 slots respectively.

Image Ranking  While Infosys is marching ahead with cumulative Cirrus image points of 10,727 during the five-month period of October 2001-February 2002, it could manage only 961 CIP during February. Hence, despite being #1 on the cumulative image graph, Infosys ranked #4 on the monthly graph. Wipro which moved from #2 to #1 slot during this month, but despite losing shine by 9% vis-a-vis January. TCS, which was at #10 in December 2001 and #7 in January, jumped four notches to emerge #3, even as Microsoft moved up from #4 to #2. On the cumulative list, Microsoft stands at #3, Satyam Computers at #4 and TCS #5.

In terms of quality of exposure index (EQ), while Infosys and IBM top the

chart with 136 and 133 points respectively, last month’s toppers Cisco and TCS

have been pushed to #8 slot with 100 points each. CMC also shares the #8 slot

with the two. Microsoft, which was pushed out of the EQ Top 10 index in January,

made a comeback at #7 slot with 102 points.

What this means is that the two companies managed their media efforts the

best. However, it does not meato say that others haven’t but only suggests

that efforts to have positive articles is so much more urgent for companies that

are at the lower end of the list.

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