Atul Nishar,Founder & Chairman, Hexaware Technologies Limited, is a FCA (Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) and received his Bachelor Degrees in Commerce and Law from University of Bombay. He has set up the company in 1990. He is the driving force of Hexaware's strategic direction and marketing focus. He had founded Aptech Limited in 1985, a computer training company which he grew into a leading global IT training outfit with over 2400 centers across 52 countries. He was the Chairman of Aptech till early 2003, when the promoters divested their stake in the company. He is associated with several government and trade bodies which play an instrumental role in the development of India's IT Sector.
Hexaware Technologies is a global provider of IT and Process outsourcing services. The company has experience in managing large IT applications in real time as well as in providing high value services around packaged enterprise applications such as SAP and PeopleSoft. The company's onsite/offshore delivery model provides significant cost savings. Its development centers are assessed at SEI CMMI-Level 5, and are also ISO 9001:2000 and TickIT certified. It has a client base comprising several Global 1000 organizations. Hexaware’s domain capability expertise and reduced learning curves enables significant compression in time-to-value deliverables. The company's customer-centric philosophy is further strengthened by a robust Key Account Management process to find more ways to delight key customers and grow market shares.
Speaking with Yash Ved of India Infoline, Atul Nishar says "We are looking at acquisition of companies in the range of US$25-50mn in the areas of remote infrastructure management space, BFSI and BPO business."
The IT sector appears to be facing challenging times. How do you read the situation in the IT segment?
IT sector has gone through challenging times. There has been revival of demand in 2010 as compared to 2009. I think the worst is over and global economy is set to grow.
At our end we have added 35 new clients during the year. We have 157 active clients and 4 clients billed more than $10 million during the year.
During the last quarter, we added 5 Fortune/ Global 500 clients among which, we are offering end-to-end outsourcing solutions cutting across all horizontal service lines for 2 clients. While Q1 ?10 will be soft, we expect the revenue growth to pick up from Q2 2010.
For the year ended December 31, 2009, Revenue from operations stood at Rs 10.38bn (US$214.7mn) a decrease of 9.8%yoy in rupee terms.
Net Profit after Tax was at Rs1.34bn (US$27.9mn), an increase of 127.5%yoy in rupee term. Revenue for Q1 ‘10 is likely to be in the range of US$48mn to US$50mn. We expect the revenue to pick up from the second quarter onwards.
Our average billing rate per hour for the quarter stood at $69.97 onsite and at $23.67 offshore.
What is your focus area going forward?
Our focus would be more on Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) space; it contributes 40-45% of revenue. Another focus area would be Enterprise solution and testing service.
What are the client concentration levels with respect to the Top 10 clients?
50% of the revenue comes from Top 10 clients and this has improved as compared to last year.
Any new acquisitions are you looking at?
We are looking at acquisition of companies in the range of US$25-50mn in the areas of remote infrastructure management space, BFSI and BPO business.
Comment on the new additional clients in Q4?
The quarter witnessed an addition of 7 new clients. In terms of verticals, 3 clients were added in Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), 2 clients in Travel, Transportation, Hospitality and Logistics (TTHL) and 2 clients in Emerging Verticals. The total number of active clients stood at 157. In terms of the horizontal service offerings, 1 client was added in Remote Infrastructure Management Services (Remote IMS), 1 client in Enterprise Solutions, 2 in Business Intelligence/ Business Analytics (BI/BA), 1 in Quality Assurance and Testing Services.
Are you planning to launch new products in IMS and ERP space?
We have invested in launching several new offerings including our remote Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) as well as the ERP Shared Services Support, both of which will further enhance our ability to service our customers. We are planning to invest more in IMS and ERP space.
Brief us about your international operations?
67.3% of revenues came from North America, with the European share at 26.8% and the balance 5.9% coming from the rest of the world. We are looking at growth in Australia, Japan and India.
Your recruitment plans?
Global headcount at the end of Q4 ’09 stood at 5,137, up from 5,006 in the previous quarter. During the second half of 2009, 330 fresh graduate engineers (campus recruits) joined the company. We are planning to hire 400-500 engineers in 2010-11.