Infosys Consulting

Yash Bansal
Victor Ganguly
Biprojeet Roy Chaudhary
Divyya Garg
Kuhu Pandey

Infosys position in 2006

Ranked no.9 in The Wired 40 published by Wired Magazine. Masters of
technology and innovation. They are global thinkers driven by strategic
vision.
According to Forrester research , Infosys is most able to compete with
the former Big 5 firms for business process consulting and the tier-one
Indian vendors for follow-on technical work.
Ranked no 13 in largest computer and internet consulting companies on
the basis of sales.
Revenues increased to $593 million in March 2006 i.e. 30% increase
from the previous year.

Distinctive Competencies
Global Delivery model (GDM) Infosys technology developed this approach for global delivery and

was considered as a leader in the delivery of IT implementation projects using globally distributed
teams. This cut the project costs by 30% and made a 24-hour project workday a reality.
Shortening the Lifecycle of Solution Design to Implementation Looked at process
requirements instead of functional requirements. Inefficiencies could be better identified if horizontal
processes like product development process were considered instead of vertical functional silos such
as marketing and sales.
Cost Reduction Strategy Value proposition was to offer business consulting resources onsite at
market rate, an onsite developer lower than the average rate($100 - $150) and three offshore
developers at lower rate than average market rate($105 combined)
Delivery Measurable Benefits Provided high quality software. Awarded a level 5 rating at CMM
level, the highest quality of software development delivery though in reality it exceeded by a factor of
20.
Developed metrics for quality of the work firm produces

Value chain
Performed functions ranging from business consulting ,

Day
Time

application development , implementation , infrastructure

management and BPO
Helped in the following : Intelligent project breakdown ,
Leverage
extended
, leverage
Competitive
Game workday
Prepare
client for cost efficiencies

Night
Time

Plan

new operation

Competitive Advantage

Go Compete

Design , build ,test and operate

solution

Culture
Unique culture to differentiate themselves from business consulting.
Building a culture with the help of people from different consulting firms.
Recruiting the right people ; hire first rate employees only.
Creating a differentiated approach : Build an organizational structure
based on meritocracy and transparency . Including staff nominations for
promotion. Under this system , the firms senior employees who were
considered for promotion published a criteria and all employees could
nominate themselves and score each leader.
Rewarding employees : Compensated employees at the higher end of
market rates .

Decision to move into Consulting

Infosys wanted to increase revenue through repeat business with companys existing client
base. As the services offered by the company expanded, its client relationships became more
complex. Infosys saw an opportunity to enter into client relationship earlier in the life cycle to
define problem, identify and implement a solution. So it decided to start an in-house consulting
business in 1999 with approx. 3700 employees and a revenue of about $1200 million.

How big is the consulting market segment and what is its structure?
According to Forrester Research Inc., a technology research firm, IT consulting was
projected to be growing at a rate of 5% compounded annually over the next five years.
Apart from the two largest players Accenture and IBM, who still had a relatively small
share in the industry, the market for business and IT consulting was fragmented

TCS, Infosys and Wipro together generated a combined service revenue of $4.5 billion
in 2004, up 47% from 2003. The market share was, however, small, 0.8% of the worlds
total services market

The global delivery firms were on the lookout for third-party vendors to provide end-toend services from business consulting to application development and implementation,
infrastructure management and BPO. Two different approaches to consulting services
emerged in the marketplace: On-shore (Accenture and IBM), Off-Shore (TCS, Wipro and
Infosys)

Why did Infosys form a wholly owned subsidiary?

The success of Infosys in-house consulting unit was limited due to the limited brand equity in 1999.
Raj Joshi, of Deloitte Consulting, approached Kris Gopalakrishnan, the COO of Infosys Technologies
several times between 1997 and 2001 to initiate an alliance between the two firms. However
according to Gopalakrishnan, if the work was to be subcontracted to somebody else, then the brand
of Infosys would get diluted. The objective was to have control of the client account. In a long term
partnership, there is bound to be an overlap of business or long-term objectives of the partner with
that of the joint venture. And Infosys wanted to be in that space completely, so taking such a step
would be in conflict with its long-term objectives.
By 2004, Infosys Technologies was a billion dollar company with an employee base of 25000, and had
established a string brand equity. The options for investing in its consulting offering included making
an acquisition and organically growing a business. However, it wanted to establish a new model in
the consulting space. Organically growing a business would limit its ability to attract the right kind of
talent. So it decided to set up a hybrid model by setting up a U.S. based wholly owned subsidiary.

Change the Rules of Game- Goal of the leadership team of

Infosys
Consulting
The main aim of the Infosys Consulting was to provide the client the cutting edge over
its competitors and help develop their employees into great leaders.

The strategy
was to deliver high quality business consulting and disciplined
technology implementation at an extremely competitive price.

Here came the necessity to change the rules of game, they changed the rules of
game in consulting industry
The new rules included :-

Created a Global Delivery Model (GDM)- a unique business model in business &
information technology for optimisation of work flow.

Shorten the life cycle from business consulting to technology implementation

Reduce the cost of typical client engagement
Deliver measurable benefits to clients

Global Delivery Model

It was developed more than 20 years ago which made Infosys, the leader of IT
implementation projects.
The work was distributed in following categories :-

The task were to be carried out at the location of the client

The task were needed to be carried out closer to the client
The task to be done in remote locations where process driven technology centre with
highly skilled manpower were easily available
This approach is called:

ICI Resource
Onsite

1-1-3 MODEL

One IT Resource
Onsite

0ne IT Resource Onsite

0ne IT Resource Onsite
0ne IT Resource Onsite

Global Delivery Model

Client Location
Discovery
Project
Analysis & Planning
High Level Design
User Interface Design
Project Co-ordination
Onsite Training
Implementation

Post
Implementation
Support

Off-shore Development

Project
Project Management
Detailed Design
Coding
Testing
Documentation

Post Implementation
Support

Intelligen
t
Project
Breakdo
wn
Leverage
Extended
workday

Leverage
Cost
Efficienci
Rapid reaction support
es
Objective of GDM- To ensure the distribution of application & business process life cycle
activities and resources, while ensuring their integration
Bug Fixes
Warranty Support
Maintenance

Importance of Client relationships

Know That Happy Customers = Returning Customers
Set and Manage Realistic Expectations
Be a Connector

Importance of institutional knowledge

It could result in a steady increase in employee turnover
further lack of institutional knowledge, translates into higher costs and lower
institutional efficiency.
Domain specific knowledge is important to pursue the project
Client requirements can be easily understood if we know what is market

Sustainable competitive advantages

Global delivery model
Projects broken down & delivered cost efficiently reducing it by 30%.
Shortening the life cycle of solution design to implementation.
For e.g. If a firm wants to implement technology for improvement, then instead of
considering vertical functions like sales, marketing, horizontal functions like
product development processes would be beneficial.
GDM deployed onsite team to see the functioning of the companies whereas offshore
team to convert design templates into software.
Cost reduction
Being pioneers in this field, they had to be fast enough so they believed in building
and growing rather than tearing down an old model.
Delivering measurable benefits
Company analyzed current position of the employees to establish a base line of
business baseline performance
Company then analyzed processes and reflected the efficiencies of the process
High level of transparency: full payment to Infosys