by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz
Bengaluru : Global software major Infosys on Saturday announced the appointment of Salil S Parekh from Capgemini as its new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director with effect from January 2.
“Parekh, 52, joins Infosys from Capgemini where he was a member of the Group Executive Board,” said the IT major in a statement here.
Like Infosys, Capgemini is a global consulting, technology and IT outsourcing firm headquartered in Paris.
Parekh, a veteran in the global IT industry, will be the second non-promoter executive of the $10.3 billion firm after the first non-founder executive Vishal Sikka resigned on August 18, following boardroom battles over corporate governance issues with its co-founders, especially N.R. Narayana Murthy.
As Parekh takes over, interim CEO and MD U.B. Pravin Rao will revert to his post as Chief Operating Officer from January 2 and continue as Director on the Board.
Parekh has Masters degrees in computer science and mechanical engineering from Cornell University in the US and is a B. Tech in aeronautical engineering from IIT-Bombay.
“We are delighted to have Salil joining as the CEO & MD. He has nearly three decades of global experience in the IT services industry,” said co-founder and Board Chairman Nandan Nilekani in the statement.
Nilekani also said as Parekh had a strong track record of executing business turnarounds and managing very successful acquisitions, the Board believed that he was the right person to lead the company at a transformative time in the industry.
“The Board is also grateful to Pravin Rao for his leadership during this period of transition,” added Nilekani in the statement.
Nilekani returned to the company as non-executive Chairman on August 18.
Infosys’ Independent Director and Nomination and Remuneration Committee Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said Parekh was the top choice from a pool of highly qualified candidates for the top executive post.
“With his (Parekh) strong track record and extensive experience, we believe, we have the right person to lead Infosys,” Shaw said.
The full-time CEO post has been vacant since Sikka had quit, stating that he could not continue to work amid “malicious personal attacks”.
The company’s previous Board blamed Murthy for Sikka’s dramatic resignation.
In a related development, Capgemini announced in Paris that Parekh would leave the group on January 1, 2018.
“Capgemini has agreed on Parekh’s departure. He has relinquished his responsibilities within the group and his managerial transition is already in place,” said the French company.
Parekh joined Capgemini in 2000 when it acquired the consulting division of Ernst & Young, the London-based global accounting firm, and occupied leadership positions in the group during his 17-year-long stint.
“I would like to thank Parekh for his involvement in the Capgemini journey and contribution to the development of the group in India and the US,” said Capgemini Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Hermelin in the statement.
The Euro 12.5-billion ($14.9 billion) Capgemini is a 50-year-old firm with about 200,000 employees in 40 countries the world over.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz
Bengaluru : Software major Infosys on Wednesday said leading Finnish elevator-cum-escalator firm Kone had selected it for providing IT support services.
“Our strengths in SAP, systems delivery and automation will strengthen Kone’s IT capabilities in application development and maintenance,” said the company in a statement here.
The IT major is also setting up a design and innovation centre at Helsinki in Finland to offer disruptive technologies to its clients like Kone in the Nordics region.
The Helsinki facility will provide technology, consulting and systems integration services. It will also have a design thinking and innovation lab where its customers across the Nordics will have access to disruptive tools to transform their businesses.
“Our people plus software approach, design thinking and zero distance innovation have enabled our team to transition, elevate, evolve and transform Kone’s ERP (enterprise resource planning) service delivery and landscape,” said Infosys Vice-President and Global Head of Manufacturing Nitesh Banga in the statement.
The euro 8.8-billion Kone provides elevators, escalators and automatic doors to buildings for making people’s journeys safe, convenient and reliable.
“As digitalising our business has been a strategic imperative, developing our IT function is an integral part of our business transformation. We were looking for a partner like Infosys with expertise in SAP operations and implementation to enable us do more,” said Kone Chief Information Officer Antti Koskelin on the occasion.
The outsourcing firm will also deliver services at Kone’s hubs in China (Shanghai), Finand (Espoo) and the US (Moline).
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate
By Gaurav Sharma,
Dalian (China) : Several Indian and Chinese IT companies on Wednesday got together in China’s port city of Dalian for cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence.
On the first India-China Dalian IoT (Internet of Things) Conference, the government officials and company representatives from both sides agreed that a lot can be done if India’s excellence in software technology and China’s expertise in hardware are brought together.
The event is being attended by 30 delegates representing the Indian government and companies, while 50 delegates from the Chinese industry are participating in the event.
Representatives of Indian companies like Wipro, HCL, Infosys, Cognizant and CBSI Technologies were present.
“Chinese hardware needs to be given soul that can come from India’s software technology,” said Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce (India).
Talking about the event, Dalian Municipal Government Mayor Xiao Shengfeng said: “India leads the world in software with a great foundation of IT and BPO services.”
“We believe that the conference co-organised by the two sides (NASSCOM and Dalian), serving as a platform for the upgrading of industries of Dalian, will drive the integration of advanced IT industry of India and the strong manufacturing industry of Dalian.
“We hope that the two sides will take good advantage of this conference to strengthen communication, increase understanding, and promote cooperation between IoT and smarter products that are in demand around the world,” Xiao said.
Gagan Sabharwal, Senior Director, Global Trade Development, NASSCOM said: “India and China have both leveraged our human capital to become the world leaders in our domains, and are heralded as the fastest growing economies.
“With the new Digital wave, today we have a unique opportunity to merge hardware and software together to create smart solutions for the world,” he said.
(Gaurav Sharma is the IANS correspondent in Beijing. He can be reached at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Corporate finance
Bengaluru : In a bid to build on ‘Design Thinking’ approach, Infosys on Monday announced it has completed the acquisition of London-based product design and customer experience company Brilliant Basics.
The acquisition extended Infosys’ digital design services network to include Europe and the Middle East, enhancing the company’s expertise across financial services, retail and telco sectors, the IT major said in a statement.
The acquisition is in accordance with the terms set out in the agreement announced by the company on August 3.
Last month, Infosys had said that it would acquire Brilliant Basics for 7.5-million pounds (approx Rs 63 crore) in an all-cash deal.
Through this acquisition, Infosys expanded its worldwide connected network of ‘Digital Studios’ that are focused on fulfilling needs of global clients for end-to-end digital transformation solutions.
Infosys has several ‘Digital Studios’ the world over, including in Bengaluru, Pune, New York, London and Melbourne.
Brilliant Basics is known for its Design Thinking-led approach and experience in executing global programmes.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Large Enterprise
Technocrat Vishal Sikka
Bengaluru : Technocrat Vishal Sikka, who logged out of software major Infosys on Thursday after quitting as its first non-founder CEO on August 18, denied joining the US IT major Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), said an Indian business news channel on Saturday.
“Reports of me joining HPE are false. Someone is trying keenly to put me in a box,” Sikka told CNBC-TV18 in a video interview from the US.
Sikka, 50, remarked in the light of reports that Infosys Founder N.R. Narayana Murthy had written to his advisers that “he (Sikka) was more a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) material than a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) material”.
Terming the return of Nandan Nilekani as Infosys’ Board Chairman an excellent idea, Sikka said the latter was an extraordinary leader and an iconic man.
“I offered to quit as Executive Vice-Chairman because I felt it was in the best interests of all concerned so that Nilekani could have a free hand. It also meant that the succession process would be complete,” he noted.
Accepting Sikka’s resignation as CEO, the Infosys Board appointed him as the Executive Vice-Chairman on the same day (August 18) till the new CEO took over by March 31, 2018 and elevated Chief Operating Officer (COO) U.B. Pravin Rao as the interim CEO and Managing Director (MD).
“I wanted to leave Infosys altogether after resigning as CEO last week, but the Board had insisted I stay on for the sake of continuity,” he pointed out.
A huge proponent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application to make a positive difference in the world, Sikka said he was excited to spend more time with his family at his Palo Alto home in the Silicon Valley of California.
Asked if he would agree to Infosys making the investigative report on the acquisition of the Israeli software firm Panaya Inc public, Sikka said it was up to the Board and he would have gone along with its decision.
Infosys acquired the US-based automation technology firm Panaya for $200 million in February 2015 to offer large-scale enterprise software management as a service to its global clients.
The Panaya buyout became a bone of contention between the co-founders and the Board due to alleged irregularities in its deal value and allegations by an anonymous whistleblower that company executives like Sikka had a personal interest in buying it.
One of the charges was that $20 million invested in Panaya before the deal were distributed to the shareholders, a charge Infosys denied claiming it (Panaya) had $18.6 million cash balance when bought.
“Panaya was looked at as an acquisition candidate based on its strategic fit. There was no conflict of interest due to Sikka’s association with its investor Hasso Plattner, who was his boss in his previous job at the German software major SAP AG,” said Infosys in a statement on February 20.
Though three investigations looked into the claims and found nothing, Murthy kept raising corporate governance issues at the company and asked the Board to consider making the Panaya report public.
“The allegations were baseless, false, wrong. It is a completely nonsensical detour,” claimed Sikka in the television interview.
On the hefty severance package paid to Infosys former Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal, Sikka said he had answered questions on it a thousand times.
Declining to share lessons he learnt at Infosys and if he could have done differently, Sikka hoped the outsourcing firm would move forward and get back to its business.
Asked if his being based out of the US and not Bengaluru was a problem, Sikka said as business was outside India, it was a complex balance of spending time, mostly in airplanes.
Admitting that his stint at Infosys from August 1, 2014 was an incredibly challenging job, Sikka said he was proud of the three years he spent in the iconic firm and was overwhelmed by the thousands of emails and communications he received from employees and clients.
