BENGALURU: Top software service exporters are under pressure to drop prices to retain contracts with marquee customers such as American Express and Home Depot that are up for renewal this year, according to executives and experts involved in the contract negotiations.

Rates have fallen by double digits for some of the biggest customer accounts in the past six months, with companies such as Infosys and Wipro sacrificing profit margins to gain market share and incremental revenue from these key accounts, they said. Retaining strategic outsourcing contracts - that generate at least $100 million annually - is crucial to top IT firms such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro for them to be to mine such accounts that could increase in scope over the years.

Bengaluru: Infosys Ltd will outline some of the quantifiable outcome metrics to reflect the progress of the strategy of “new and renew” it has embraced under its new chief executive (CEO) Vishal Sikka, when the company declares its quarterly earnings on 24 April.

The Bengaluru-based company intends to share new metrics, including the percentage of Infosys’ customers who are using its new offerings such as open source technology platform, called Infosys Intelligent Platform (IIP), and artificial intelligence-led technology platforms, according to a senior executive.

Infosys, India’s second largest IT services company, had decided not to go ahead with a separate leader to manage its venture capital investments. Instead, the Bengaluru-based company has decided to manage the $500 million Innovation Fund with the help of Ritika Suri, who presently heads its Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) initiatives.

“She will be responsible for managing the Innovation Fund as well as our investments in the start-up space, apart from being responsible for M&As. May be at some point of time, we may look at having a person under her to manage the fund. But the person will only report to her,” said a senior official of the company.

H-1B workers replacing Americans have minimal skills and little or no business knowledge, a whistleblower from Indian IT giant Infosys has said and asked lawmakers not to increase the number of much sought-after visas and plug in the loopholes in the immigration system.

Jay B Palmer, whose visa fraud case against Infosys had led to a $34 million visa fraud settlement -- the largest in US history -- alleged that no matter who is chosen, no matter what their skill set is, H-1B workers are coming to the US and they have to learn the needed skills once they get here.

Infosys, the country’s second largest information technology (IT) services company, has donated £250,000 (Rs 2.3 crore) towards the statue of Mahatma Gandhi unveiled in London’s Parliament Square on Saturday.

According to the Trust’s website, Infosys’ donation is the highest so far.

Infosys Limited is targeting around 900 clients globally for its IAP (Infosys Automation Platform), according to Shyam Doddavula, assistant vice president and principal product architect at Infosys.

“The IAP enabled us to create intelligent robots, who are resolving incidents related to customer’s orders for a large telco. It saved $1.3 million to the client. IAP is being leveraged by 18 clients at present. And, 900 clients are in the pipeline," he said.

Come April, all senior-level Infosys employees are in for a bonanza. They will be eligible for a double bonus that could go beyond $100,000.

This long-term bonus, for those with the designation of associate vice-president and above at Infosys, was earlier disbursed once every two years but, since 2014, it’s become an annual payout. This will result in employees becoming eligible for double disbursal as the last one was made in 2013, people familiar with the situation told FE.

Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and his wife sold a part of their stake to set up a venture fund. With Rs 600 crore, Catamaran Ventures was established in 2009-10.

Murthy was following Azim Premji, founder of Wipro, who had set up a private equity arm, PremjiInvest, to manage his wealth. PremjiInvest, with Rs 10,000 crore, up from Rs 1,500 crore in 2007, making it the largest family office in Asia, made its first investment in 2007, buying a three per cent stake in National Stock Exchange (NSE) for $100 million.

BENGALURU: Infosys is realigning its R&D arm, Infosys Labs, to bring sharper focus to service lines and support differentiated platforms and solutions.

In the new structure, Infosys Labs will be decentralized to create solutions for its clients cutting across various service lines. The differentiated platforms group within Labs will report to the platforms group head Abdul Razack, while the IP cell will move to the legal team.

India's second largest software services firm Infosys has signed a five-year agreement with global express delivery company TNT to help it simplify and transform technology applications.

As part of its turnaround and transformation strategy called 'Outlook', TNT is overhauling its IT capability to reduce complexity and cost and increase flexibility.

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