Wipro
With not so impressive growth, companies like Wipro focused on becoming more bolder in FY 17 to differentiate itself in the crowded and fragmented IT services marketplace. Add to that, the political changes in the US have upset the IT outsourcing cart of all the IT services players and Wipro is no exception. Company sources say that it delivered revenues within the guidance range in the fourth quarter. Wipro is also confident that the recovery in Energy and Utilities and its demonstrated strength in Digital will help it improve the growth trajectory during the course of the current financial year.
During FY 17, the company continued to maintain its focus on operational improvements and productivity enhancements and in the bargain sustained a strong cash generation in FY17 even as the currency environment remained highly volatile.
Beyond numbers, as we look at other highlights, Wipro continued its momentum in winning large deals globally. Significant ones were: It won a multi-year digital supply chain transformation contract from a leading network equipment provider to conceptualize and run their Order-to-Cash operations. In this, Wipro will leverage its proprietary business platforms and expertise in robotics technology to enable a hyper-automated supply chain, which will be lean, agile and have the flexibility to meet the client’s current business challenges as well as help them stay ahead of future business disruptions.
In the last 18 months, Wipro has invested over $1 bn in acquisitions and invested in innovative business models like BPaaS (Business Process as a Service), which integrates across IT Infrastructure, Application Platforms and Business Operations, and gives its clients flexibility and value through consumption-based pricing. Wipro made a strategic acquisition of Appirio, the leader in cloud applications, to bolster its cloud application services, and it has led to a number of new joint client engagements.
Like other companies, Wipro too is going aggressive on the digital bandwagon. In a letter to stakeholder, the CEO of the company stated: “Clients are moving from experimental projects in digital to large transformational deals and Wipro is positioned very favorably. In FY17, Digital eco-system grew from 17.5% of revenues in Q1 to 22.1% in Q4.”
Clearly, FY 17 in many ways was a transformational year for Wipro, which aligned its competencies to the new normal and built a solid foundation for digital transformation. In line with the new thinking, the company also went in for a logo change during May 2017 with the company name surrounded by dots and connecting it. The company said that this connectedness is the driving force behind Wipro’s new brand logo and the company’s Chairman Azim Premji remarked,” Our new brand identity resonates deeply with this fundamental approach to value creation on multiple dimensions, reflected in the energetic and organic integration of diversity in the identity.”