Technopark in pact with Intel       
June 24, 2008
Source:  BL

Intel India and Technopark Thiruvananthapuram will work together to offer the Intel Software Partner Programme at Technopark. Announcing this here, Mr Narendra Bhandari, Director, Software and Solutions Group, Asia Pacific, Intel, said that the programme gives independent software vendors access to the tools and resources they need to create and market applications that run on Intel’s technologies and platforms.

Tech Mahindra in $24-m deal with New Zealand co      
June 24, 2008 
SOURCE: BL

Mumbai, Tech Mahindra has bagged a $24-million (about Rs 111 crore) engagement to assist Telecom New Zealand — popularly called Telecom — overhaul its retail business and offer better customer service at cheaper price points.

According to the contours of the 18-month commitment, the city-based telecom solutions provider will be responsible for programme management and end-to-end systems integration of Telecom’s Next Generation Telecom (NGT) retail transformation initiative, Mr C.P. Gurnani, President (International Operations) of Tech Mahindra, told Business Line in a telephonic chat from New Zealand.

The NGT programme is expected to run for a number of years, with customers starting to see new products and services within two years, according to a joint press release issued on Monday.

According to Wikipedia, Wellington-based Telecom is the second largest mobile operator in the island nation of New Zealand. It provides the full range of Internet, data, voice, mobile and fixed-line services throughout New Zealand and Australia. It is also the largest company by value on the New Zealand Exchange.

“With this partnership in place, we intend to create a significant change; among other things, our aim is to achieve low cost points for our services and to differentiate on customer experience,” said Mr Pawel Grochowicz, General Manager of retail transformation, for Telecom New Zealand. 

The company is currently in the process of spending NZ$1 billion a year on communication networks and Internet-based services.

In this deal, however, there will not be any transfer of employees from Telecom to the Indian company’s fold.

“We will meet the manpower requirements for the deal by hiring into Tech Mahindra in New Zealand,” said Mr Gurnani.

Tech Mahindra, which is the country’s sixth largest IT exporter according to industry body Nasscom, has been working on smaller scale technology projects in New Zealand for about a year now. However, this is the largest engagement bagged by Tech Mahindra in the island country till date, said Mr Gurnani. 

Tracking the development, the Tech Mahindra scrip hit an intra-day high of Rs 767, before closing at Rs 761.8, around 0.94 per cent higher than the previous day’s close on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Big cut in Premji’s annual pay packet        
June 24, 2008 
SOURCE: Google

Bangalore, Wipro’s Chairman, Mr Azim Premji, settled for a lower pay packet for the year ended March 2008. Details published in Wipro’s annual report 2007-08 show that his remuneration for the fiscal dipped 63 per cent to Rs 1.31 crore compared with Rs 3.58 crore he received the previous year.

A significant portion of the chop came on the commission component of the salary, which dipped nearly Rs 1.9 crore for the year endd March 2008 to Rs 51.07 lakh. 

In the previous year, Mr Premji received a whopping Rs 2.4 crore under the same head.

The report says the Board Governance and Compensation Committee recommends the remuneration, including the commission for the Chairman and Managing Director, based on the net profit of the company.

The company’s net profit rose about 12 per cent to Rs 3,283 crore for the year ended March 2008 compared with Rs 2,942 crore for the previous year. For Mr Premji, deferred benefits, too, have seen a slump from Rs 47 lakh in fiscal year 2006-07 to Rs 16.76 lakh in 2007-08. 

Other annual compensation for 2007-08 was Rs 20.54 lakh compared with Rs 27.87 lakh in the previous period. The basic salary, however, remained at Rs 30 lakh as did allowances at Rs 13.1 lakh.

It is not yet clear if this fall in pay packages is an indication of the toughening environment for IT services. 

The US, from which India gets a good chunk of its IT services revenues, is undergoing a slowdown that most IT honchos hope would end by September this year. 

Interestingly, recent media reports have quoted the two new joint-CEOs of Wipro Technologies, Mr Girish S. Paranjpe and Mr Suresh Vaswani, as saying that the slowdown in the US is coming to an end and that clients are beginning to decide on new projects.

Earlier this month, India’s largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services, revealed that it had rejigged its chief’s pay package. Mr S. Ramadorai, CEO, TCS, saw the fixed component of his pay come down by Rs 4.1 crore to Rs 1.29 crore. 

Meanwhile, the variable component shot up 30 per cent to Rs 2.08 crore from Rs 1.6 crore.