Wipro turns to government business, hires hands to boost numbers

BENGALURU: Wipro is focusing on growing revenue from its India State Run Enterprises, a business that currently has negative operating margins, by hiring account managers and sales talent, as it looks to tap the central and state governments for growth.The India SRE business provides IT service offerings to entities and departments owned or controlled by the Government of India and the various state governments.For FY19, Wipro reported $123.5 million in revenue from its SRE business and said the segment had an operating margin of -21% for the year. The revenue from this segment is not included in the company’s IT services revenue. “There was a major reorganisation in this business and now the company has decided to invest again. But there will be more selective picking of projects. They are focusing on banks and utilities in the public sector and governments in specific regions such as South India and Western India,” a source with direct knowledge of the company’s plans said.Wipro has Sanjeev Singh to head its India state-run business, while Anand Padmanabhan heads the private enterprises business for the country. Part of the growth plan involves bringing in talent with new account managers to scout for, win and manage government projects. “They are looking to bring in at least 10-15 people with sales and account managing experience,” the source said.A search of professional networking site LinkedIn, shows a slew of job offerings asking for six to 10 years of experience in selling to the governments and public sector businesses and the ability to ‘hunt’ for new customers and ‘farm’ existing accounts.Wipro includes the revenue it gets from the private sector in India in its IT services revenue. The company, however, does not break that revenue out separately.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2Q9Ucn8