Perot Systems expands India operations; offers about 400 jobs
13 Mar 2009
Texas-based IT services and business solutions provider Perot Systems Corp has announced its plan to invest $50-60 million in its new technology campus in Coimbatore.
The 23,617 square-foot facility will be completed in three phases. In the first phase, it will invest $10 million to create a 1,500-seat facility before April 2010, said Vardhman Jain, managing director, Perot Systems insurance and business process solutions group.
The company will build the campus on the 7.3 acres it has in the DLF IT Special Economic Zone in Saravanampatti, 2km from Coimbatore airport.
The new location will accommodate approximately 353 seats across three shifts at its opening, bringing the company's total India-based employees to more than 7,000.
"Currently, we have around 350-400 openings available," he said, adding the attrition rate has come down 'significantly'.
''This is based on the current requirements of existing clients and the number could vary depending on business projections,'' Jain said.
''The services provided from the new facility will include processing highly complex and knowledge intensive, high-volume, high-value transactions for our healthcare provider, healthcare payer, life insurance and F&A clients around the world," Jain added.
"Over 70 per cent of our revenues come from the health care sector," he said, adding the company was likely to enter the China market with services in this sector.
"Our new facility will help us meet growing client demand worldwide for efficient delivery of high-quality services that integrate our IT and BPO best practices. Our expansion in India is an important part of that growth," Anurag Jain, managing director for Perot Systems Asia Pacific, said.
Jain also disclosed that for the first time Perot was exploring business opportunities in India for its hospital solutions.
Perot is already talking with five major hospital chains (500-800 beds) to implement the hospital software and expects to have the first customer in India before June.
While there is no data on the market size, there are five or six large hospital chains that will require large IT implementations. Various state governments are also planning to implement high-end IT implementations in state-run hospitals, he said.
Jain said healthcare, which contributes nearly 47 per cent of Perot's global revenue, was recession proof.
The demand for healthcare solutions is on the rise in the US, and the company's India centres continue to work for global clients.
Rather than large companies, Perot scouts for companies that have $10 to $40 million revenues. The India BPO team at Perot serves over 100 clients globally. The company currently operates facilities in Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Noida.
Perot Systems' last month reported fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $683 million, a decrease of 7 per cent year-on-year over fourth quarter 2007 revenue of $732 million.
For the full year of 2008, revenue was $2.8 billion, an increase of 6 per cent over 2007 revenue of $2.6 billion.
Operating profit margin was 6.9 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2008 and was 6.7 per cent for full year 2008.
Perot Systems has signed total bookings in 2009 of approximately $350 million, including new contracts valued at approximately $200 million.
"2008 was a productive year for our company with accomplishments in all major facets of our business," said Peter Altabef, president and CEO for Perot Systems.
For the first quarter of 2009, Perot Systems expects revenue to range from $635 million to $655 million. The company expects to mitigate the impact of lower revenue in the first quarter through cost management actions.
Perot Systems is the US market leader for providing healthcare IT services and clinical transformation. It provides services in more than 1,000 hospitals and provider settings and approximately 70 health insurance organisations.
Additionally, the company provides IT services to more than 30,000 doctors as members of physician groups.
The company has more than 23,000 associates located in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.
