HCL Infosystems revenues rise 40%

Indian computer maker and technology services provider HCL Infosystems Middle East and Africa has posted a revenue increase of 40 per cent in the 2010-11 fiscal year to $31.74 million as enterprise-related IT spending makes a gradual comeback. "Things are coming back to normal in MEA and we see a lot of growth opportunities in IT consolidation. Everybody is looking to trim IT costs and that's where we are looking while partnering with large organisations," Shivkumar Gopal," CEO of HCL Infosystems Middle East and Africa, told Gulf News. HCL made an entry into the Middle East with the acquisition of a 60 per cent stake in Dubai-based NTS Group for about $6.5 million in July last year. The growth in revenue, he said, "is attributed to our unique solutions offerings and more focus on domain based knowledge." Article continues below He said 85 per cent of its revenues come from the UAE and the remainder from the Middle East. "Going forward, our intention is to grow around 25-30 per cent this fiscal year." Expansion strategy Growth this year will be due to the regional expansion strategy and an increase in market share in new geographical areas. "Strong growth areas include telecom, airline, banking and e-government and we expect to grow with more horizontal spread within these sectors in the coming year too." He said the last quarter was a little slow. "Overall things are taking a good turn with our strategy of regional expansion. Emerging markets are unfazed by the financial downturn, though some contraction did take place in the growth of IT services. "They are now in recovery mode and the increased spending is coming from the telecom, banking, financial services, insurance and power industries. "I am very optimistic about the IT industry outlook for this fiscal year. We see a lot of growth opportunities in IT consolidation, security, data centres and disaster recovery, managed services and applications catering to various verticals," Gopal said. The firm added 25 new clients in the Middle East last year. We now have offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia through partners, and we plan to open offices in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Turkey this year. HCL Infosystems follows the July-June financial year.