Mid-sized IT services company MphasiS which has been trying to grow its direct sales channel for the past few quarters, is now going all out to woo its largest client Hewlett Packard (HP). HP which is also the promoter of the Bangalore-based company contributes close to 10% to the total revenues of MphasiS, as a client. However, in the just-ended financial quarter, revenues from HP as a client declined by 0.7 percent (net of Rupee depreciation, it fell 4%) to Rs 643.7 crore.
Ganesh Ayyar, MphasiS's CEO said the company is treating its promoter just like a large client without “thinking about this parent and child relationship”. He also said that the company has started focussing on areas like data, analytics and mobility to stay relevant to HP.
“We are continuously thinking about how do we bring some new value to them (HP) to do more business with them. We want to work with them in areas that they want to grow in,” Ayyar told Business Standard. “We have attempted two or three different kinds of things and it hasn’t worked, but we keep trying. HP is a very very important customer to us, and I will go all the distance to woo them,” he added.
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In May-July, the HP channel (both HP as a client as well as the clients HP give to MphasiS as a partner) made for 41% of MphasiS business, lower from 46% in February-April.
To “crack the code” of getting more business from HP, MphasiS has introspected about the reasons for the fall in business, and has also increased its solution offerings and specialisations in areas that Ayyar believes will add value for the client. He however said that tee company would not look at giving a pricing discount to win orders from HP as MphasiS will not give up on “profitable growth”.
“One of the things that people generally talk about is can you lower rates, and that’s the easiest thing to do and that’s something which we haven’t done because we believe in profitable growth. We are approaching them with more solution offerings rather than thinking of price reduction,” Ayyar said.
In its financial third quarter ended July 31, 2013, MphasiS reported 7.7% decline in its net profit at Rs 192.6 crore when compared with the corresponding quarter last year. The company's consolidated net revenue went up 13.6% on-year basis to Rs 1539.8 crore.
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