The Bangalore-based company has enlisted options which includes increasing offshoring components in the contracts, opening local development in the same time zone as the client, to deal with the situation.
Besides, the company is also stepping up local recruitment in clients’ geographies, Chief Executive and Managing Director S D Shibulal said during a conference organised by investment firm Oppenheimer in the US earlier this month.
“We have various options which we have explored. We are also doing some pilots with much higher offshore to see how it will work, but we have not executed on any of the plans.”
Additionally, the company is engaging with its clients to explain to them about the impact that the immigration reforms might have when they are implemented. Shibulal said he had been personally meeting clients and explained to them the “worse case impact if the Bill is exactly the same as what is in the Senate, which I don‘t believe it will be”.
If the Bill becomes a law in its current form, there will be an impact on costs, especially visa costs and minimum labour costs, he added.
The Bill, which has recently been approved by the Senate and has to now come in the House of Representatives, proposes a complete overhaul of the US immigration law. It proposes an additional $5,000 per visa as fees for firms with 30-50 per cent of their workforce on H1-B/L-1 visas and an additional $10,000 per visa for firms with over half of their employees on such visas.
Separately, in an interaction with Phil Fersht of HfS Research, Shibulal said Infosys would become a “local player” in the countries where it operated, especially in the non-English speaking regions such as Germany and France.
“I would like to be more diversified in Mexico, China and other parts of the world. One of the key aspects of our vision is to be global,” he said. “Today, 94 per cent of our workforce is in India. That needs to shift... We will expand our business in Europe and the rest of the world,” he added.
The Indian government is also studying whether the Bill is anti-World Trade Organisation (WTO) compliant with minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid hinting recently at the possibility of taking up the matter at the organisation’s disputes settlement body. In a recent interview to Business Standard, Tata Consultancy Services chief N Chandrasekaran also said that the Bill has some provisions which could be challenging.
"The best way to operate, hence, for us is to work with other companies and meet as many people as possible and explain to them the consequences this bill will have. The issue is not that it will increase cost or affect the business model. The issue is at the end of the day we need enough people to service the end client."
Even as Infosys like other companies looks to increase its presence overseas in the backdrop of the immigration Bill, Shibulal said, there was no need for the company to make any acquisition in its information technology operations. Historically the operations have grown organically and will only look at entering partnerships for future growth, he added.
While the company has been posting satisfactory financial performance for the past two quarters, Shibulal said there was still a need to remain cautious as some internal and external challenges persisted. “I want to see a couple of good quarters before I declare victory.”
