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Growth through transformational partnerships

How is Consulting & Systems Integration relevant in the Infosys 3.0 journey?

As part of Infosys 3.0, we have aligned our strategy and consulting capability to build value for clients and to simplify and accelerate our leadership in this area. From the clients' perspective, they get a better return on their investment from us because they get better strategic thinking aligned to the technology implementation and they get it in a way that is delivered at a lower cost. This provides a higher value alternative to our clients and translates to our growth and margins. Over the years, we have aggressively built Consulting & Systems Integration in a model that used optimally distributed global talent, and we have institutionalized a rigorous value-based model for all our engagements.

What sets apart Infosys from other companies in the Consulting & Systems Integration space?

Like other top consulting firms, we offer a full range of services, from strategy to process design and implementation. However, we felt there was a fundamental problem in the profession that resulted in a track record of high-cost engagements that failed to achieve business objectives 50% of the time. So we decided to redefine the way the profession would operate. Fundamentally, we do consulting engagements differently in three specific ways.

First, we focus all actions of every engagement on the creation of shareholder value and customer value for our clients. Our consultants are consistently creating business value, regardless of their role in the engagement, strategic or technical.

Second, we do engagements in an optimized global manner. Work that needs to be done closest to the customer location is done onsite. Rest of the work is done at our global development centers including India to provide cost efficiency for our clients. This results in cost-optimized engagements.

Third, we employ professionals in our consulting organization who are smart, experienced and have global and local exposure. The vast majority of our onsite consultants have advanced degrees and many years of industry experience.

The overall results of these differences are successful business outcomes for our clients, cost-optimized engagements and a fast-growing capability for us.

What were the challenges in creating this new model?

Moving from a tech-heavy business model to a balanced consulting and IT services business model presented multi-dimensional challenges in brand, culture, policies, processes, professional development, performance management and client relationships. Over the last nine years, we have worked hard on these challenges and are proud of the progress we have made. We often discuss transformations of companies with our clients and we can relate first-hand to what it takes. This has helped us listen better to client challenges in their transformation journeys. All this hard work is paying off. We believe we have changed the consulting profession for the better and have raised clients' expectations on business value and cost-effectiveness.

What path did you choose to grow Consulting & Systems Integration?

We understood from the start that changing Infosys from a technology leader to a consulting and IT services leader was going to be a challenging transformation. We chose a strategy of incubation, coordination and then integration. We first created a subsidiary, Infosys Consulting Inc., and gave it the freedom to incubate leading consulting practices and culture. During these early days, we hired the core leadership team and challenged them to break new ground and build the best consulting team, intellectual property, and business practices. We then scaled this model in close coordination with the Enterprise Solutions and Systems Integration practices.

In fiscal 2012, we integrated these practices into Consulting & Systems Integration. We had established enough scale and internal reputation to make this integration possible, while retaining and expanding the best ideas to create an even stronger unified team.

What have been the results from our Consulting & Systems Integration practice?

The results of which we are most proud are the tremendous legacies of business value we have generated for our clients. This is central to advancing towards our aim of becoming a globally respected corporation. We have helped many clients become competitive and innovative. Additionally, we have grown a new business for Infosys to over US $2 billion in revenue and over 26,000 people.

What is the impact of Consulting & Systems Integration on our growth?

If you look at the revenue mix of Consulting & Systems Integration, it is fairly evenly distributed among the four main verticals of Infosys. We are still a little Americas heavy; we are focusing on growing Europe and the Rest of the World. Management Consulting Services (MCS) really drives a lot of the other revenue and the way we go to market, or the way we deliver as an integrated Consulting & Systems Integration unit.

What is your vision for Consulting & Systems Integration?

Our driving vision is to become the most respected Consulting & Systems Integration firm in the world. Specifically, we want to be the most respected firm for the business value we generate for clients for every dollar, euro, or pound invested in a consulting engagement. We also want to be the most respected as the best place to work for top Consulting & Systems Integration talent. Finally, we want to be most respected for our growth and profitability – the most successful business model in our space. This success will allow us to invest further in our client relationships, our people, and our market offerings.

Stephen Pratt

Senior Vice President and Global Head of Consulting & Systems Integration

We believe we have changed the consulting profession for the better and have raised clients' expectations on business value and cost-effectiveness.

Infosys – P&G : Investing in strategic partnerships


The partnership between Infosys and Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) began in 2007. In five years, the relationship has grown through execution of top priority transformation programs, the creation of new-to-the-industry services and co-creation of innovation for mutual business success. As we look back, some important principles of success stand out.

Top- to- top commitment to success

Strategic partnerships are founded on long-term goals. The relationship is guided by senior executives across the hierarchy of both companies, starting with Filippo Passerini, Group President, Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer P&G, and S. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Limited. We have a common plan for success and shared measures. These are reviewed regularly for progress, including twice a year by Passerini and Gopalakrishnan.

Execution excellence of large-scale transformation programs

Over the last five years, Infosys has successfully executed multiple business critical programs. These include transformation and migration of P&G's Order Shipping Billing processes in North America and Western Europe to SAP, integration of Wella PPC – an acquisition and one of the industry's most far reaching Enterprise Information Management programs. The award of each program had to be earned on value and capability. Entrusting these programs, especially since these ran in parallel for a while, reflects the confidence P&G has in Infosys.

Co-create, innovate and invest in mutual success

Sharing business risks together distinguishes a strategic partnership from a successful one. Infosys has created new-to-the-industry shared services for P&G such as Master Data, Business Reporting and Trade Promotions. The success of these services addresses P&G's business needs, but Infosys' ability to commercialize these with P&G support takes the relationship to the next level.

Creating new business models

Developing and Emerging Markets is of strategic priority to Infosys and P&G. Infosys has invested in building its TradeEdge™ platform for P&G. The platform accelerates profitable growth for companies that work with distributors. While P&G got the benefit of Infosys' investment, the platform created a new revenue service for Infosys, proven and supported by P&G. With this approach, P&G expects and gets the benefit of being the credible first customer of innovation from its partner.

Best talent for value creation

Top partner talent is required to manage such opportunities and partner with an industry leader like P&G. Infosys makes its top talent available to P&G for various programs and operations.

Our partnership with P&G ensures mutual win. As a testimony to the progress of the partnership, P&G recently awarded Infosys with its Business Partner of the Year 2011 award. Infosys was one of the six partners from P&G's ecosystem of over 70,000 global partners, to receive this award. We look forward to our sustained success together.