PRTM and Infosys survey finds growing interest but decreasing satisfaction in Collaborative Development

Attendees at a recent seminar for senior executives, "Collaborative Product Development: Making the Partnership Work," indicated through a survey conducted during the event that they see enormous potential in collaborating with strategic partners. The seminar, led by Dr. Christopher Meyer of the California Institute of Technology's Industrial Relation Center and sponsored by PRTM and Infosys Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: INFY), addressed the fundamentals of collaborative development, from strategies for partner selection to maintaining effective relationships, as well as best practices and methods for success.

Dr. Meyer, a recognized leader in designing performance management systems that emphasize creativity balanced with managerial control and author of "Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy and Structure for Speed," presented the risks and realities of partnerships. Seminar attendees were industry leaders seeking ways to form partnerships to co-develop core products, extend development resources and improve time-to-market. Designed to examine architectural elements behind profitable partnering, the seminar offered case examples for establishing and executing such partnerships, as well as a panel discussion with leading industry executives who have effectively implemented collaborative product development.

"The group discussion illuminated real-world examples of the value collaborative development delivers for companies like TIBCO, and introduced participants to best practices for rapid and successful implementation of collaborative development," said panel member Jayesh Shah of TIBCO Software Inc.

"While businesses have recognized that strategic partnerships can provide a viable alternative to the traditional vertically integrated organization, they are not by any means easy or foolproof," said Ed Yu, director of PRTM and a presenter at the seminar. "Delivering on partnerships as an organizational competency is still relatively new, and the complexities involved can often cause the best laid plans to under-perform."

PRTM/INFOSYS

Responses to the survey showed a significant planned increase in companies' reliance on strategic development partnerships. Among the other findings:

• One-half of respondents anticipate that more than 40 percent of development projects in 2004 will involve a strategic partner.
• Despite clear indications of the growing importance of cross-company collaboration, companies are generally not satisfied with the performance of collaborations to date. More than 80 percent indicated that they are either "not satisfied" or "unsatisfied" with overall co-development efforts.
• In categorizing the level of impact of ten common co-development issues, the top concern was a poor foundation for collaboration, defined in the survey as "weak strategic linkage, misaligned expectations and inadequate trust." Ineffective executive leadership and program management problems also ranked as major issues.
• Only eight percent of respondents have an explicit co-development strategy that considers business needs, core competencies and value-add in delivering solutions, and just 13 percent of companies have a culture that supports deep collaboration. These results indicate that most companies seem to have a long road ahead in creating a strategy and culture enabling them to reap the benefits of co-development.
• Aligned development processes and well-integrated, cross-company project teams are seen as particularly important practices. However, the fact that only one-half of companies in the survey appear to have any level of formal implementation of these two key practices, and that for other important practices the degree of deployment is even lower, suggests that best practices are not yet firmly established. Spotty deployment of practices believed to be important seems to provide some explanation for the dissatisfaction many have with co-development performance.
• While only nine percent of companies are fully satisfied with their current set of information technology (IT) tools, implementation of advanced tools is picking up and will likely accelerate dramatically in the next five years. Further, those that are satisfied with their IT tools are much more likely to have already invested in one or more advanced solutions, such as collaborative design software.

"Clearly, the survey results show that interest in co-development is increasing," said Basab Pradhan, senior vice president and head of worldwide sales for Infosys. "Companies realize that the benefits of leveraging the extended value chain as they deliver solutions to customers are compelling, but in order to be successful, new strategies, practices and IT systems are required."

To promote such success, attendees were provided with the answers to some critical questions, such as how to select the appropriate product development model; how to integrate internal and external teams and maintain control over projects; and what kinds of changes can be expected within the organization in order to make collaboration work. In addition, they were able to come away with the ten most important steps necessary for successful co-development. (Complete results of the survey may be accessed at http://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Documents/2003/PRTM-InfosysCo-DevSurveyv2.pdf.)

About PRTM

Founded in 1976, PRTM (www.prtm.com ) is a global management consultancy partnering with companies in the technology, consumer products, government, and energy sectors for greater performance. Valued highly for our results orientation, we help companies develop and execute their strategies for higher productivity and profitability. PRTM is noted for its leadership in product development and supply chain management, having developed many of the methodologies and frameworks used by leading companies today, including Product And Cycle-time Excellence®, the Supply Chain Operations Reference-model (adopted by the Supply-Chain Council), and Channel Opportunity Analysis®. We can measure a company's performance through our benchmarking subsidiary, pmgbenchmarking.com, then facilitate the changes needed in that firm's organization, business processes, strategy, and systems to close the gap between its performance and that of best in class. PRTM has 14 offices in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and 400 employees worldwide

About Infosys Technologies Ltd.(Nasdaq: INFY)

Infosys, a world leader in consulting and information technology services, partners with Global 2000 companies to provide business consulting, systems integration, application development and product engineering services. Through these services, Infosys enables its clients to fully exploit technology for business transformation. Clients leverage Infosys' Global Delivery Model to achieve higher quality, rapid time-to-market and cost-effective solutions. Infosys has approximately 13,000 employees in over 30 offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.infosys.com.

Safe Harbor Provision

Certain statements in this release concerning Infosys' future growth prospects are forward-looking statements which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002 and the Quarterly Reports on Form 6-K for the fiscal quarters ended June 30, 2002, September 30, 2002 and December 31, 2002. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company.

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