Indian Pure Play Internet Professional Services Industry $136 million in 2000: Voice & Data

The Indian pure play Internet Professional Services (IPS) companies,
popularly known as e-biz consultants, did a total business of $136 million in
the year 2000, according to Voice & Data. This is the first time that the
business done by this nascent segment of IT services industry has been
quantified and analysed.

TechSpan, which did a total business worth $67 million, occupies the top slot
among the top pure play IPS company, from India. The magazine, which has
identified the Big Six players, puts Planetasia at No 2 position, with a revenue
of $16 million, followed by MindTree, which closed the year at $15 million. The
other three places in the Big Six are taken by NetAcross ($7.5 million), Plexus
($7 million) and Netkraft ($4 million).

The study, published in the March 20001 issue of Voice & Data, also
analyses the industry terms of revenue and manpower and ranks the players in
terms of diverse parameters such as their revenue from different geographical
markets and types of workforce such as strategy, creative, and technical.

Indian pure play IPS companies still compete largely on price but of late
have been using India’s low cost manpower base to research on e-business
technologies and offer more value to the customers. Also, access to a large pool
of technical manpower is a strength that they project in the US market, says the
magazine.

Most Indian companies charge a much smaller rate than their US counterparts.
However, a comparatively better utilisation rate, thanks again to the ease of
hiring as and when needed, makes their business grow in that market, the study
points out.

The large spate of consolidation that is underway in the US IPS industry is
likely to affect the Indian companies, notes the study. "Many of them,
being smaller companies, will be softer targets for US companies, which are good
in strategy and creative, but want to scale up their technical expertise,"
predicts the magazine.