Pune to turn Infy's largest manpower base

PUNE: The Queen of the Deccan, Pune, which saw the birth of the Indian infotech giant Infosys in a small flat in 1981, is all set to witness some exciting developments relating to the much-admired company.

Rejecting the all-round pessimism about Pune’s future on the infrastructure front, Infosys has expressed confidence on its expansion plans for Pune and is marching on to create a seating capacity for 20,000-plus employees here by 2008.

This will make the Pune operations the largest manpower base for Infosys, the company’s new CEO and MD S Gopalakrishnan said.

The $3 billion-plus company which has 14,000 employees at its Pune Development Centre (PDC) has so far invested Rs 723 crore here. As of June 2007, Infosys had a total headcount of 75,971 employees, of which, 18,490 were based in Bangalore where it is headquartered.

Gopalkrishnan said while Pune was likely to emerge as the largest Infosys centre in terms of people, the Mysore campus would be the largest in terms of size with about 375 acres. The PDC was established in 1996 and occupies two sprawling campuses spread over 138 acres.

With nine software development blocks, a customer care and support services block and other facilities, the development centre offers key services in areas such as domain consulting, technical consulting, infrastructure management, system integration and enterprise application integration among others. The Pune DC services customers in sectors such as banking, insurance, financial services, logistics, manufacturing and healthcare.

Speaking amidst massive infrastructure development at its phase-II campus in the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park at Hinjawadi, Pune, Infosys CEO said he was not overly worried about the infrastructural woes of Pune, which were common to most cities in the country.

While the government certainly needs to make investments to provide better air-connectivity, public transport and roads, Pune has many positives that have enabled sustained growth for Infosys, he said. “The environment and the work culture is very positive here. The government created this IT park; when we outgrew, they created phase-II. So, support from the government is very important,” he said.

Emphasising on ensuring sustainable growth for Pune, he said, “If employees don’t feel this is a good city to live in, they will move out and business will follow. People are becoming highly conscious of the quality of life and cities are now competing in attracting employees.”

Both, Gopalkrishnan and Priti Rao, head of Infosys’ PDC, said the availability of a large talent pool from Pune and Mumbai, good educational and residential facilities, land availability for expansion and manageable attrition rates were factors that went in Pune’s favour.

Original Story

Soon Pune gonna overtake B'lore

BANGALORE: The biggest work campus of tech giants Infosys and Wipro will soon be outside Bangalore, their home turf. Pune is set to overtake Bangalore as the largest single unit campus (SUC) for Infosys by 2008-end, while in the case of Wipro, it is Pune, Chennai or Hyderabad that may eclipse the headquarters in the next 2-3 years. Already, 70 per cent Wipro’s employee billings are outside of Bangalore.

The latest infrastructure data from Infosys shows that as of June 30, 2007, the company is looking at adding about 34,049 seats across a built-up area of 10.56 million sq ft in India and Mauritius in the near future. Out of this, 14,400 seats are based in Pune with a proposed built-up area of 2.7 million sq ft.

With current capacity in Pune being 9,181 seats in a built-up area of 1.4 million sq ft, total capacity in Pune by end of 2008 will be about 23,581 seats. While in Bangalore, the company has 20,715 seats currently, it plans to add another 2,330 seats in the same timeframe. This puts total seat capacity in Infy’s headquarters at 23,045 seats, marginally less than Pune.

Stating that the Pune centre will see expansion completed by end of this fiscal or latest by next, Infosys director-HRD T V Mohandas Pai said: “The procedural delays, especially in acquiring land, have forced us to look at other centres where the governments are more proactive like in Maharasthra and Rajasthan.’’

Wipro executive vice president-HR Pratik Kumar agrees, saying that the reason why Wipro is looking at other centres is ‘space constraint’. “We have got zero expansion capacity in Bangalore, what choices do we have,” he asks, adding “I believe the city still has the best talent but there is no space.”

Wipro employs between 15,000 and 17,000 people in India’s tech capital, which accounts for 21-24 per cent of total employee strength of 71,137. But, according to Mr Kumar, “For the last five quarters, almost 70 per cent of our billing growth has come from outside Bangalore.”

He said, “We will continue to expand wherever there is availability of infrastructure and land.” However, Bangalore will remain its biggest campus at least in the near term, he said, though the scenario will change in three years.

However, Karnataka IT secretary M N Vidyashankar said, “There is more demand for developed space in Bangalore which is available in plenty. However if the firm wants to build a single unit complex (SUC), then they need land in hundreds. If there is demand, then we can acquire land for them.”

Procedural delays in land acquisition has been a major grouse of the IT industry in Bangalore. And expansion into other cities has become passe but having another centre overtake its headquarters in terms of headcount and capacity is the surprise. Mr Pai adds, “The IT industry in Bangalore adds about a lakh jobs per year. Even with a bit of delay, the state tends to lose about 25,000 jobs in a quarter.’’

Elliptical Spaceship Buildings in Infosys Pune

Infosys Technologies is expanding in Pune. The company will be opening the first of its two new buildings at Hinjewadi that resemble spaceships on Tuesday. Infosys director and CFO T V Mohandas Pai will be present for the function that also marks the celebration of the 11,000 headcount in Pune.

Designed by Hafeez Contractor and constructed on 1.5 million sq ft,the five-storeyed building will accommodate around 2,000-odd techies. Together, the two buildings will have around 3,500 professionals.

“Infosys is known for its innovation. This is just another attempt to bring in an element of novelty,” said Priti Rao, senior VP and head of the Pune development centre. She was speaking about the elliptical shape chosen by the company for the new buildings.

Full story