Infosys – The story of 30 year journey!

It was a middle-class Indian’s dream and today after 30 years, Infosys has changed the way people look at India. Seven Indian men took the risk to think out of the box and it paid off. Thirty years on, Infosys is India’s most reputed company and is one of the best known brands in the global market.

On this day, NR Narayan Murthy and his six colleagues who worked with Patni Computer Systems, started Infosys Technologies in Pune with a meagre capital of Rs 10,000.

Infosys is synonymous with India’s IT growth. The main aim was to provide a world-class work environment and put India on the global map. The entrepreneurial dream of Narayan Murthy saw its first result in 1987, when the company signed a joint venture with Kurt Salmon Associates in US.

Major milestones in their 30-year-old journey:

2010

Infosys voted as the ‘Best Managed Company’ in India by Finance Asia

2009

Employee strength grew to over 1,00,000

2008

Revenues crossed USD 4.18 billion

2007

Reported Q2 revenue of over USD 1 billion. Annual revenues crossed USD 3 billion

2006

N. R. Narayana Murthy retired from the services of the company on turning 60.

Infosys celebrated 25 years. Revenues crossed USD 2 billion

Progeon was re-christened as Infosys BPO Ltd, effective 29 August 2006.

2005

Won the Global – Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) award

2004

Infosys Technologies became the first Indian listed software company to have a net profit of Rs 1,000 crore or more.

2003

Subsidiaries established in China and Australia

2002

Nandan M. Nilekani took over as CEO

2001

Offices opened in UAE and Argentina and a development centre in Japan

2000

Opened offices in France and Hong Kong, a global development center in Canada and UK and three development centers in the US

1999

Infosys was listed on NASDAQ

1993

Infosys got listed on BSE on June 14, 1993

1987

First international office at Boston, US

Infosys wanted to make an impact in the American market. The same year, the company opened its office in Boston. However in 1988, their KSA joint venture collapsed and Murthy and his associates were left in the lurch. During this period, one of their founding partners Ashok Arora, quit the company to join as a consultant in the US. But Murthy didn’t lose hope. His team continued with their struggle.

Their initial foray into US was through their first client Data Basics Corp. Then there was no looking back. The company went public in 1993 and introduced employee stock option. On the opening day itself, it was traded at Rs 115, though it was listed at Rs 95.

By then, it had started expanding its operations in US. Even today Infosys is the largest publicly traded IT services exporter in India, providing services to 315 large corporations, such as GE and Nortel, predominantly in the USA.

By the late 90s, it started expanding its operations in UK, Europe and Canada. In 1999, it became the first Indian company to be listed in Nasdaq. By this time, it started looking at options in the industry. It launched its business consulting services.

The Y2K fear had gripped the world by now. But Infosys was growing strong and its revenues touched $200mn in 2000 as India was now turning to be the IT hub.

Major acquisitions and partnerships

2010

Infosys Technologies chosen to manage Microsoft’s Internal IT Services

2009

Telstra selected Infosys as a key partner to support its five-year $450 million AUD application development and maintenance contracts.

2008

BBVA and Finacle from Infosys signed a Strategic Global Partnership.

2007

The company bought three of the service centers of Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics NV for $28 million.

2005

Infosys signed five-year global IT deal with ABN AMRO.

By then, Narayan Murthy had become a renowned entrepreneur and was listed among Time Magazine/CNN’s 25 most influential businessmen in the world.

Infosys became a household name and it was a dream for every youngster to be part of the global software giant. It was the most admired company in India – India’s pride.

In 2002, it was time for Murthy to step down as CEO and hand over the responsibility to Nandan Nilekani (one of the founding members). The team of seven was now reduced to five. But Murthy ensured he continued to be a mentor to his team.

Infosys knew it had to spread its wings and in 2003, it went on with its first major acquisition. It acquired Infosys Export Info services in Australia.

In 2005, it signed a landmark IT deal with ABN AMRO bank, which was considered as a key step to enter and expand its portfolio. It continued to expand its operations and ventured into BPO services and bought US firm McCamish systems. It also signed a major five-year deal with T-Mobile in UK.

In 2006, Nilekani stepped down to pave way to Kris Gopalakrishnan. Under Nilekani, the company aggressively went on acquiring or tying up with firms across the globe.

The government of India noticing his capabilities roped him to head the Unique Identity project. Due to this commitment, Nilekani sold all his shares and resigned from all the responsibilities he was handling in Infosys.

Today, the company stands tall with 1.13 lakh employees. That said, with founders still dominating the top rung, experts say it is time for the company to choose its successor to continue its success story.