Infosys opens second development centre in Japan

Bangalore: Infosys has opened a second development centre in Japan as it prepared to have a more evenly distributed geographic spread across the globe.

In a statement on Monday, the IT major said its Japanese subsidiary is targeting the local manufacturing clients and accordingly, it has set up an office in Chibu.

Manufacturing sector
“We are aggressively targeting the manufacturing sector in Japan where at present we have 40 clients,” said Mr S.D. Shibulal, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys.

According to Infosys officials, apart from manufacturing, there are clients in financial services and consumer packaged goods sectors. This second development centre in Nagoya (apart from the one in Tokyo) is due to increasing business coming from Infosys’ Japanese clients.

Rising clients' list
In the last two years, the number of clients in Nagoya and Tokyo has gradually increased and the office in Nagoya will focus on addressing these clients’ requirements, as well as pursuing new business opportunities, according to Mr V Sriram, Head - Japan Operations, Infosys.

According to Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, in April, the electronics industry was estimated to be ¥4,162,813 million.

Infosys does not give out revenues from Japan, but reports it as a part of rest of world. In FY12, rest of world posted revenues of Rs 3,554 crore, a 30.5 per cent growth over FY11, which was higher than revenue growth from the US.

Big opportunity
With increasing globalisation, Japanese companies like Sony and others have operations in places like China for manufacturing, which, in turn, throws up a huge opportunity to offer after sales and support services. Indian IT companies are waking up to this opportunity and trying to crack the Japanese code, according to analysts.

“Indian companies have to look at offering services to Japanese markets and establish a toe hold first,” said Mr Sanjoy Sen, senior director at Deloitte.

Last year, Infosys had said that it plans to reduce its exposure to the US market and was looking at a 40:40:20 ratio across the US, Europe and the rest of the world. Currently, it is about 60:30:10, according to company data.