In an indication of growing Japanese aggression in the
global IT services landscape, the $120 billion NTT Group is consolidating all its technology services holdings under one brand - NTT Data.
Collectively, NTT Data, which has integrated six companies under one umbrella, generates $14 billion in revenues. This propels the Japanese firm into the
top 10 global IT services league. The six companies, all acquired by NTT group over a period of time, include Keane, Intelligroup, MISI, The Revere Group, Vertex and AgileNet.
The official announcement is expected on Tuesday.
The integration under the common brand has several implications. It means more competition for established players such as IBM and Accenture who now have to deal with a giant that never existed before. The six companies under NTT Data could reap the benefits of a much bigger scale. As a standalone entity, Keane had little presence in Europe, for instance. The consolidation would now allow NTT Data to play in all geographies.
The integration also opens up larger system integration deals for the Japanese company while helping it tide past the current economic climate. Global enterprises are looking to consolidate IT vendors and more work may be shifting to larger players who can offer lower price to the customer in exchange for greater volumes of work.
"From a customer's perspective it opens up the portfolio of services and capabilities significantly than in the past. It will also help us compete more aggressively on global deals. Our qualifications and resources globally are second to none," president and CEO of NTT Data John McCain told
Business Today during an interaction in Bangalore.
NTT Data, however, does not have significant offshore capability just as yet. It employs 57,000 globally, just 10,000 of them are in India. Over time, the firm would need to boost its India delivery capabilities to boost its offshoring advantage.
IBM, the No. 1 IT services company in the world, has more than 100,000 employees in India and in the cafes of India's IT corridor in Bangalore, is popularly referred to as 'India Business Machines'.
Other top Japanese IT services firms include Fujitsu and Hitachi.
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