India's second-largest software services exporter Infosys had placed strong emphasis on technology becoming ubiquitous and globalisation of the services industry when it started operations more than three decades ago, co-founder S D Shibulal said on Wednesday.
The over $ 8 billion IT services firm was founded by NR Narayana Murthy, along with Shibulal, S Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani and three other engineers from a flat in Pune with an initial capital of $250.
Technology has been an enabler and has aided in making processes more streamlined and helped to reduce operational costs and time, said Shibulal, who is CEO and Managing Director of the Bangalore-headquartered firm.
"When we started Infosys way back in 1981, we had placed two major bets. One was on technology becoming ubiquitous in the next 30 years and the other was on services industry becoming globalised in 30 years," he said at a CII event here.
Shibulal, who is set to retire in January two months ahead of his superannuation, added that Infosys manages about 6,000 programmes across the globe and this operation has been possible due to technology.
"For technology to flourish, there are some requirements like the need for innovation and a mindset for technology adoption," he said.
Expressing similar views, Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said technology can help enterprises reduce costs and enhance user productivity.
Infosys Head India Business Unit C N Raghupathi said for the manufacturing sector, the key areas to focus on include new product innovation and faster time-to-market and optimisation of costs.
A joint CII-PwC report on unlocking the transformational value of Indian industry with technology was also released.
The report says Indian CEOs are counting on domestic demand as well as their ability to deliver profitable growth in India and abroad.
They are also aware of the huge market potential that India's middle class and the 'emerging middle' that lies just below are creating for them, it added.
"About 80 per cent of Indian CEOs are saying that technology will be a key driver for business transformation in five years," PwC Executive Director/Partner and Technology Consulting Leader Debdas Sen said.
Apart from Social, Mobility, Cloud and Analytics (SMAC) technologies, cyber security will play a crucial role in this direction, he added.
