Wipro Ltd., one of India’s largest software and services companies, has set up operations in Shanghai to offer services to the Chinese operations of its multinational customers.
The focus of Wipro’s Shanghai operation, called Wipro Shanghai Ltd., will be on localization and implementation of packaged software from vendors like SAP AG and Oracle Corp, and IT infrastructure services, rather than on core software development, which will continue to be done from India, according to Masaki Nagao, president of Wipro Japan KK, Wipro’s Japanese subsidiary.
Wipro Shanghai will primarily serve the operations in China of Wipro’s global customers, though down the line Wipro may address the local Chinese market as well, Nagao added. Wipro has so far invested US$200,000 in the Shanghai operation.
Of Wipro’s top 25 customers in Japan, 21 have operations in China, according to Nagao. Some of these customers have requested that Bangalore-based Wipro offer services to their operations in China, Nagao added.
Some of these customers’ Chinese operations were until now being served from Wipro Japan, which employs Chinese, Japanese and Indian staff. Last year, for example, Wipro did a business application implementation at eight locations of Osaka-based Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd, of which four were in China.
Indian software and services companies have made a beeline to China, both to tap the Chinese market, as well as to use China as a base to serve customers in Japan and Korea.
“China is the fastest-growing market for technology and services, especially for the financial services and telecom (markets),” said Kris Gopalakrishnan chief operating officer of Infosys Technologies Ltd., a large software and services company in Bangalore. “It’s natural for us to be there.”
Infosys has set up a 200 staff subsidiary in Pudong, China. “At the initial stages we expect it to serve as a base for our global customers in China as well as to service local Chinese customers,” Gopalakrishnan said.
