India?s second-largest IT services exporter Infosys Technologies on Wednesday said it would manage internal IT services for software giant Microsoft globally, a deal that announces Infy?s arrival in the global infrastructure management space.
The three-year ?outcome-based pricing? deal will see Infosys providing Microsoft with IT help desk, desk-side services, infrastructure and application support services from multiple global centres. This includes providing IT services for applications, devices and databases in 450 locations across 104 countries.
Infosys did not disclose the value of the deal, but analysts whom FE spoke to said it could be in range of $100-150 million.
?The key aspect of the model (outcome-based pricing) is that we can seamlessly adapt to variations in business demand, while we provide cost predictability, which is critical for most IT organisations in this ?New Normal? economy,? Infosys said.
For Microsoft, the deal means lower expenses, while Infosys gets a big account in a space it has been trying to grow. Infrastructure management accounts for only 7% of the firm?s annual revenues, though it has been a fast-growing service.
?Infosys has not been very strong in the infrastructure outsourcing space. This deal will help them gain momentum here,? said Sabyasachi Satpathy of Tholons, a leading outsourcing advisory firm. Microsoft, he added, can now focus on their core product development and marketing. ?They get a flexible, scalable infrastructure, and moves from a capex model to an opex model. There will be a reduction in their net costs.?
Infosys said the deal would give them an early entry on the latest Microsoft technologies.