Wipro Infotech?India and West Asia business of Wipro Technologies?is eyeing information technology contracts from private insurance companies in India, a top official said.
Wipro Technologies is the IT services business of Wipro. ?Private insurance companies are looking at it (outsourcing). We have started talking to them about it,” said Anand Sankaran, senior vice-president and business head, Wipro Infotech.
The contracts could be finalised in the next 12 months and are likely to be integrated deals comprising business process outsourcing as well as information technology services, Sankaran said.
He, however, declined to comment on the deal sizes.
?It’s too early to say how things will pan out. Lot of people are looking at options, talking to technology vendors, seeing what suits them best. It’s early days still,? he said. He also declined to name companies Wipro is in talks with.
In its latest draft guidelines on outsourcing activities for insurance companies, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority said insurers can outsource human resource services, pay roll management, tele-marketing, call centre for registering complaints or answering enquiries among other services.
Potential for business growth from the insurance sector is strong for software companies, Sankaran said. ?For technology vendors, the insurance sector in India at present is similar to what the telecom sector was three to five years ago,? he said.
In the past couple of years, Wipro Infotech has won big-ticket deals from mobile services providers. In 2008, the company won a nine-year integrated outsourcing deal from Aircel. It won another large nine-year deal from Uninor in 2009. In 2010-11 (April-June), Wipro Infotech aims to grow 50% faster than the Indian market, which is growing at 15-17%, he said.