Infosys hives off products business into separate unit

[caption id="attachment_257" align="alignnone" width="207"] Infosys[/caption]

Infosys has hived off its products, platforms and solutions (PPS) business into a wholly-owned subsidiary called Edgeverve Systems. Infosys' board has authorized the company to execute a business transfer agreement and related documents with Edgeverve, subject to securing the requisite approval from shareholders at the annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled on June 14.

"Edgeverve was created to focus on developing and selling products and platforms," said a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Edgeverve is Infosys' 39th subsidiary and was incorporated on February 14 this year. Infosys is said to have appointed Sanjay Purohit as the CEO and Samson David as the COO of the newly-formed subsidiary. Purohit has been heading the products and platforms division since August 2011. Infosys has long been debating whether to keep PPS, which contributes 5.2% of Infosys' $8.2-billion revenues, within the traditional IT services business or make it a separate entity. Unlike the services business where the company works for projects of other companies, in PPS, it has to predict market demand and create products and platforms in anticipation of demand. It also involves development of significant intellectual property to make the products distinct from rival products.

eBiz, India's first government-to-business portal launched

Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced the launch of eBiz, India’s first Government-to-Business (G2B) portal which aims at transforming and developing a conducive business environment in the country.

The portal which has been developed by Infosys in a public-private-partnership model will provide a one-stop shop for providing G2B services to investors and business communities in India. The portal will also help in reducing the delays and complexity in obtaining information and services.

Businesses that are already operating in India or planning to start operations can use the portal to obtain licences, approvals, clearances, no objection certificates, permits and even for filing of returns.

According to Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, the government is committed at fostering the business environment in the country and improving transparency and efficiency leveraging technology.

“eBiz is an important step in this direction and we are pleased to work in partnership with Infosys on this project. We hope this project will become a benchmark for successful public private partnerships in the country,” he added.

Infosys, in 2009, had won the eBiz project after a competitive bidding process. As a part of the project, Infosys apart from developing the portal was also mandated to manage it for some years. The company in turn will charge the user a certain fee for facilitating the service through eBiz platform.

As a part of the 10-year programme, Infosys will roll-out services in a phased manner. In the first year, eBiz will launch 29 services in the five states including Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Over the course of the second and third years, an additional 21 services will be launched and five additional states will be brought under the scope of this project. The project aims at offering more than 200 services from the fourth year onwards.

“We are confident that our prior experience of working with the Income Tax department and our strong consulting and systems integration capabilities will enable us to continue executing the future phases of this project successfully,” said V Balakrishnan, Member of the Board and Head of India Business Unit at Infosys.