Last week's deal between HCL Technologies and Novartis ($NVS) cemented the Indian company's position as a major player in the Big Pharma IT services sector. Yet competition among the Indian IT giants is fierce, and this week Wipro ($WIT) struck back by winning a $400 million contract to manage Takeda's infrastructure.
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| Wipro campus |
Takeda inked the deal to consolidate its operations, with Wipro becoming its primary provider of IT infrastructure management services. The infrastructure network covers data centers in Asia, Europe and the Americas which support the work of 30,000 users. Wipro is tasked with building and running a single platform for all of Takeda's global IT processes and architecture. With drugmakers managing increasingly complex and sprawling IT networks, such a platform could simplify operations.
For Wipro, the deal is a significant step in its efforts to grow annual sales at its healthcare unit to $1 billion within the next two years. "We are thrilled to partner with Takeda and it has many firsts for the company. From Continental Europe and Japan standpoint, it is the largest," Sangita Singh, chief executive of Wipro's life science unit, told The Economic Times. Wipro reportedly faced competition for the contract from global companies including Accenture ($ACN) and IBM ($IBM), as well as local rivals.
Neither Takeda nor Wipro has disclosed the length of the deal, but Livemint notes that 5 to 10 years is typical for similar contracts. HCL Technologies' deal with Merck ($MRK), for example, is worth $500 million and runs for 5 years.
- read the Economic Times article
- here's Livemint's take
- and Wipro's release