Beyond Low-Cost Service

Having established themselves as low-cost business-technology service providers, some Indian services companies are looking to become technology vendors. Last week, Infosys Technologies Ltd. said it will develop a resource-management system for British Telecom under a deal that gives Infosys the right to license the technology, based on BT's own research and development, to other customers. The Automated Resource Management System uses artificial intelligence to help businesses automate resource planning, forecasting, and scheduling.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Wipro Technologies said it will license an application it wrote for connecting digital devices to Wind River Systems Inc., a maker of embedded software for digital TVs and set-top boxes. Wind River is licensing Wipro's USB 2.0 host stack under a broader $240 million services agreement. "Offshore firms are no longer interested in simply being low-level service providers," says Technology Business Research analyst Humberto Andrade. "They have the skills, experience, and talent to play in the broader IT market, and we expect to see more of them moving in that direction."