Blue Star Infotech chief executive officer and managing director, Sunil Bhatia is confident that the company will deliver above industry growth rate in the coming quarters. He is also hopeful that strong growth in the profit for recently concluded quarter is sustainable in the long run.
In an interview with Sourabh Pandhare, Sunil Bhatia said, "We have a strong focus on both top line as well as bottom line growth. We have already built a strong foundation - long standing customer relationships, high-value strategic accounts, ready to market IP solutions and frameworks, robust internal teams."
Interview Excerpts:
1. Improved margin helped the company to substantial increase in Q1 net profit. Going forward, do you think growth in profit would be sustainable?
Yes, the growth in profit is sustainable in the long run. We have a strong focus for bottom line growth. There are multiple factors which contributed to this remarkable profit growth such as improvement in quality of accounts and change in revenue mix leading to good margins, closing down un-remunerative businesses over a period of time which were eroding the bottom line, and streamlining internal processes which brought down operational costs, increased efficiency and automation measures.
2. Blue Star Infotech recorded a 15.2% growth in revenues. What is your growth expectations for FY16?
We are confident of delivering above industry growth rate in the coming quarters as well. We have a strong focus on both top line as well as bottom line growth. We have already built a strong foundation - long standing customer relationships, high-value strategic accounts, ready to market IP solutions and frameworks, robust internal teams - and all of these backed by a strong management team. Our strategy is on the right track and we are fast moving up the value chain to be a solutions-driven, customer-centric organisation.
3. Blue Star Infotech won USD 15 million deal in the last quarter. The company is focusing on developing strategic large accounts. Currently, how many large accounts company is handling? How many more clients you expect to add by end of current fiscal and in which revenue bracket?
As a strategy we are focusing on existing large customers, we have developed an action plan to further mine these accounts by actively engaging with the clients, understanding their current and potential challenges, and providing them high value quality services. We played this strategy successfully last year and made significant inroads into some accounts.
4. How to see contribution from digital transformation and automation segments? Do you think these two segments will be growth driver in future?
Digital is the new mantra and it is expected that the future of the technology industry will be shaped by the digital forces. These disruptive forces have changed the way organizations operate and interact with their consumers. Organizations today are seeking technology partners who can help them stay relevant. Rapid up-scaling of capabilities around emerging technologies is the need of the day. Businesses are left with no choice - either adopt, transform themselves and gain the competitive advantage, or to sink into oblivion.
5. Majority of company's revenues earned from exports. With the government's Digital India initiative, how do you see demand for IT services domestically? Do you have any plans to play role in this initiative?
The domestic economy is stable and positive and the new government’s vision of a technology-enabled India is expected to further boost growth prospects in the Indian IT market.
Currently, we don't have focus on e-Governance but are in a wait-and-watch mode. We are closely inspecting how the market will evolve in the near future, and then take a decision to invest our resources into it.
