Will MindTree foray into China shortly?

Mid-sized software services firm MindTree will be making foray into China, having bagged a significant outsourcing contract from China’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies.

For the Bangalore-headquartered company, China marks new geography entry, besides already having presence in US and Europe. Confirming the development , Parthasarathy N S, CEO, testing & IMTS, MindTree, said, “We will be doing independent testing in the telecom space. This project has different phases and has potential to become large. The contract also allows us to move up the value chain as China has emerged a big growth market”.

However, he declined to name the customer as he is not allowed to do so. The contract deals with R&D and involves managing and supporting independent testing for Huawei’s different product line, where employees of MindTree will do the work at customer location, a person privy to the development said.

“Four companies were bidding for the contract, including an Indian firm and it was given to MindTree after complete evaluation of capabilities ”, the person said on conditions of anonymity. The company, which counts steel-maker Arcelor Mittal, Swedish truckmaker Volvo and insurer AIG among its top customers, will now be opening a subsidiary in China. Mr Parthasarathy said that they have sent techies from its India centres to China and will also look at option of hiring local talent there.

“China is an important market and we are evaluating to set up a development centre, but nothing will be decided till 12-18 months,” said Parthasarathy.

Economic Times