Inventory Is a List for Goods and Materials, Or Those Goods and Materials Themselves, Held Available in Stock by a Business. It

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Inventory is a list for goods and materials, or those goods and materials themselves, held available in stock by a business. It is also used for a list of the contents of a household and for a list for testamentary purposes of the possessions of someone who has died. In accounting inventory is considered an asset. In business management, inventory consists of a list of goods and materials held available in stock.

The reasons for keeping stock There are three basic reasons for keeping an inventory:

1. Time - The time lags present in the supply chain, from supplier to user at every stage, requires that you maintain certain amounts of inventory to use in this "lead time." 2. Uncertainty - Inventories are maintained as buffers to meet uncertainties in demand, supply and movements of goods. 3. Economies of scale - Ideal condition of "one unit at a time at a place where a user needs it, when he needs it" principle tends to incur lots of costs in terms of logistics. So bulk buying, movement and storing brings in economies of scale, thus inventory.

All these stock reasons can apply to any owner or product stage.

. Buffer stock is held in individual workstations against the possibility that the upstream workstation may be a little delayed in long setup or change over time. This stock is then used while that changeover is happening. This stock can be eliminated by tools like SMED.

These classifications apply along the whole Supply chain, not just within a facility or plant. [Type text]

Where these stocks contain the same or similar items, it is often the work practice to hold all these stocks mixed together before or after the sub-process to which they relate. This 'reduces' costs. Because they are mixed up together there is no visual reminder to operators of the adjacent sub-processes or line management of the stock, which is due to a particular cause and should be a particular individual's responsibility with inevitable consequences. Some plants have centralized stock holding across sub-processes, which makes the situation even more acute. [edit]Special terms used in dealing with inventory

. Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is a unique combination of all the components that are assembled into the purchasable item. Therefore, any change in the packaging or product is a new SKU. This level of detailed specification assists in managing inventory. . Stockout means running out of the inventory of an SKU.[1] . "New old stock" (sometimes abbreviated NOS) is a term used in business to refer to merchandise being offered for sale that was manufactured long ago but that has never been used. Such merchandise may not be produced anymore, and the new old stock may represent the only market source of a particular item at the present time.

[edit]Typology

1. Buffer/safety stock 2. Cycle stock (Used in batch processes, it is the available inventory, excluding buffer stock) 3. De-coupling (Buffer stock that is held by both the supplier and the user) 4. Anticipation stock (Building up extra stock for periods of increased demand - e.g. ice cream for summer) 5. Pipeline stock (Goods still in transit or in the process of distribution - have left the factory but not arrived at the customer yet)

[edit]Inventory examples [Type text]

While accountants often discuss inventory in terms of goods for sale, organizations - manufacturers, service-providers and not-for-profits - also have inventories (fixtures, furniture, supplies, ...) that they do not intend to sell. Manufacturers', distributors', and wholesalers' inventory tends to cluster in warehouses. Retailers' inventory may exist in a warehouse or in ashop or store accessible to customers. Inventories not intended for sale to customers or to clients may be held in any premises an organization uses. Stock ties up cash and, if uncontrolled, it will be impossible to know the actual level of stocks and therefore impossible to control them. While the reasons for holding stock were covered earlier, most manufacturing organizations usually divide their "goods for sale" inventory into:

. Raw materials - materials and components scheduled for use in making a product. . Work in process , WIP - materials and components that have begun their transformation to finished goods. . Finished goods - goods ready for sale to customers. . Goods for resale - returned goods that are salable.

For example: [edit]Manufacturing A canned food manufacturer's materials inventory includes the ingredients to form the foods to be canned, empty cans and their lids (or coils of steel or aluminum for constructing those components), labels, and anything else (solder, glue, ...) that will form part of a finished can. The firm's work in process includes those materials from the time of release to the work floor until they become complete and ready for sale to wholesale or retail customers. This may be vats of prepared food, filled cans not yet labeled or sub-assemblies of food components. It may also include finished cans that are not yet packaged into cartons or pallets. Its finished good inventory consists of all the filled and labeled cans of food in its warehouse that it has manufactured and wishes to sell to food distributors (wholesalers), to grocery stores (retailers), and even perhaps to consumers through arrangements like factory stores and outlet centers. [Type text]

Examples of case studies[2] are very revealing, and consistently show that the improvement of inventory management has two parts: the capability of the organisation to manage inventory, and the way in which it chooses to do so. For example, a company may wish to install a complex inventory system, but unless there is a good understanding of the role of inventory and its perameters, and an effective business process to support that, the system cannot bring the necessary benefits to the organisation in isolation. Typical Inventory Management techniques include Pareto Curve ABC Classification[3] and Economic Order Quantity Management. A more sophisticated method takes these two techniques further, combining certain aspects of each to create The K Curve Methodology[4]. A case study of k-curve[5] benefits to one company shows a successful implementation. Unnecessary inventory adds enormously to the working capital tied up in the business, as well as the complexity of the supply chain. Reduction and elimination of these inventory 'wait' states is a key concept in Lean[6]. Too big an inventory reduction too quickly can cause a business to be anorexic. There are well-proven processes and techniques to assist in inventory planning and strategy[6], both at the business overview and part number level. Many of the big MRP/and ERP systems do not offer the necessary inventory planning tools within their integrated planning applications. [edit]Principle of inventory proportionality [edit]Purpose Inventory proportionality is the goal of demand-driven inventory management. The primary optimal outcome is to have the same number of days' (or hours', etc.) worth of inventory on hand across all products so that the time of runout of all products would be simultaneous. In such a case, there is no "excess inventory," that is, inventory that would be left over of another product when the first product runs out. Excess inventory is sub-optimal because the money spent to obtain it could have been utilized better elsewhere, i.e. to the product that just ran out. The secondary goal of inventory proportionality is inventory minimization. By integrating accurate demand forecasting with inventory management, replenishment inventories can be scheduled to arrive just in time to [Type text] replenish the product destined to run out first, while at the same time balancing out the inventory supply of all products to make their inventories more proportional, and thereby closer to achieving the primary goal. Accurate demand forecasting also allows the desired inventory proportions to be dynamic by determining expected sales out into the future; this allows for inventory to be in proportion to expected short-term sales or consumption rather than to past averages, a much more accurate and optimal outcome. Integrating demand forecasting into inventory management in this way also allows for the prediction of the "can fit" point when inventory storage is limited on a per-product basis. [edit]Applications The technique of inventory proportionality is most appropriate for inventories that remain unseen by the consumer. As opposed to "keep full" systems where a retail consumer would like to see full shelves of the product they are buying so as not to think they are buying something old, unwanted or stale; and differentiated from the "trigger point" systems where product is reordered when it hits a certain level; inventory proportionality is used effectively by just-in-time manufacturing processes and retail applications where the product is hidden from view. One early example of inventory proportionality used in a retail application in the United States is for motor fuel. Motor fuel (e.g. gasoline) is generally stored in underground storage tanks. The motorists do not know whether they are buying gasoline off the top or bottom of the tank, nor need they care. Additionally, these storage tanks have a maximum capacity and cannot be overfilled. Finally, the product is expensive. Inventory proportionality is used to balance the inventories of the different grades of motor fuel, each stored in dedicated tanks, in proportion to the sales of each grade. Excess inventory is not seen or valued by the consumer, so it is simply cash sunk (literally) into the ground. Inventory proportionality minimizes the amount of excess inventory carried in underground storage tanks. This application for motor fuel was first developed and implemented by Petrolsoft Corporation in 1990 for Chevron Products Company. Most major oil companies use such systems today.[7] Edit [Type text]

HCL Technologies is a global IT Services company headquartered in Noida, a suburb of Delhi, India led by Nayar, HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$5 billion, as of 2010, and employed more than 65,000 workers. The name HCL is an abbreviation on Hindustan Computers Limited. HCL AXON formed after the acquisition of Axon Group plc in December 2008. Contents [edit]Services [hide] HCL offers services including Software, Remote Infrastructure • 1 Services Management, Engineering and R&D • 2 Acquisitions and joint Services and BPO. HCL’s key ventures services include: • 3 Facebook protests • 4 References . Custom Application Services . Enterprise Application Services • 5 External links . Enterprise Transformation Services . Engineering and R&D Services . Infrastructure Management . Business Processing Outsourcing. . Business Consulting . Solutions Implementation . Application Management . Blue ocean upgrades . Integration Services.

HCL serves industries such as Financial Services, Education, Hi-tech & Manufacturing, Aerospace & Defense, Telecom, Retail & CPG, Life Sciences, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Travel, Transportation & Logistics, Automotive, Government, Energy & Utilities. [edit]Acquisitions and joint ventures [Type text]

The company acquired Capitalstream, a US BFSI product company for US$40 million in February 2008.[2] Capitalstream's FinanceCenter product is an addition to HCL's current product addressing the BFSI market - Penstock, the product that HCL launched in 2007.[3] On 15 December 2008, it acquired Axon Group, and was renamed HCL AXON [4] [5], the largest acquisition in the history of the Indian IT industry, surpassing Wipro’s $600-million acquisition of Infocrossing in 2007.[6] [edit]Facebook protests Some disgruntled HCL employees have begun a Facebook page to protest working conditions at HCL. They complain about poor treatment in light of HCL's "employee first" statements.[citation needed] [edit]References

1. ^ HCL Technologies was split-off from HCL, the parent company in late 1990s 2. ^ "HCL Technologies Acquires Capital Stream, Inc., a US based industry leader in lending automation solutions" (PDF). HCL Press Release. 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2008-04-04. 3. ^ "Product launch in 2007". Retrieved 2008-10-21. 4. ^ "HCL TechnologiesaxxdasxdasdasdaSAdsaD completes acquisition of AXON Group plc" (PDF). 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2008-12-17. 5. ^ "HCL completes Axon acquisition". 2008-12-15. Retrieved 2008-12-17. 6. ^ "HCL Tech completes acquisition of Axon". 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2008-12-17.

[edit]External links

. HCL Technologies Official Home Page . Rediff Coverage - 2001 . Story of HCL . Shiv & HCLT . Moneycontrol Article on Shiv Nadar and HCLT . HCL - Company in Transition [Type text]

Categories: Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange | Information technology consulting firms of India | Software companies of India | Business process outsourcing companies of India | Companies established in 1976 | Outsourcing companies | List of Software Companies in Mumbai • New features • Log in / create account • Article HCL Technologies • Discussion • Read • Edit • View history Type Public Search BSE: 532281 NSE: HCLTECH • Main page • Contents • Featured content Industry IT Services • Current events • [1] Random article Founded 1976 Interaction Toolbox Headquarters Noida, UP, India Print/export • This page was last Key people Shiv Nadar, modified on 17 July Founder,Chairman, CSO 2010 at 16:45. Vineet Nayar - CEO • Text is available Ranjit Narasimhan -COO- under the Creative President, BPO Division Comm

Revenue ▲ US$ 2.3 billion (2009)

Employees 65,000+ (2010)

Website Hcltech.com [Type text]

In 1976, during lunch time at Delhi [ Images ] Cloth Mills, DCM, a group of six young engineers in the office canteen were discussing their work woes at DCM's calculator division. Despite them all have having jobs that paid them well, they were an unhappy lot -- they wanted to do more, riding on their own gumption. They decided to quit their jobs and start a venture of their own. The man who was fuelling the ambitions of his five other colleagues at that canteen was a 30-year-old engineer from Tamil Nadu, Shiv Nadar. And this is how the story of Hindustan Computers Limited, HCL [ Get Quote ] began. Nadar and his five colleagues quit DCM in the summer of 1976. They decided to set up a company that would make personal computers. They had gathered enough technical expertise at DCM's calculator division, but like for all start-ups, getting funds was the problem. However, Nadar's passion for his new dream company and the support of his enthusiastic colleagues soon made the task very easy. Founder, Chairman and CEO, HCL Technologies, Shiv Nadar told CNBC-TV18, "The first person I met was Arjun and he was also a management trainee like me. He was a couple of batches junior to me. . . We became very good friends and we are still very good friends. Then, the rest of them all worked for DCM and we all are of similar age, so we used to hang out together, crib together, have fun together, work together. Nadar would first have to gather cash to give wings to his idea of manufacturing computers. He floated a company called Microcomp Limited -- through which he would sell teledigital calculators. This venture threw up enough cash to allow the founders to give shape to their ultimate dream to manufacture computers in India [ Images ], at a time when computers were just sophisticated cousins of the good old calculator but support also came from the Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] government. Finally, the founders put together Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) and HCL was born. The year after HCL was floated, the Indian government reigned in the ambitions of the foreign companies in India. This pronounced the death knell of companies like IBM and Coca-Cola while bells began to ring for Indian entrepreneurships like HCL. [Type text]

Managing Editor, The Smart Manager, Dr Gita Piramal says, "Few Indian businessmen were happy when George Fernandes [ Images ] became industry minister in 1977, when the Janata Party came to power. Foreign businessmen were even less happy that Coca-Cola and IBM left India. IBM's leaving, left a major vacuum and this was the vacuum in which Shiv Nadar spotted an opportunity. He stepped in and customers began to trickle in." HCL started shipping its in-house microcomputers around the same time as its American counterpart Apple, and took only two more years to introduce its 16 bits processor. By 1983, it indigenously developed a relational data based management system, a networking operational system and client-server architecture, almost at the same time as its global peers. The road to the top was now in sight and HCL took it a step further by exploring foreign shores. HCL's first brush with international business came about in 1979 when it set up a venture in Singapore; it was called Far East computers. HCL was only three years old and its net worth was around Rs 3 crore (Rs 30 million). Shiv Nadar set up an ambitious target for the venture and notched up sales of Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) in the very first year. Co-Founder, HCL Technologies, Ajai Chowdhry says, "We discovered that there was a good opportunity to enter Singapore with our own hardware we had manufactured in Singapore. But the strategy was very clearly around selling computerization rather than computers and so we actually took the whole idea of hardware, software solution and service and packaged it and presented it as computerization." Even as it was basking in its success in Singapore, HCL planned a whole new area of expansion and it tapped into a territory that was lying unexplored in the country - computer education. Sensing the increasing demand for computer training, HCL set up NIIT [ Get Quote ] in 1981 to impart high quality IT education in India. Nadar explains, "We knew many people in IIT and Indian Institute of Science. We formed an advisory panel and asked them, can you help us navigate this whole thing and they were very enthusiastic about this and they of course shaken up a little bit when they saw that we started advertising in Bombay -- selling education as a commercial project." From calculators to IT education, the first five years of HCL was a combination of growth and expansion riddled with uncertainty but the company was now gearing up to set a much bigger target for itself and [Type text] an announcement from the government would help it takeoff to those soaring heights. In 1984, the Indian government announced a new policy that would change the fortunes of the entire computer industry. The government opened up the computer market and permitted import of technology. With new guidelines and regulations in place, HCL grabbed the opportunity to launch its own personal computer. The demand for personal computers was slowly but surely mounting in the Indian market. Most banks were shifting to the UNIX platform. A few companies approached HCL for personal computers, so, the founders flew all over the world to bring back PCs they could take apart, study and reproduce and indigenously upgrade. Their first innovative personal computer was ready in three weeks' times and soon they launched their first range of computers, and they called it the Busybee. Chowdhry says, "In a lot of ways, it opened up the market because one thing was that, you no longer had to develop basic stuff in India - like operating systems but on the other hand it opened new opportunities like banking because as per government policy, all banking computers must be UNIX based. So, feverishly we set out creating a UNIX based computer and we bought the UNIX source code and created that product out of nothing." In two years, HCL became one of the largest IT companies in India. The founders now went to different corners of the country to set up sales and marketing offices and it now needed the brightest minds to take it to the next level of competition. Campus recruitment in management and technical institutes began in full swing and HCL grabbed some of the best talent by offering pay packages that outscored some of the best companies of the time -- Rs 2,000 per month to start with. The adrenaline rush of the first half of the 1980s and the rapid expansion strategy soon caught up with HCL. A turning point came in 1989, when HCL on the basis of a report by McKinsey and Company decided to venture into the American computer hardware market. HCL America was born but the project fell flat on its face. HCL had failed to follow a very crucial step necessary to enter the US market. A big disappointment was on its way. [Type text]

Piramal says, "For every entrepreneur, the US will always remain the dream market. It's the biggest market in the world and Shiv Nadar obviously was drawn to it but he really didn't know what he was getting into. The computers he made didn't get environmental clearances. In fact, HCL probably turned into his biggest mistake but HCL and Shiv himself, he is a very strong person, he understood he was making a mistake, he saw that Infosys [ Get Quote ] and Wipro [ Get Quote ] are doing really well in software and he was not too proud to change gears and finally HCL did enter the software market." It didn't take too long for HCL to brush off the disappointment in the US. Its first failure in the US was set aside in 1991 and HCL entered into a partnership with HP (Hewlett-Packard [ Images ]) to form HCL HP Limited. It opened new avenues for HCL and gave opportunities to firm up its revenues. In three years, another new possibility came knocking at its door and in 1994, HCL looked beyond PCs and tied up with Nokia cellphones and Ericsson switches for distribution. Chowdhry explains, 'In 1991, when India didn't have enough foreign exchange. We were in the hardware business and we didn't have enough funds. That's the time when a clear thought entered our minds - that we should globalize and in the very early days, we actually created a joint venture with Hewlett-Packard. In 1997, HCL was already a multi-dimensional company spun off HCL Technologies Limited to mark their entry into the global software space. It made up its mind to focus on software development, which was twenty years behind its entrepreneurial journey, Shiv Nadar was now ready to take on global competition with all his might. From 70s to 90s, the HCL story was one of steady rise but in the face of its rapid expansion and continuous flow of achievements, Shiv Nadar didn't anticipate that he would be in for a rude shock and that it would come from someone very close. In 1998, Arjun Malhotra, Shiv Nadar's comrade and friend decided to leave the company to start his own TechSpan, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. He was also one of the largest shareholders in HCL Infosystems [ Get Quote ] at that time. For Shiv Nadar, it was time to think afresh. The revenues were shrinking from the hardware sector and Nadar now decided to redesign HCL. The company once again needed funds to [Type text] grow and this time around, Nadar decided to look at the capital market. An initial public offer (IPO) was made on the Indian Stock Exchange in 1999, which was a stupendous success. President, HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar says, "The shareholders supported us and then I think we started with Rs 580 an IPO and went up to Rs 2,800 or something like that. So, it was a dream run, I think the shareholders bought the argument we were making, they liked the articulation of the strategy, they liked the management team and they liked the vision we were painting and they supported the stock full time and that was a turning point for HCL." Shiv Nadar now put aside his dream of becoming a global hardware major and venture into software with an open mind and a clean slate. Technology was opening up vistas of opportunities in the software sector and HCL now wanted to build new businesses. Global business became a priority, so, now they started a BPO in Ireland in 2001. His partner in this ambitious venture was British Telecom. The years that followed saw HCL in an expansion mode. In 2005 alone, HCL signed a software development agreement with Boeing for its 787 dreamliner programme. Next came a venture with NEC, Japan [ Images ]. It even brought out the joint ventures Deutsche Bank and British Telecom's Apollo Contact Center. In the same year, HCL Infosystems launched it sub Rs 10,000 personal computer and joined hands with AMD and Microsoft [ Images ] to bridge the digital divide. The successes of 2005 spilled over into 2006 and the company now produced over 75,000 machines in a single month, with more parallel joint ventures growing on its list. But in spite of this overwhelming success, Shiv Nadar would not rest. There was a nagging sense of dissatisfaction and perhaps not having exploited its full potential that still drove Nadar and the company to achieve much more. Thirty years after starting his company, Shiv Nadar really does not have much to complain about. Hindustan Computers Ltd today is an empire worth $3.5 billion with staff strength of 34,000. But then dissatisfaction has been the quintessential factor that has made Shiv Nadar the visionary that he was and continues to be. Dissatisfaction once drove him to quit his job at DCM and it is that same [Type text] quality even today, that is driving him to achieve much more when he can quite easily rest on his laurels. For more on management, log on to www.moneycontrol.com. Moneycontrol.com

1. Tata Consultancy Services

July 17, 2008

The Indian software industry is set to keep up its growth rate despite the slowdown in the economy. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has forecast a strong outlook for FY08- 09 strong with software and services revenue seen growing by 21-24 per cent. The software and services exports are set to hit the $50 billion- mark.

The software and services exports segment grew by 29 per cent (in USD) to register revenues of $40.4 billion in FY07-08, up from $31.4 billion in FY06-07. The domestic segment grew by 26 per cent (in INR) to register revenues of $ 11.6 billion in FY07-08. According to the latest Nasscom rankings, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Technologies Ltd are the top 3 revenue generators in India. Check out the top ten players in the Indian IT industry.

TCS

Founded in 1968, TCS is one of India's largest corporate houses. It is also India's largest IT employer with a staff strength of 111,000 employees.

The company began as a division of the Tata Group, called the Tata Computer Centre. Its main business was to offer computer services to other group companies. Soon the company was spun off as Tata [Type text]

Consultancy Services after it realised the huge potential of the booming IT services.

The company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,290.61 crore (Rs 12.90 billion) for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008, an increase of 7.3 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

Its annual sales worldwide stands at $5.7 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2008. During the year 2007-08,

TCS' consolidated revenues grew by 22 per cent to Rs 22,863 crore ($5.7 billion). S. Ramadorai, is the chief executive officer and managing director of TCS.

TCS is IDC-Dataquest IT best employer in IT services in 2007. TCS also topped DataQuest DQTop 20 list of IT service providers in 2007.

Image: Chief Executive Officer of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) S Ramadorai . | Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/ AFP/Getty Images

Also read: Filing taxes? 20 FAQs answered

2. Wipro

July 17, 2008

What started off as a hydrogenated cooking fat company, Wipro is today is a $5 billion revenue generating IT, BPO and R&D services organisation with presence in over 50 countries.

Premji started Wipro with the 'idea of building an organisation which was deeply committed to values, in the firm belief that success in business would be its inevitable, eventual outcome'. The company has over 72,000 employees.

Wipro's revenues grew by 33 per cent to Rs 19,957 crore (Rs 200 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2008. The net profit grew by 12 per cent to Rs. 3,283 crore (Rs. 32.83 billion). The revenues of the combined IT businesses was $4.3 billion with 43 per cent YoY growth. [Type text]

Wipro was the only Indian company to be ranked among the top 10 global outsourcing providers in IAOP's 2006 Global Outsourcing 100 listing. Wipro has also won the International Institute for Software Testing's Software Testing Best Practice Award.

Image: Chairman of the Indian software giant Wipro Technologies Limited, Azim Premji is all smiles during a press conference in Bangalore. | Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: Magic: India's longest surviving brand

3. Infosys

July 17, 2008

Infosys Technologies Ltd was started in 1981 by seven people with $250. Today, the company boasts of revenues of over $ 4 billion and 94,379 employees.

Under the leadership of N R Narayana Murthy, the company has become a global brand. The company is now headed by Kris Gopalakrishnan. The income for the quarter ended June 30 2008 was Rs 4,854 crore (Rs 48.54 billion). The net profit stood at Rs 1,302 crore (Rs 13.02 billion).

Forbes magazine named Infosys in its list of Global High Performers. Waters magazine rated Infosys as the Best Outsourcing Partner. The Banker magazine conferred two Banker Technology Awards on Infosys to acclaim its work in wholesale and capital markets in two cate gories - Payments and Treasury Services, and Offshoring and Outsourcing.

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) ranked Infosys at No. 3 in its '2008 Global Outsourcing 100'.

Image: Founder and mentor of Infosys Technologies N.R.Narayana Murthy (C) with NASDAQ President & CEO Bob Greifeld (6th R) celebrate with Infosys officials during the NASDAQ Remote Opening Bell Ceremony in the Infosys campus in Mysore. | Photograph: STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images [Type text]

Also see: The amazing Infosys story

4. Satyam Computer Services

July 17, 2008

Established in 1987 by Ramalinga Raju, Satyam has a staff strength of 51,000 employees. In 2008, the company's revenues crossed the $ 2- billion mark.

'A simple, yet extensive management model to create value, which promotes entrepreneurship, a focus on the customer, and the constant pursuit of excellence,' is the company's mantra for success. In FY2008, its revenues saw a growth of 30.7 per cent to Rs 8,473.49 crore (Rs 84.73 billion) compared to fiscal 2007.

The net profit stood at Rs 1,687.89 crore (Rs 16.87 billion), a growth of 20.2 per cent over fiscal 2007. Satyam is among the youngest IT service companies to reach $1 billion in annual revenues. It is ranked No. 1 in the ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) BEST Award, 2007.

Image: Employees of Satyam group standing out side the city centre in Hyderabad |Photograph: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: Phaneesh Murthy on IT industry, economy & outsourcing

5. HCL Technologies

July 17, 2008

HCL is a leading global technology player with annual revenues of $4.9 billion. The HCL Enterprise comprises two companies listed in India, HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of 'India's original IT garage start ups'. [Type text]

The HCL team comprises 53,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, operating across 18 countries. At a time when India had a total of 250 computers, Shiv Nadar led a young team which passionately believed in the growth of the IT industry.

Three decades later, he succeeded in creating a $ 4.9 billion global enterprise. The company has reported consolidated revenue of Rs 3017.5 crore (Rs 30.17 billion) during the quarter ended March 31, 2008. The profit after tax stood at Rs. 81.5 crore (Rs 815 million).

Image: Chairman and CEO of HCL Infosystems Ajai Chowdhry with the HCL Mileap laptop in New Delhi. | Photograph:Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: World's 8 most expensive mobiles

6. Tech Mahindra

July 17, 2008

Tech Mahindra was incorporated as a joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and BT plc in 1986 under the name of 'Mahindra-British Telecom'.

Later, the name was changed to 'Tech Mahindra', in order to reflect the diversification and growth of the client base and service offerings. The company was incorporated in 1986. Tech Mahindra is a global systems integrator and business transformation consulting firm focused on the communications industry. At the helm of the fast expanding organisation is Vineet Nayyar.

In a career spanning over 40 years, he has worked with the government, international multilateral agencies and the corporate sector. Tech Mahindra's net profit rose 8.57 per cent to Rs 196.4 crore (Rs 1.96 billion) on 6.09 per cent growth in net sale to Rs 911.6 crore (Rs 9.11 billion) in Q3 December 2007 over Q2 September 2007.

Image: Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra Anand Mahindra during a press conference to launch the Tech Mahindra foundation in Mumbai. | Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images [Type text]

Also read: World's 10 most expensive watches

7. Patni Computer Systems

July 17, 2008

Patni Computer Systems Ltd one of the leading global providers of information technology services and business solutions. The company has clients across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific locations.

The company has serviced more than 400 Fortune 1000 companies, for over two decades. Patni Computer Systems Limited was incorporated on 10 February 1978 under the Companies Act, 1956. On 18 September 2003, the Company converted itself from a private limited company into a public limited company.

The company headed founded by Narendra K Patni by has a staff strength of over 14,000 professionals. The revenues for the quarter ended March 2008 stood at $ 176.4 million (Rs. 7,061.2 million) up 13.1% YoY from $ 156.0 million (Rs. 6,724.1 million). The net income for the quarter at US$ 18.1 million (Rs. 724.6 million) down 35.0 per cent YoY from $ 27.8 million (Rs. 1,200.3 million).Frost & Sullivan ranked Patni 1st among 'Top 5 Engineering Service Providers'.

Image: Model of a software park in Chennai. | Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: The world's first moving skyscraper!

8. i-flex Solutions

July 17, 2008 [Type text] iflex started as a division of Citicorp (now Citigroup), wholly owned subsidiary called Citicorp Overseas Software Ltd. (COSL) in 1991. Later, a separate company Citicorp Information Technologies Industries Ltd. (CITIL) was formed and Rajesh Hukku was appointed as its head.

CITIL started off with the universal banking product, MicroBanker which became very successful. In the mid-90s, CITIL developed Flexcube at its Bangalore development centre. After the launch of Flexcube, all of CITIL's transactional banking products were brought under a common brand umbrella. CITIL changed its name to i-flex solutions to reflect its growing independence from Citicorp and to strengthen its Flexcube brand.

In 2006, i-flex became a majority-owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation i-flex posted a top line growth of 8 per cent QoQ with revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 at Rs 672 crore (Rs 6.72 billion) as compared to Rs 601 crore (Rs 6.01 billion) for the corresponding quarter during the previous year representing a 12 per cent YoY growth.

The net income for quarter stood at Rs 185 crore (Rs 1.85 billion) representing 73 per cent growth QoQ. The revenue for the full year ended March 31, 2008 stood at Rs 2,380 crore (Rs 23.80 billion), up 15 per cent as compared to the previous year.

Image: Chairman and Managing Director of i-flex Solutions Limited, Rajesh Hukku. | Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: From Rs 50 to a Forbes billionaire!

9. MphasiS

July 17, 2008

MphasiS Limited was formed in June 2000 after the merger of the US- based IT consulting company MphasiS Corporation (founded in 1998) [Type text] and the Indian IT services company BFL Software Limited (founded in 1993).

Jeya Kumar is CEO of MphasiS, which has a staff strength of 27,000 people. For the year ended 31 March 2008, the MphasiS Group recorded revenues of Rs 2,423 crore (Rs 24.23 billion), a growth of Rs 662 crore, which is 38 per cent over the previous year.

The net profit increased by 42 per cent from Rs 180 crore (Rs 1.8 billion) to Rs 255 crore (Rs 2.55 billion) during the year ended 31 March 2008. MphasiS was named among amongst the Top 100 Companies in Global Outsourcing.

Image: IT sector grows despite slowdown. | Photograph: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: India's top 10 corporate taxpayers

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Top 10 software companies in India

10. L&T Infotech

July 17, 2008

L&T Infotech is a global IT services and solutions provider. It is a subsidiary company of is Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T), an engineering, manufacturing and construction conglomerate, with global operations.

A M Naik is the chairman of the company. Originally founded as L&T Information Technology Ltd (LTITL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), the company changed its name to L&T Infotech on 1st April, 1997. In 2004, it tied up with Fidelity Information Services, a division of Fidelity National Financial to provide banking solutions for the Indian banking industry. In 2007-08, L&T had recorded revenues of Rs 29,600 crore (Rs 296 billion). [Type text]

Image: L&T Infotech building. | Photograph: L&T Infotech

Financial tonransasict A financial transaction is an event or condition under the contract between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment. In accounting, it is recognized by an entry in the books of account. It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or individuals.

A ledger[1] is the principal book for recording transactions. Originally, the term referred to a large volume of scripture/service book kept in one place in church and accessible. According to Charles Wriothesley's Chronicle (1538):

“ the curates should provide a booke of the bible in Englishe, of the largest volume, to be a lidger in the same church for the parishioners to read on. ”

It is an application of this original meaning that is found in the commercial usage of the term for the principal book of account in a business house, the general ledger or nominal ledger (see also bookkeeping) and also in the terms purchase ledger and sales ledger.

A customer, also called client, buyer, or purchaser, is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier,seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services. However, in certain contexts, the term customer also includes by extension any entity that uses or experiences the services of another. A customer may also be a viewer of the product or service that is being sold despite deciding not to buy them. [Type text]

The word derives from "custom," meaning "habit"; a customer was someone who frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods of the sort the shop sold there rather than elsewhere, and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her "custom," meaning expected purchases in the future. The slogans "the customer is king" or "the customer is god" or "the customer is always right" indicate the importance of customers to businesses - although the last expression is sometimes used ironically. However, "customer" also has a more generalised meaning as in customer service and a less commercialised meaning in not-for-profit areas. To avoid unwanted implications in some areas such as government services, community services, and education, the term "customer" is sometimes substituted by words such as "constituent" or "stakeholder". This is done to address concerns that the word "customer" implies a narrowly commercial relationship involving the purchase of products and services. However, some managers in this environment, in which the emphasis is on being helpful to the people one is dealing with rather than on commercial sales, comfortably use the word "customer" to both internal and external customers.

About HCL Infosystems Ltd

The Indian IT market has been overflowing with players from all over - be it domestic or overseas. HCL Infosystems Ltd is one of the leaders in the Indian IT market, which was established in the year 1976. For more than twenty five years, they have developed and applied solutions to different market segments, spanning across a wide range of Indian technologies. They have always taken the lead for bringing in new technologies and solutions in the IT market.

Alliance & Partnerships of HCL Infosystems Ltd

HCL Infosystems Ltd has the capability of providing rich world-class solutions and services to all its customers and that have been all the more possible with alliances and partnerships with leading global IT companies.

Alliance partners of HCL Infosystems [Type text]

• Intel • AMD • Microsoft • IBM • Bull • Toshiba • Nokia • Sun Microsystems • Ericsson • NVIDIA • SAP • Scansoft • SCO • EMC • Veritas • Citrix • CISCO • Oracle • Computer Associates • RedHat • Infocus • Duplo • Samsung • Novell

Alliances with these global IT majors have enabled HCL to get access to the best of technology & products. The product portfolio gets enhanced on the other hand.

Strengths of HCL Infosystems Ltd

• They understand the business of the customer and provide the apt technology to them • They have a long committed relationship with their customers • The support provided by the company is pan India • Customers get their value for money • They are the leaders in technology

HCL Infosystem's leadership initiatives

• They gave the country's first DeskTop PC - BusyBee in 1985. [Type text]

• India�s first branded home PC � Beanstalk was launched in 1995 by HCL • HCL also gave India�s first Pentium 4 based PC at a sub 40k price mark • They also boast of providing India�s first Media Center PC

Financial highlights of HCL Infosystems for the third quarter of 2009

1. HCL Infosystems has registered a consolidated revenue of Rs. 3027.5 crore (USD 632.8 Million) for the quarter ended September 30, 2009. 2. The consolidated services revenue for the same quarter was Rs. 146.7 crore (USD 30.7 Million), growing at12% on a Y-o-Y basis. 3. The consolidated profit before tax for the third quarter for the company was Rs. 83.0 crore (USD 17.3 Million). 4. Consolidated profit after tax for the same quarter was Rs. 59.0 crore (USD 12.3 Million). 5. Computer Systems business generated revenue to the tune of Rs. 817.4 crore (USD 170.9 Million) for the third quarter. 6. Profit before interest & taxes for Computer Systems business for the September quarter, 2009 was Rs. 48.3 crore (USD 10.1 Million). 7. Telecommunication and Office Automation business generated revenue which amounted to Rs. 2221.6 crore (USD 464.4 Million), for the third quarter, growing at a marginal rate of 2%. 8. Profit before interest & taxes for Telecommunication and Office Automation business was Rs. 55.6 crore (USD 11.6 Million) for the same quarter. Financial overview of HCL Infosystems Ltd for a span of five years: (Rs/ Crore) Particulars (year ended June 30) 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 Total Revenue 12605 11855 11455 7787 4412 PBIDT 489 454 396 308 238 Depreciation 19 15 12 15 18 Profit before Tax 430 429 385 296 211 Provision for Tax 130 113 105 68 36 Profit after Tax (PAT) 300 316 280 228 175 Profit available for appropriation 904 792 640 491 352 9. [Type text] [Type text]

Information industry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Information industry or information industries is a loosely defined term for industries that are information intensive in one way or the other. It is considered one of the most importanteconomic sectors for a variety of reasons.

There are many different kinds of information industries, and many different ways to classify them. Although there is no standard or distinctively better way of organizing those different views, the following section offers a review of what the term "information industry" might entail, and why. Following that is a review of alternative conceptualization such as knowledgeindustry and information-related occupation. The term is mostly identified with computer programming, system design, telecommunications, and others.

[edit]Types of Information Industries

First, there are companies which produce and sell information in form of good or service. Media products such as television programs and movies, published books and periodicals would constitute probably among the most accepted part of what information goods can be. Some information is provided not as a tangible commodity but as a service. Consulting is among the least controversial of this kind. However, even for this category, disagreements can occur due to the vagueness of the term "information." For some, information is knowledge about a subject, something one can use to improve the performance of other activities--it does not include arts and entertainments. For others, information is something that is mentally processed and consumed, either to improve other activities (such as production) or for personal enjoyment; it would include artists and architects. For yet others, information may include anything that has to do with sensation, and therefore information industries may include even such things as restaurant, amusement parks, and prostitution to the extent that food, park ride, and sexual intercourse have to do with senses. In spite of the definitional problems, industries producing information goods and services are called information industries.

Second, there are information processing services. Some services, such as legal services, banking, insurance, computer programming, data processing, testing, and market research, require intensive and intellectual processing of information. Although those services do not necessarily provide information, they often offer expertise in making decisions on behalf of clients. These kinds of service industries can be regarded as an information-intensive part of various industries that is externalized and specialized.

Third, there are industries that are vital to the dissemination of the information goods mentioned above. For example, telephone, broadcasting and book retail industries do not produce much information, but their core business is to disseminate information others produced. These industries handle predominantly information and can be distinguished from wholesale or retail industries in general. It is just a coincidence, one can argue, that some of those industries are separately existing from the more obvious information- producing industries. For example, in the United States, as well as some other countries, broadcasting [Type text]

stations produce very limited amount of programs they broadcast. But this is not the only possible form of division of labor. If legal, economic, cultural, and historical circumstances were different, the broadcasters would have been the producers of their own programs. Therefore, in order to capture the information related activities of the economy, it might be a good idea to include this type of industry. These industries show how much of an economy is about information, as opposed to materials. It is useful to differentiate production of valuable information from processing that information in a sophisticated way, from the movement of information.

Fourth, there are manufacturers of information-processing devices that require research and sophisticated decision-making. These products are vital to information-processing activities of above mentioned industries. The products include computers of various levels and many other microelectronic devices, as well as software programs. Printing and copying machines, measurement and recording devices of various kinds, electronic or otherwise, are also in this category. The role of these tools are to automate certain information-processing activities. The use of some of these tools may be very simple (as in the case of some printing), and the processing done by the tools may be very simple (as in copying and some calculations) rather than intellectual and sophisticated. In other words, the specialization of these industries in an economy is neither production of information nor sophisticated decision-making. Instead, this segment serves as an infrastructure for those activities, making production of information and decision- making services will be a lot less efficient. In addition, these industries tend to be "high-tech" or research intensive - trying to find more efficient ways to boost efficiency of information production and sophisticated decision-making. For example, the function of a standard calculator is quite simple and it is easy to how to use it. However, manufacturing a well-functioning standard calculator takes a lot of processes, far more than the task of calculation performed by the users.

Fifth, there are very research-intensive industries that do not serve as infrastructure to information- production or sophisticated decision-making. Pharmaceutical, food-processing, some apparel design, and some other "high-tech" industries belong to this type. These products are not exclusively for information production or sophisticated decision-making, although many are helpful. Some services, such as medical examination are in this category as well. One can say these industries involve a great deal of sophisticated decision-making, although that part is combined with manufacturing or "non-informational" activities.

Finally, there are industries that are not research intensive, but serve as infrastructure for information production and sophisticated decision-making. Manufacturing of office furniture would be a good example, although it sometimes involves research in ergonomics and development of new materials.

As stated above, this rather long list of candidates for information industries is not a definitive way of organizing differences that researchers may pay attention to when they define the term. Among the difficulties is, for example, the position of advertising industry. [Type text]

A ledger[1] is the principal book for recording transactions. Originally, the term referred to a large volume of scripture/service book kept in one place in church and accessible.

According to Charles Wriothesley's Chronicle (1538):

the curates should provide a booke of the bible in Englishe, of the largest volume, “ to be a lidger in the same church for the parishioners to read on. ”