If performance during a tough period is a true measure of the resilience of a company, Satyam proved decisively that this south Indian, conservative companyas even many insiders admit it to beis not just a me-too of Indian IT. At 29% (excluding BPO), it registered the maximum growth among all tier-1 Indian services firms. This, at a time when rupee appreciated by almost 9% and the slowdown in the US market threatened IT deals.

One of the things that helped Satyam achieve this was its new de-risking strategy. Unlike most other companies, Satyam does not pursue selected broad verticals or geographies but more sharply defines its markets. These marketsclose to 150 and growingare an intelligent mapping of geographies and verticals, with the potential for reaching a critical mass.

The high point of FY 08 was the contract with FIFA, the football governing body, to custom-develop the event management and logistics software for World Cup 2010 and 2014 as the official IT partner.

In terms of revenue, Satyam got 58% from non-ADM services, the highest among top Indian firms. BPO revenue more than doubled. While the traditional forte, manufacturing, was still on top with 24% contribution, BFSI (23%) and telecom (22 %) were also big contributors. Newer verticals, retail, transportation and logistics grew 114% while technology, media and entertainment grew 61%.

Rank-7
l Start-up Year: 1987 l Products & Services: IT Services l Address: Mayfair Center, 1-8-303/36, SP Road, Secunderabad-5000003 l Delivery Facilities: 31 l Tel:+91-40-55854343 l Fax: 91-40-27840058 l Website: www.satyam.com
Highlights n Won multi-year deal with Fujitsu to offer infrastructure management services to Reuters n Expanded well beyond the USA, Europe n B Ramalinga Raju was named as the Ernst&Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 n Forrester Research placed Satyam as the leader in SAP implementation Strengths p Deep domain expertise across verticals p Well-defined inorganic strategythe ones made last year brought in strategic leadership and new competencies Weaknesses q Need to seamlessly manage and integrate the acquired entities q Scaling too fast at a time when recession is looming large across the world, which might impact new IT spend		B Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman B Rama Raju, co-founder and CEO Ram Mynampati, president, Commercial and Healthcare Businesses, and member of the board Srinivas Vadlamani, senior VP and director, CFO AS Murthy, senior VP and director, Leadership, Global Delivery Shailesh F Shah, senior VP and director, chief strategy officer

While most Indian companies took a breather after the previous years acquisition spree, Satyam continued with the strategy, acquiring Nitor Global Solutions UK ($5.5 mn) in IMS; Bridge Strategy Group, in consulting; and S&V, a Belgium-based supply chain management consulting ($35.5 mn).

But there was one blotch. The company was caught in a legal battle with online and mobile payments companyUpaid Systemsrelating to a patents infringement case. Upaid has claimed damages to the tune of $1 bn.

This year, Satyam plans to refocus on the India domestic business more seriously, which saw a drop in revenue in FY 08.

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