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Wipro

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9-607-032 OCTOBER 16, 2006 DAVID M. UPTON BRADLEY R. STAATS Lean at Wipro Technologies “We want to bring the next generation of lean thinking into our processes and weave it into our system so it will lead to a sustainable competitive advantage.” — Azim Premji, Wipro Chairman Sambuddha Deb (“Deb”), Wipro Technologies Chief Quality Officer and Head of Operational Excellence, and Alexis Samuel, General Manager Process, Tools and Productivity, each thanked the other attendees at the lean project review session and walked out the door together. The bright January sunshine and garden-like setting of the Wipro Technologies campus in Bangalore, India was a good match for their current moods. As they made their way to their cars …show more content…

Revenue was distributed globally with the United States, Europe and the rest of the world accounting for 67%, 27%, and 6% of total FY2005 revenue, respectively. Over 95% of Wipro employees had degrees in science or engineering prior to joining the company. While the company was an outsourced provider of software services it worked on projects both onsite (at a customer’s location) and offshore (at Wipro facilities primarily in India). In 2005, the company completed approximately 75% of its work offshore and 25% onsite. Both cost pressure (work done offshore was relatively cheaper) and a shortage of work visas (particularly in the United States) were pushing Wipro to complete more work offshore. Wipro billed for its projects using one of two approaches. Its initial approach, known as time and materials (T&M), involved billing a client at a pre-specified rate for the actual number of hours that its software engineers worked on the project plus the cost of any software or tools required. In the newer approach, known as a fixed price project (FPP), Wipro quoted its customer a guaranteed price for the work and then was responsible for delivering the final product. Any effort overages on a FPP were the responsibility of Wipro. In 2005, the company’s revenues were split approximately 80/20 between T&M and FPP, respectively. The percentage of FPP was growing as clients were becoming more comfortable with outsourced

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