Chasing the Big Wallet: Mapping the Top Clients Behind Indian and Global IT

Management of Indian and Global IT companies have uniformly turned cautious in their commentary regarding the overall demand scenario due to: i) pullbacks on discretionary spending by clients; ii) constrained client budgets; and iii) prolonged and volatile decision-making processes among clients. Clients are resorting to restructuring programmes and layoffs to enhance profitability. In such an environment, it is crucial to identify the top clients of these Indian and Global IT companies, as these companies rarely disclose client-specific information due to confidentiality reasons. However, some information about their US clients can be obtained from Labor Certification Applications (LCAs), which are prerequisites for filing H-1B visas/work visas. These applications require companies to specify the number of visas sought for each client. An analysis of top US clientele based on LCA filings suggests: 1) Indian and Global IT companies are highly skewed towards BFSI clients; 2) Indian IT companies exhibit a higher skew towards BFSI and CMT clients, with relatively lower exposure to retail accounts; 3) The number of top 10 clients scaling up over the past 4 years is significantly higher for Global IT companies vs. Indian IT firms; 4) Accenture shows the highest client retention among Global and Indian IT companies; 5) Client churn is highest at Capgemini, Wipro, and Cognizant, due to market share gains from Indian IT companies; and 6) There is cut-throat competition between Infosys and TCS, as they share four of their top 10 clients.