In a bid to strengthen its company profile, India-based Infosys Technologies has acquired a five-year global services contract from British pharma major AstraZeneca. Under the new deal, Indian IT company will offer application maintenance services to AstraZeneca's global operations in manufacturing, supply chain, finance, human resources and other functions. Commenting on the deal, Infosys Chief Executive S. Gopalakrishnan said that the new deal will improve the operational efficiency of AstraZeneca. The British company will be able to accelerate innovation and bring products to markets faster, he added.

 

Besides Infosys, Genpact has also entered into an agreement with Chicago-based hotel company Global Hyatt to provide outsourcing of the financial and accounting transaction services. India-based Genpact is already tied up with Global Hyatt for handling the accounting transaction services. Under the new agreement, Genpact's Hyderabad unit will cover another 16 hotels by 2010 apart from the existing services of Global Hyatt's nine hotels.

 

While informing about the choice of Infosys, AstraZeneca Chief Information Officer Richard Williams said that the Indian IT company has achieved tremendous understanding as far as shifting dynamics in the pharmaceutical industry are concerned. Infosys will base the engagement on fixed price for outcome-based deliverables and flexible unit pricing for managing changes. The global shared-services model of Infosys will allow AstraZeneca to achieve operational flexibility, lower risk and better spend control.