Zensar deal pipeline improving after Covid-19 impact

PUNE: Midsize IT firm Zensar is seeing new deals, primarily digital, trickle in after dropping initially because of the Covid-19 pandemic, its top executive said.

The company had a deal pipeline of about $1 billion in January, which dropped to about $600 million by end-March due to the slowdown induced by the virus outbreak.

Now, the pipeline is back to around $1 billion, with 70% of that coming from digital deals, CEO Sandeep Kishore told ET after announcing its annual results.


“There will be significantly higher cloud adoption and the post Covid-19 systems of engagement will change to become more virtual,” Kishore said, adding the company stands to benefit as clients opt to work with fewer partners and consolidate vendors.

“We are in proactive discussions with our clients on consolidation and this will be favourable for us,” he said.

Most companies are looking to work with fewer vendors and cut costs due to the economic squeeze wrought by the pandemic.

The company reported revenue of $589.5 million for the fiscal year ended March 31 and net profit of $37.8 million.

Its retail business was impacted due to the outbreak, but other segments, particularly cloud and infrastructure services, are expected to drive growth going forward.

In addition to focusing on cash and cost control measures, the company is bringing in new solutions to tap into opportunities in a post-pandemic world. This includes Humané, an enterprise-grade solution to help organizations augment their current talent systems and processes with a digital-native platform that transforms the employee experience.

Zensar may hire in the second half of the year, although it has postponed onboarding freshers till September.

“As work from anywhere becomes more common, we are working to redraw the talent onboarding process. This will become more mainstream,” Kishore said.