Wipro Technologies

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Wipro Technologies
Type	Public (NYSE: WIT)
Founded	1945
Headquarters	Bangalore, India
Key people	Azim Premji, Chairman and Managing Director
Industry	Computer Services
Employees	61,000+ (2006)
Slogan	Applying Thought
Website	www.wipro.com

Wipro Technologies is an IT service company established in 1980 in India, it is a subsidiary of Wipro Limited NYSE: WIT (incorporated 1946, in operation since 1945). It is headquartered in Bangalore. It is the third largest IT services company in India.It has 61000 employees as of Oct 2006, which is inclusive of it's BPO arm which it acquired in 2002.^[1]

The current chairman and majority stake owner is Azim Premji. From inception the software and hardware divisions have been headed by him.

Contents 1 History 2 Work 3 Time Line 4 Wipro businesses 5 Industry 6 External links

[edit] History

Wipro was set up in Amalner in 1945. Primarily an edible oil factory, the chief products were Sunflower Vanaspati and 787 laundry soap (a by-product of the Vanaspati operations). The company was called Western India Vegetable Products Limited, with a minor presence in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s and 1980s it began to expand and made forays into computing. In 1975, Wipro marketed India's first homegrown PC.

Wipro was the sole representative for Sun Microsystems in India, before the Sun liaison office was set up in India, in the early nineties.

[edit] Work

Examples of Wipro's product design work include developing an Internet-browsing phone for a Japanese telecom company back in 1998, helping chipmaker Texas Instruments produce digital signal processing software, and creating an automotive display unit for Italian manufacturer Magneti Marelli that combined functions including cell phone capability, global position system technology, a navigation system and a CD player.

Wipro and its success in handling outsourced information technology from U.S. businesses is detailed in Thomas L. Friedman's best-selling novel "The World Is Flat".

[edit] Time Line

• 1945: Incorporation of Western India Products Limited.
• 1947: An oil mill and hydrogenated cooking medium plant set up.
• 1966: Azim Premji takes over the leadership of Wipro at the age of 21.
• 1975: Wipro Fluid Power set up to manufacture hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders.
• 1977: Name of the company changed to Wipro Products Limited.
• 1980: Information technology services for domestic market started.
• 1981: Hardware company is launched.
• 1982: Name of the company changed to Wipro Limited.
• 1984: Software products subsidiary - Wipro Systems Ltd. - established.
• 1985: Toilet soaps manufacture begins.
• 1988: Wipro BioMed, a new business unit to market and service bio-analytical and diagnostic instruments, is launched.
• 1989: Joint venture with GE of US for medical systems, Wipro GE Medical Systems Ltd.
• 1990: Product software business discontinued; software services begin.
• 1992: Lighting business and finance arm is established.
• 1994: Merger of subsidiaries Wipro Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Systems Ltd. with Wipro Ltd.
• 1998: Relaunch of Wipro identity with Rainbow Flower and positioning statement, "Applying Thought".
• 1999: Software business reaches SEI certification.
• 1999: Wipro Net set up by restructuring Wipro Ltd.'s communication services business to address the Internet market.
• 2000: Listing of Wipro Ltd.'s ADRs on New York Stock Exchange.
• 2000: Six Sigma initiative begun.
• 2001: Wipro becomes world's first PCMM Level 5 company.
• 2002: Wipro becomes CMMi. Acquires Raman Roy 's Spectramind for US$ 175 million to get into BPO space
• 2005: Wipro becomes a 2 billion $ company.
• 2006: Wipro becomes the world's largest R&D service provider^{[citation needed]}.
• 2006: Wipro sees net profit for the three months to September rise 48% to $152m (£81m). [1]

[edit] Wipro businesses

• Official website
• Wipro Infotech
• Wipro GE Medical Systems
• Wipro BPO
• Wipro Lighting
• WMNetServ

[edit] Industry

The other Indian organisations that Wipro competes with are KPIT Cummins , Infosys , TCS , Satyam, Patni and HCL.

It's MNC competitors are Accenture, Capgemini, EDS, IBM and CA.

[edit] External links

• Wipro company overview - Reuters
• Wipro Limited financial overview at Google Finance
• Wipro company profile at Businessweek
• Wipro rides Indian outsource wave