Business Line: Cognizant CFO Discusses the Company’s Europe Strategy and Outlook

Having established a strong presence in the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland, says Karen McLoughlin, Cognizant is turning its focus to large markets such as Germany and France “We are aggressively marketing in the two countries. The Galileo acquisition boosted our presence in France. We will continue to look for such investments. We will invest in the two countries to catch up with our competitors,” she says. “In Europe, we are continuing to see some volatility. However, in the long-term, it is a very attractive market for us. We expect revenue from Europe to grow faster than the company average,” she says, adding that in the December-ended quarter of 2011 alone, Cognizant generated 14 new clients in Europe.

McLoughlin says that although the spending pattern among European customers is unlikely to show a big change this year, customers are willing to change their business model to pursue big growth. According to her, this will be a big driver for growth. Historically, a large portion of revenue came from discretionary spending. However, customers are now spending on new services such as application development and maintenance outsourcing, business process outsourcing, and infrastructure management services, she says.

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