Outsourcing deal concerns IT firms, weakness in BFSI could impact: Experts

Weak order booking by Accenture in the key outsourcing business during the March to May quarter is seen by experts as a warning signal for Indian information technology (IT) service companies. The segment is their major play.

Accenture is considered a market leader, with over 60 per cent of revenue from digital services. It reported an outsourcing book to bill ratio of 0.96 in the quarter, as against 1.08 in the preceding one. The company follows a September-August financial year. This relatively weaker order booking, especially from the IT outsourcing segment, was majorly on account of demand softness in BFSI (banking, financial services, insurance) in Europe, apart from the manufacturing vertical. Accenture derives close to 70 per cent of its revenue from IT outsourcing; the ‘consulting’ business accounts for the rest.