SAP's ex-India boss to run outsourcer Infosys

Vishal Sikka PhD, SAP AG's top India executive until he quit citing personal reasons last month, has been named the new CEO at Infosys, the big Bangalore-based IT outsourcing firm struggling to cope with change in how low-wage Asian tech companies outsource Western computer services. (Arek Hesseldahl at Re/Code reports that Sikka had hoped to win SAP's top job, which went instead to Newtown Square-based marketing whiz Bill McDermott).

"The appointment is particularly interesting given Dr. Sikka's background in software," writes analyst Joseph Foresi in a report today to clients of Janney Capital Markets. " Dr. Sikka will have his work cut out for him" at Infosys, since "execution has been inconsistent, revenue growth has trailed industry averages, and commoditization is creating challenges particularly given the present (profit) margin profile." Foresi rates the stock "neutral."

At SAP, a German-based global company whose CEO, Bill McDermott, is based in Newtown Square, Sikka served as chief technology officer and oversaw the HANA database product group, among others. "Sikka believes the lines between software and services are blurred," Foresi writes. He takes over at Infosys in August and will head a team that includes other new managers.

Sikka takes over Infosys at a time when newly-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi is encouraging India's expatriate software engineers and managers to return home and build Indian companies, when the cost advantage Asian firms formerly enjoyed for U.S. corporations has narrowed, and as a new generation of specialized and cloud-oriented IT outsourcing firms like Wayne-based LiquidHub (which counts several of Philadelphia's largest companies as clients) are moving their people directly into U.S. corporate offices in addition to offshoring work to countries like India and the Phillipines.