Infosys bursting at the seams

Infosys bursting at the seams
The Remedy: Plans Car Park; Work Stations In ‘Hotels’
The Times of India

Bangalore: For Infosys Technologies, necessity is the mother of innovation, and we are not talking about software, applications and system integration.

First, there were guest rooms in a hotellike building at Infosys to combat the shortage of hotel rooms in the city. Now, it is a five-storeyed car park, the first of its kind in the Electronics City, to house the cars of the employees parked in the campus. Coming up is a spanking new building which will work as a car park spanning 3.15 lakh sq ft of area. About 1,200 cars can be parked in this whole concrete lot.

With the Electronics City campus bursting at its seams with over 15,000 people seated here (and over 600 cars parked at one time) and with more hiring in the pipeline, there is not an inch of space to accommodate them. “Out of sheer desperation (lack of space), we have even started working from the hotel rooms that we built for our guests. Out of the total 500-room complex, we have reserved only 200 for the guests while the rest have been transformed into work stations,” says Mohandas Pai, CFO, Infosys.

Today, the percentage of the Bangalorebased workforce is being drastically reduced. Last year, about 40% of the 34,000 total seats created, were based in Bangalore while today when Infosys is readying to build 21,000 seats, only 28% (6000 seats) are going to be based in Bangalore. “We have been asking for more land here but nothing seems to be coming from the government. Even the minutes of the high-level committee have not been signed by the CM,” say senior Infosys officials.

Recently, asked whether land has been granted to the Infosys, industries minister P.G.R. Sindhia said: “We have given them whatever land they had asked for.’’ But the Infosys officials have no clue as to where the land that was given to
them lies.

And, now, the company with its plans to hire 7,000 people in the next three months, is trying to come to grips with this. For the time being, it is solving the problem of parking cars to make life easier for its employees. “At least we don’t have to ask the government’s permission for this,’’ quip the Infosys officials.