The
partnership is aimed at leveraging competencies of both organisations
to create greater value and more efficiency for the global airline,
Wipro said in a statement.
Wipro will use its
experience in application development and project management and Qatar
Airways’ aviation systems’ expertise to develop new solutions to create
competitive advantage for the airline, it added.
Though
the company declined to comment on the deal size, industry sources
suggest the deal could be worth a little less than $50 million.
The Doha-based airline has a fleet of 111 aircraft flying
to 118 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and
the Americas.
The solutions jointly developed within
this partnership will enable Qatar Airways and its subsidiaries to
pursue their aggressive growth strategies, the statement said.
“Through this agreement, Wipro will work with us to build
new aviation IT solutions to meet our business needs in a fast-moving
environment,” Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said.
Under the new arrangement, a lot of the software
development will be carried out by Wipro in South India.
Qatar Airways will be able to tap into Wipro’s vast pool of
highly technical resources, as well as research and development centres
to explore and take advantage of new technological solutions, it said.
In a separate announcement, Wipro Technologies, the IT arm
of Wipro, said it has been positioned as a Thought Leadership
’Best-In-Class’ in the CEB TowerGroup Outsourcing Technology Analysis
Report 2012.
Wipro has been investing in domain and
technology led thought leadership and has delivered innovations in areas
close to the financial services business such as Customer Experience,
Risk & Compliance, Channel Transformation and Analytics, it said.
“Being recognised as a thought leadership in the financial
services industry demonstrates our efforts to engage with customers as a
business partner, delivering innovative business solutions that go
beyond the traditional ambit of an IT services provider,” Wipro
Technologies SVP and Global Head (Financial Solutions) Soumitro Ghosh
said.
