Wipro Infotech will form a new vertical to offer technology solutions to the healthcare segment.

India is seeing a mushrooming of specialty hospitals, day-care surgical centres and this is the growing opportunity for Wipro. The company plans to offer a suite of solutions — from hardware like PCs or servers to consulting services.

With this new vertical, Wipro Infotech wants to get into tier II and III cities. The company has tied up with an South Indian oncology company to provide services that would involve setting up its HR, payroll and ERP systems.

Speaking to Business Line , Mr Sairam Jagannathan, Vice-President – Business Solutions Division, Wipro Infotech, said: “With demand for healthcare services expected to be driven by both urban and rural markets in the coming decade, increasing penetration of both private and government health insurance schemes is expected to increase healthcare coverage.” Last month it bagged a complete outsourcing deal from Jindal Agro that would involve maintenance of the entire IT infrastructure.

The coming decade is likely to see more single speciality hospitals coming up in the country's tier II and tier III cities. Rising incomes and awareness levels are driving demand for such speciality centres.

More super speciality centres are expected to come up in the areas of heart, cancer, eye, maternal and child care, and cosmetology, according to Wipro.

The healthcare sector deploying IT engineers is seeing a huge amount of attrition as IT companies look to poach them.

This, in turn, is affecting the healthcare sector and this is an area where Wipro feels that its services will come in handy. “Outsouricng to Wipro will free these hospitals from IT maintenance issues,” added Mr Jagannathan.

Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East arm of Wipro focuses on IT implementations in emerging markets such as India. As per the Springboard Research, healthcare IT spending in India is expected to reach revenues of $609.5 by 2013.

> venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in

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