Following the signing of a £20m, 5-year deal with India-based Patni (see Patni paves the parterning path), ‘Morse-enhanced’ 2e2 has now signed up with the somewhat smaller India-based MindTree to provide offshore SAP services for 2e2’s (ex-Morse) Diagonal business. MindTree had taken over Diagonal’s SAP helpdesk a few months ago after 2e2 disposed of Morse’s Malaysian and Hong Kong operations. 2e2 will continue to use Patni for offshore infrastructure and Oracle application support services.
This all seems eminently sensible on both sides. MindTree has very little presence here in the UK (I’d estimate it at £15-20m p.a.) and, like Patni, would not be seen as a ‘Trojan Horse’ threat to 2e2’s wider business. It very much looks like the small India-based players have realised that the best way to approach the UK market now is to partner with ‘useful’ UK services firms with little or no offshore delivery capability, rather than scramble for the leftovers after the likes of TCS, Infosys, Wipro et al have had their pick of the deals.