IT services major Wipro has said that it has set a target of doubling

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its consulting revenues over the next couple of years. Consulting contributes three per cent to Wipro’s revenues, but India’s third largest software exporter believes it can constitute six per cent by year 2011.

T K Kurien, Wipro’s president of consulting services, told Financial Chronicle that the company wants consulting to be the key differentiator in years to come.“The consulting vertical has 800 people in the team, onshore and offshore put together. These people are some of the best in the business who face the CXOs in creating new revenue generation models,” he said.

Wipro is looking at social networking, banking and older industries such as telecom and manufacturing to derive greater revenues from the growing consulting business.

“About 70 per cent of the work that we undertake on the consulting front revolves around revenue generation. It’s not about cost reduction when it comes to Wipro’s consulting domain. We feel many are equipped to do cost reduction, but our expertise lies in creating additional revenue for our customers,” Kurien said.

Wipro’s consulting team is divided into smaller divisions handling technology and enablement, process excellence, functional excellence and risk and compliance. “There is great traction in risk and compliance, as the banking sector is busy gearing up for several procedural changes,” said Kurien.

Out of the 800 people, 7 per cent of them will now be part of the R&D team, which will track 12 industry verticals. The job of the R&D team is to lay seeds of innovation. It will play a key role in bridging the divide between ideators and front-end workers. The R&D facility will seek to enhance the business value to clients through innovation. The company believes that consulting will work as a powerful tool during times of recession to gain customer confidence.