Jan. 27: General Electric, the largest client of Satyam Computers, has agreed to pay 40 per cent of its bill this month helping the crisis-ridden firm foot part of the sa-lary bill of its employees.A desperate Satyam is trying to mobilise money to pay its employees by offering discounts to clients who pay their dues promptly.Though GE was amenable to the Satyam offer, Cisco, another major client of Satyam in the United States, has indicated that it may not renew its contract with the firm after the end of this quarter in April.Satyam’s discount offer has amused many since it was known not to give up a penny while collecting bills from its clients.Now it has asked its group leaders to offer discounts of up to three per cent to clients to meet the targets. A client who makes full payment would be given the highest discount.With just three days left for the month to end, Satyam has set in motion the “discount scheme” to mobilise Rs 521 crore for payment of salaries.“It is discounts galore in Satyam, a company known for its cut-throat functioning,” said a sou-rce. “It has receivables of about Rs 1,700 crore. Apart from Rs 521 crore for the salary bill, it also requires another Rs 120 crore to meet operational expenses for a month.”The group leaders (also called business leaders) who directly interact with the clients have been directed to focus on receivables rather than new contracts.Apart from GE, other big clients such as Applied Materials, Selecta, Telstra, Malaysian Airlines and British Petroleum have also been lured with discounts.Bill payments had slowed down after Mr Ramalinga Raju’s confession about fudging accounts but they picked up in the third week of January.Outsourcing contracts worth around $500 million are up for renewal by Satyam customers this year.Cisco’s decision not to renew its contract has come as a major blow to Satyam. A major player in the networking business, Cisco has been Satyam’s client from 2003 and its annual bill comes to about Rs 400 crore.As many as 2,000 Satyam employees work in the Cisco account out of which 500 work on the site in California and North Carolina.A senior Satyam employee working in the offshore campus in California said there were signs that rivals Infosys and Wipro might take over the work given to Satyam so far. “Downsizing is bound to happen,” he pointed out.
