Innovation is a buzzword in the IT sector today.

In its efforts to promote innovation in the IT sector in India, the National Association of Software and Services Companies -- after earlier selecting five emerging companies -- has now shortlisted five large companies from over 25 companies who presented their innovative services/products.

Leading companies Genpact, Infotech Enterprises, Infosys, TCS and Wipro were selected in the final round. The companies presented their innovation to a panel of judges in Mumbai on Monday.

With the theme 'Beyond Services: Innovations in large companies,' the companies presented a range of IT solutions and products.

"The size of the innovation market is equal to the size of the IT and BPO sector. The potential of an innovation-led market is huge," Noshir Kaka, principal consultant, McKinsey, said.

While Genpact showcased it software tool to cut down attrition rates, Infotech Enterprises presented a navigation device, which can be used with the help of an inbuilt map, to tell you which route to take.

Wipro presented its innovation in the infrastructure marketing space while Infosys highlighted how innovation in knowledge management helped the company save costs and make huge profits.

TCS lived up to the theme of 'beyond services' with its products Bio-Suite.

The panel of judges which included Ganesh Natarajan, deputy chairman and managing director, Zensar; Anil Bakht, chairman & managing director, Eastern Software Systems; Sharad Sharma, GM, Symantec India; Deepak Phatak, Indian Institute of Tecnology, Mumbai, and Noshir Kaka, grilled the companies on various aspect of their innovation.

TCS's Bio-Suite

All set to capture the bi-informatics market, TCS's Bio-Suite comprises computational tools and algorithms to decipher genetic data.

"This is a first of its kind device in India, developed in a span of two years with 80 people on the job. The software will help in drug discovery and bring down the cost of research, Rajagopal Srinivasan, senior consultant, life sciences division, TCS, said.

The suite has a very convenient interface and is designed to analyse large amounts of data. The tool developed in association with 18 academic institutes will also be very useful to educational institutions as well.

Genpact's model to curb attrition

Genpact, which has 19,000 employees today and plans to add about 10,000 employees soon, developed a mechanism to find out reasons for attrition on the basis of 30 key variables based on data from 3,000 employees.

This eventually helped the company a reduction of 12% direct cost amounting to about $3.3 million.

Infotech's navigation tool

A personal device manufacture, this innovative product, uses global positioning system to offer information of various routes based on a map. Developed in association with global firm, Tele Atlas, the tool is at present used abroad.

Infotech sees a market for navigation tool, which can be integrated with PDAs and mobile phones in India in future.

Wipro

Wipro has designed a global command centre for Infrastructure Services, which is online and works 24/7. The company has already bagged deals worth $65 million in the field of infrastructure services.

"We have developed a tool agnostic process which can work in any platform, irrespective of the customer's platform. With this development, today 47 per cent of non-engineers are working on the GCC.

Infosys

"Infosys sees knowledge management as a key to cost cutting and improving efficiency. Bullish on India's potential as a knowledge management destination.

J K Suresh, AVP & principal knowledge manager, Infosys, said that there is a huge market for knowledge management in India. "We have the right mix of traditional knowledge in India. We, at Infosys, are obsessed with quality and our focus will continue to develop products to enhance the services that we offer."

Ganesh Natarajan, chairman, Nasscom Innovation Forum & MD, Zensar Technologies, said, "The companies offered a good mix of both innovative products and services. We have short-listed two companies as winners of the Innovation Award. It will be declared in February."

The Nasscom IT Innovation in India award honours Indian IT companies who have made innovations in terms of ideas, products, processes or technologies to enable the business to achieve higher margins.