Tech Mahindra expects double-digit growth in Cloud business in FY22

It’s all about new-age technology at Tech Mahindra. After a remarkable first quarter performance in FY22, the company’s management has told BusinessLine that they are expecting a double-digit growth from their Cloud Adoption business, while 5G and blockchain will bring new growth frontiers.

“We recently announced around six acquisitions in the cloud and digital space. That remains at the core of our business. Cloud business is going to be one the highest growth areas for us this year, we are expecting a double-digit growth there,” Manish Vyas, President, Communications, Media & Entertainment Business, and The CEO, Network Services, Tech Mahindra told BusinessLine.

Earlier this month, Tech Mahindra formed a Cloud Advisory Board of 30 members divided across EMEA, America and the APAC regions. The board, which consists of the company’s top clients across sectors will be advising on building a cohesive cloud adoption strategy while engaging with various participants of the ecosystem.

“The Global Cloud Advisory board is made up of our top customers, they are best in the industry. It is all focussed on helping us invest more and put better solutions in the cloud space,” Vyas said.

5G is another segment the company and its peers have been aggressively moving into. But unlike its peers such as the Tata Sons, who are buying majority stakes in hardware companies to make the best of opportunity, Tech Mahindra’s CEO and MD CP Gurnani told BusinessLine that the company is looking to go for an asset light manufacturing model and focus on the software and integration part.

“For some of the specific radio access networks you do need hardware. For BSNL, we are collaborating with ITI to manufacture hardware. In other cases, the clients may choose to get the radios manufactured themselves because overall the technology is open source and open RAN, and it is a cloud-based network. Hence, it is possible to get hardware manufactured under license and supervision through asset light manufacturing model,” Gurnani said.

Vyas added, “5G will be more about software than hardware. Not like hardware will go away entirely; we will work with some of the best hardware manufacturers and partner with them. But as a company we are clear that our strength is in the software space and integration space.”

“We are beyond trials on 5G, we are doing deals and continue to involve in conversations with the customers,” Gurnani said.

Investing in blockchain

Tech Mahindra has been active in the Blockchain adoption space, exploring opportunities from creating vaccine ledgers, tracking supply chains and manufacturing to launching ‘stablecoin-as-a-service’ for the BFSI sector in partnership with Netherlands-based Quantoz.

“Blockchain has been utilised for vast sectoral approaches. In India, it is not for cryptocurrency but what we are looking at is asset tracking,” Vyas said.

“We are essentially working on what our customers want of blockchain and its uses in different sectors such as manufacturing or looking at assets and securing those assets over a pipeline. We are also exploring blockchain for Telecom and also securing communications. Logistics too is a big use case for us from a blockchain perspective, for instance, tracing supply of vaccines,” he added.

Investing in marketing

Gurnani said that the company will be investing in branding and marketing activities this fiscal. A major part of it will be the global chess league, for which Chess grandmaster Vishwanath Anand will be an advisor.

Without disclosing much details on investment, Gurnani said, “It is a part of our contribution to the society and part of popularising the game. There are few things common between Tech Mahindra and Chess. Both are born in India and became global. It involves though leadership. It’s a game of knowledge and ultimately people and machine work together.”

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