Digital India fails to excite HCL; firm says it is only about front-end changes

The Centre’s large-scale plans of digitalisation do not have HCL Technologies too excited.

The company is keeping a close watch on the government’s white papers on Internet of Things as well as digitalisation agenda. It is waiting for a time when the government seeks end-to-end solutions and changes.

Digitisation is a core growth and focus area for HCL Technologies, in which the company has signed deals with many other players, including a fast-food chain.

“It’s not about front office. It is about the front-to-back and end-to-end alignment of processes for corporations that drives them on a journey to digitalise. We have signed some mid-large sized deals,” Anant Gupta, President & CEO, HCL Technologies said.

This is the reason that the company is not yet jumping on the digital India bandwagon, where changes are being seen as more of front-end developments.

“The Government has a white paper on both. What we would try to avoid is someone wanting a front-office transformation. We are looking at process changes, people and cultural changes,” Gupta told BusinessLine .

The company is also riding on the wave of engineering and research and development services in which the company has clocked 13.7 per cent. “It is all about frugal engineering (in engineering services category) over there; it’s all about simultaneous engineering as we call it. If you look at our growth in that specific segment in this quarter as well as previous quarter you would see double digit growth,” Gupta added.

The need for frugal technology, innovation and services is also pushing the growth in the financial services segment, which is another one of the leading verticals for the company, with a 22.3 per cent year-on-year growth in the quarter.

Rahul Singh, President (Financial Services Sales & Business Service), explained that the cost pressures being faced by financial services firms is a huge opportunity.

“Most of the financial services firms are under tremendous cost pressure. A good segment of our product offerings are targeted at helping our clients cut costs. At the same time data is a key for the segment. Our customers are spending more on innovation,” he said.

Of the 15 deals, worth over $1 billion, signed by the company in December quarter, three have been in this sector. Financial services make for as much as 27-28 per cent of the revenues for HCL Technologies. It is estimated that these three deals account for over $250 million for the company.

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