Explore & Transform

Explore and transform-this was the key theme of the
spectacular customer event hosted by HCL Technologies in Agra in the first week
of December. It was the second such meet organized by the company, which saw
over 350 customers, including head of organizations, CIOs and analysts come
together.

The theme, interestingly, has been a well-thought out one. For
one, it offered customers the grand experience to explore India-Indian
culture, history, cuisine and the exotic Indian experience at the backdrop of
the Taj Mahal. Two, the meet was the perfect platform that helped HCL
Technologies bring its existing customers and analysts to advocate outsourcing
as the ideal tool for organizational transformation and transform potential
customer mindset. Third, and the most subtle message of the meet was to create a
platform to showcase the strategic transformation that HCL Group is undergoing
to evolve into a preferred outsourcing vendor.

Although a significant player in IT outsourcing, HCL
Technologies has never been considered in the same league as some of its peers
like Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Satyam. HCL's strategic direction is the key
essence of the explore and transform theme where it is urging potential
customers to explore HCL as an outsourcing partner while giving out a strong
message on their internal restructuring to create a true global delivery model.

Traditional outsourcing has gone beyond cost and has moved into
innovation, productivity, resilience and flexibility. New generation outsourcers
look for transformational gains and this is what came out as a key trend in the
current phase of outsourcing. Outsourcing needs of enterprises are driven by the
need to combat disruptive technologies. In order to respond to the evolving
needs of the new breed of outsourcers as well as potential customers, HCL has
embarked on a three-phase transformation exercise that started a year back in
2005 and will spread over five years. Phase I is a 24 month plan with 76
initiatives cutting across employees, customers, shareholders and new business
ideas driving business growth. Phase II is a selective partnership approach to
augment domain depth, capability and service innovation to enhance customer
value and accelerate growth in 18-48 months. Finally, Phase III is a radical
shift in business model and unique value propositions in 36-60 months.

HCL's credentials as a big player can be assessed by some of
the multi-million dollar deals it has been bagging over the last one year. In
November 2005, HCL bagged a $50 mn contract from Autodesk for offshore
infrastructure management. This was followed by the $100 mn EXA deal, $330 mn
DSG co-sourcing deal to provide system development, application delivery,
infrastructure support and maintenance services to the IS function of DSG
International and the $200 mn Skandia deal at the end of 2006.

Interestingly, outsourcing went beyond the regular debate on 'Whether
or not to Outsource" and the challenges of offshoring as customers openly
advocated outsourcing. The overall change in mindset towards outsourcing was
very appropriately expressed by Nick Poyntz-Wright, CEO of financial services
provider Scandia UK, in a panel discussion where he said, "This is what the
future enterprise will look like".

Bhaswati Chakravorty

bhaswatic@cybermedia.co.in