RIYADH, 24 January 2008 — Pointing out that the world has become ‘flat’ and ‘glocal’, the CEO and founding partner of one of India’s top IT company has proposed a cost-effective solution to help boost the Kingdom’s global competitiveness at a time when signs of a global recession are looming on the horizon.
“We have created a new business model through our enabling technology that will be 10-20 percent cheaper than the conventional business practice,” Anant Gupta, president of HCL Technologies Infrastructure Services Division, told Arab News.
Gupta was here to participate in the Global Competitiveness Conference (GCF), which concluded yesterday. Sandeep Hardikar, deputy general manager of HCL, Riyadh office, was also present.
HCL, which has a joint venture with Advanced Electronics Co. (AEC), a Riyadh-based Saudi economic offset company, and Awalnet, Internet Service Provider, netted $ 1.6 billion for the year ended Dec.31. HCL Technologies and its subsidiaries together employ 47, 954 professionals giving it a competitive edge in the market to leverage its strength.
Gupta said the solution that he offered at the GCF was different from the conventional business method. “Historically, you install your system and employ a large work force to operate it from the office. Obviously, this is not a very efficient business model in view of the cost factor involved in maintaining a large work force.
“Ours is the Blue Oceans strategy, whereby we make a difference by managing the infrastructure in a remote environment. Here the location of an office does not matter. We provide solutions from across the borders and oceans.”
The HCL chief said their modus operandi involves a glocal (global + local) approach whereby they harness the strength of their own expertise and that of their local partners into a synergistic relationship.
Their business model is much more than a simple outsourcing solution. It also relies on the strength of their local partners in terms of marketing their services and servicing their clients. Buoyed by the success of the new business model in the Kingdom, they would be embarking on an expansion program in the UAE and Oman.
The HCL proposal has assumed a new dimension amid signs of global recession with oil prices plunging below $ 88 on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. Adoption of the outsourcing solution model for the remote management of the Kingdom’s IT infrastructure could scale back the cost of operation to an extent, said the HCL executive, whose company specializes in remote infrastructure management. He added that data security was assured through this state-of-the-art technology.
