India-based HCL Technologies sees tremendous potential in the GCC for IT infrastructure management services and has ambitious plans for the region.

HCL is one of India's leading global IT services companies, providing software-led IT solutions, IT Infrastructure Management services and BPO. It has recently signed an agreement with Riyadh-based Advanced Electronics Company (AEC) to implement IT projects in Saudi Arabia and has plans to expand in the Middle East.  Under the agreement, AEC and HCL (through its subsidiary) will jointly work to implement and execute integrated IT solutions and services for business transformation covering the end-to-end of the IT. The company has also joined hands with Awalnet, KSA’s leading ISP, to offer Integrated IT Management Services to Middle East Enterprises.
HCL has also inaugurated its first IT Management Centre (IMC) in Riyadh, which brings the company’s pioneering Remote IT Management delivery model to the Middle East.

Anant Gupta, president of HCL Technologies Infrastructure Services Division (ISD), in an exclusive interview with Sree Bhat, speaks about the company’s plans for the region as well as its commitment to the ‘Glocal’ concept.

Excerpts from the interview:

What does HCL bring to the Middle IT market?

We at HCL Technologies have very ambitious plans for the Middle East region. The fulcrum of these plans is a new paradigm which has the power to influence the way ‘Next Generation’ economies will shape up across the world, and which has the potential to take the Middle East economy, and the IT industry in particular, to a new level. This concept is called ‘Glocal’ – based on the principle of ‘Think Global and Act Local’ approach.  It is a mutually beneficial, financially rewarding ecosystem of global and local partners.

HCL has applied this sourcing model to IT and pioneered the concept of Glocal IT management, wherein we are partnering with local leaders like Saudi Arabia’s AEC and Awalnet to provide globally benchmarked IT management services to Middle East enterprises.

With a solid long-term business plan in place, HCL has already started tasting success in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman along with considerable traction in other GCC countries.

The company intends to target integrated and transformational deals which would include infrastructure services, and packaged applications like ERP, CRM etc.

What is the business focus of HCL in the region?

HCL is carrying its Integrated IT portfolio to this region ranging from of application development to BPO and IT infrastructure services.

On the IT infrastructure side, we have seen that the enterprises have made big investments in setting up IT infrastructures and the investment flow continues as the region sees an unprecedented growth. However, sustaining the excellence of IT in which they have invested is a key issue facing these companies now face. There is a clear lack of appropriate systems and processes to ensure that the infrastructure performance is predictable, reliable and able to address the growth demands of the business.

So we believe that a big vacuum exists in the ‘run’-side of the IT operation and that is where we see a definite opportunity in Middle East. Our IT Infrastructure Management Services ensure that the ‘run’ side of IT functions in a predictable and process aligned way. We have provided these IT management services to leading institutions in India for many years and are now successfully delivering them to some large global organisations distributed across the world.

What are the services provided by the division?

At ISD, we provide a comprehensive suite of IT management services. At the core of this portfolio is our a unique global delivery model of Remote IT Infrastructure Management (RIM) t