HCL Technologies Company History – Business Standard News | Page 1

HCL Technologies Ltd is a leading global IT services company that helps global enterprises re-imagine and transform their businesses through Digital technology transformation. The company is primarily engaged in providing a range of software services business process outsourcing and infrastructure services. The company leverages an extensive offshore infrastructure and its global network of offices in various countries and professionals to deliver solutions across select verticals including Financial Services Manufacturing Telecommunications Media Publishing Entertainment Retail & CPG Life Sciences & Healthcare Oil & Gas Energy & Utilities Travel Transportation & Logistics and Government.HCL Technologies Ltd was incorporated in the year 1991 as HCL Overseas Ltd. The company received the certificate of commencement of business on February 10 1992. In July 14 1994 the name of the company was changed to HCL Consulting Ltd. In the year 1996 the company formed a 50:50 joint venture namely HCL Perot Systems NV with Perot Systems Corporation to provide access to high value client base of Perot Systems. HCL Technologies focuses on Transformational Outsourcing working with clients in areas that impact and re-define the core of their business after their IPO in 1999 with aim of foray into the global IT landscape and in the same year the company changed its name to HCL Technologies Ltd. The company started to create wholly owned subsidiaries to cater specific geographic regions from the year 1999. They had the widest service portfolio among Indian IT service providers with each of its services having attained critical mass. In the year of 2000 the company set up a dedicated offshore development centre in Chennai for KLA-Tencor Corporation a supplier of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industry. HCL Comnet the wholly owned subsidiary company in association with its new partner Globeset Inc introduced net security management solutions. The company launched the Nokia professional centre in New Delhi second among the chain of centres across the country. In the year 2001 the company entered into a strategic alliance with Nasdaq-listed Vitesse Semiconductor to develop software solutions for global networking markets. They also entered into a strategic alliance with Toshiba Information Systems (Japan) Corporation to set up a dedicated offshore software development centre for developing embedded software for the Japanese company. HCL Comnet Systems & Services Ltd a fully owned subsidiary company was gone into the business of Web-enabling applications through the launch of demand-chain management solutions.In the year 2002 the company acquired Gulf Computers Inc USA and formed a JV with Answerthink Inc. a leading US based provider of technology enabled business transformation solutions to Global 2000 firms. A strategic technology joint venture was made with Jones Apparel Group Inc. Jones Apparel Group Inc. a Fortune 500 Company in the same year and also entered into a joint venture with M.A. Partners a management consulting firm to address software services opportunities in Global Finance Markets especially in the areas of Investment Banking Asset Management and Private Banking. M.A. Partners brings a wealth of domain expertise and clients including many of the top Global Investment Banking firms to the JV. In the year 2003 BT Group UK’s telecom service provider gave a contract worth of $160 million for BPO service operations. The company set up an exclusive centre in Noida for executing the orders given by BT Group. The software business of HCL Infosystems Ltd was transferred to the company. The company set up Insurance Solutions Center in Chennai. In the year 2004 the company entered into a strategic tie-up with IBM Rational Software a division of IBM to strengthen its software development capabilities. The company was conferred the prestigious Excellence in Education Award for 2004 by the Life Office Management Association (LOMA). In August 2004 BPO delivery centre in Chennai got BS7799 certification by the British Standards Institute (BSI). They introduced Cross View; a framework based Computer Systems Validation (CSV) methodology for the development of robust software applications in the Life Sciences arena.In the year 2005 SEBI made a tie up with the company for market surveillance and the company formed joint venture with NEC Japan. The company amalgamated their six wholly owned subsidiaries namely DSL Software Ltd Shipara Technologies Ltd HCL Technologies BPO Services Ltd HCL Technologies (Mumbai) Ltd Aquila Technologies Ltd and HCL Enterprise Solutions (India) Ltd with the company. In February 2005 the company acquired an Irish Call centre and this acquisition establishes the company’s position as the single largest BPO Centre operation on the Island of Ireland. In the year 2006 the company launched RoHS Compliance Management System for Medical Device Users and entered $70 million outsourcing deal with Teradyne of US. HCL developed Trusted ICT Infrastructure Platforms for BPO-ITE’S Segment and has linked pact with Canada based electronics manufacturing services company Celestica Inc to jointly design and manufacture electronic products for global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company forayed into an alliance with $200 million Saudi Arabian company namely Advanced Electronics Company (AEC) to implement IT projects in West Asia in the year 2007 and formed a strategic alliance with Eckler to strengthen Insurance Domain expertise. The company made USD 15 million contract with Aleni Aeronautica to provide engineering services that will support the improvement of the C-27J Spartan production line. In the year 2007 HCL Venture Capital Ltd a company incorporated in Bermuda and downstream subsidiary of the company was merged with HCL Bermuda Ltd. Also HCL Technologies (Mass) Inc. a company incorporated in United States of America and a down stream subsidiary of the company was merged with HCL America Inc. During the year 2007-08 the company incorporated their wholly owned subsidiary viz. HCL Technologies (Shanghai) Limited. Through this entity the company established its first sales and delivery center in Shanghai with an initial investment of Rs. 2.77 crore. In order to consolidate its position in Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) space the company acquired the balance 49% stake in its Joint Venture Company viz. HCL EAI Services Inc. a California corporation for a consideration of Rs.13.32 crore through their downstream subsidiary HCL America Inc. a company incorporated in USA. With this acquisition HCL EAI Services Inc. became 100% subsidiary of the company. Further HCL EAI Services Inc. was amalgamated with HCL America Inc. with effect from July 1 2008. During the year the company set up four branches at Dublin in Ireland Zurich in Switzerland Tel- Aviv in Israel and Prague in Czech Republic. In December 2007 the company and Jones had entered into an agreement (Termination Agreement) to terminate the Joint Venture agreement entered in June 2002. As a part of the termination agreement a subsidiary of the Company has obtained binding commitments for the provision of IT services to Jones with an aggregate contract value of Rs. 96.8 crores (USD 22.5 million) upto 2012. Further pursuant to this termination the Joint Venture Company in Bermuda viz. HCL Jones Technologies (Bermuda) Limited will be wound up.During the year 2008-09 the company acquired all the capital stock of Axon Group Ltd (formerly known as Axon Group Plc) a leading UK based SAP consulting company for a cash consideration of Rs. 3302.39 crores by way of a cash offer made by the company to the shareholders of Axon Group Ltd. The company acquired all the capital stock of HCL Insurance BPO Services Ltd (formerly known as Liberata Financial Services Ltd) (IBS) incorporated in UK. Also the company acquired all the capital stock of HCL Expense Management Services Inc (formerly known as Control Point Solutions Inc) (CPS) for a cash consideration of Rs. 107.65 crores.During the year the company set up six subsidiaries to carry out the activities in Special Economic Zone in different locations in India to get various tax benefits. They also set up their branches in different locations to expand its operations in new geographies. The company set up their branches in Dubai UAE Helsinki Portugal Finland and Macau during the year ended June 30 2009 while the branch in Russia was set subsequent to June 30 2009. In September 2008 HCL BPO expanded their global presence to the USA with the acquisition of Control Point Solutions (CPS). This acquisition makes HCL BPO the first Indian BPO to enter the Telecommunications Expense Management (TEM) market. CPS has been rebranded to HCL Expense Management Services (HCL EMS).During the year 2009-10 the company set up their step down subsidiaries in Denmark viz. HCL Technologies Denmark ApS and in Norway viz. HCL Technologies Norway AS. Also they set up their branch office in USA. During the year 2010-11 as per the scheme of amalgamation HCL Technoparks Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company was amalgamated with the company with effect from August 27 2010. They incorporated HCL Technologies France PT HCL Technologies Indonesia HCL Technologies Philippines Inc HCL Arabia LLC Anzospan Investments Pty. Limited HCL Technologies South Africa (Proprietary) Ltd and Filial Espanola De HCL Technoloiges S.L. as step down subsidiaries of the company. Also they closed down their two steps down subsidiaries viz. Aspire Solutions Sdn. Bhd. a company incorporated in Malaysia and Axon EBT Trustees Limited a company incorporated in United Kingdom. In January 2011 it acquired certain software assets of Citi Securities and Fund Services.In July 2011 the company was selected to provide application management services to IKEA. In September 2011 the company signed a strategic five year Application Support Transformation deal with Deutsche Bank’s Capital Markets arm. The service factory delivery model implemented by HCL is expected to enhance productivity driven by transparent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and performance metrics and comes as Deutsche Bank endeavors to move away from a traditional applications support model to a set of process driven services governed by global standards like Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and LEAN.In October 2011 Cast SA signed a strategic partnership agreement with the company to strengthen the ASSESS-SMART services of HCL Technologies. In February 2012 the company signed an agreement with State Street Bank and Trust Company (State Street) to provide business process outsourcing services in support of a variety of State Street’s investment services businesses. Also they entered into a strategic relationship with Great American Insurance Group (GAIG) a company in specialty property and casualty insurance to provide Integrated IT services Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Infrastructure Management Services to GAIG and its affiliates.In 2012 HCL Technologies entered into strategic relationship with State Street to provide BPO services’. HCL Tech bags outsourcing deal from State Street. – HCL Technologies enters into strategic relationship with Great American Insurance Group. HCL wins ICD 10 transformation deal with Blue Shield of California. HCL partners with Cisco to open South Africa Centre of Excellence (GCoE) in Johannesburg.In 2013 HCL Technologies signed a long-term IT services agreement with Nokia. The company also signed a Multi-Year Multi-Million Dollar Partnership with Cobham Plc. The company gets into the process to provide Strategic Business Transformation Services to Husqvarna Group. The company receives Pegasystems Healthcare Partner Excellence Award. The company Opens Michigan Technology Development Center. The company Wins ITSMA’s Diamond and Gold Awards for Marketing Excellence. The company receives PHD Chamber Good Corporate Citizen Award 2013.In 2014 HCL Technologies receives Best Governed Company Award by Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability. The company also wins CNBC-TV18’s India Business Leader Award for Outstanding Company of the Year. The company wins The HR Excellence Award 2014.In 2015 the company opens new Global Delivery Centre in Oslo. The company Expands U.S. Footprint with New Global Delivery Center in Frisco. The company is Certified as Top Employer in the UK for the Ninth Consecutive Year. Tele2 and HCL Technologies form Strategic Alliance. HCL Technologies and Aegon launch cXstudio for customer-centric digital channel innovation. HCL Technologies wins five-year IT Managed Services Contract with SAI Global. HCL announces a United Xperience Lab Offering for institutionalizing Digital Co-Innovation with customers. The company acquires US based PowerObjects.On 17 November 2015 HCL Technologies announced that it had won an Application Development and Maintenance contract from Deutsche Bank. Under the terms of agreement HCL will provide digital solutions systems integration product implementation and design build and test new applications in addition to the ongoing application maintenance and support services.On 25 January 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it had won an IT infrastructure services contract from Alstom a world leader in the supply of the most complete range of systems equipment and services in the railway sector. On the same day HCL Technologies announced the acquisition of Point to Point Limited and Point to Point Products Limited (jointly referred as Point to Point or P2P) UK’s leading end-user cloud solutions design implementation and delivery specialists.On 8 February 2016 HCL Technologies announced the launch of an Internet of Things (IoT) Incubation Center in Redmond Washington USA designed to leverage Microsoft Azure IoT Suite to accelerate enterprise IoT adoption.On 16 February 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it had won a significant IT outsourcing contract from the Volvo Group one of the world’s leading manufacturers of commercial vehicles. Simultaneously HCL Tech announced the acquisition of Volvo’s external IT business adding 40 new customers from the Nordics and France to its portfolio further enhancing its market leading position in these regions. On 22 February 2016 HCL Technologies and Symantec Corporation the global leader in cyber security announced their plan to expand their existing partnership to help enterprises in areas of Cloud Security Cyber Threats and Forensic Solutions. On 2 March 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it had won a five year Next-Generation Information Technology Outsourcing contract from Husqvarna AB a leading manufacturer of outdoor power products including robotic mowers garden tractors chainsaws and trimmers. On 1 April 2016 HCL Technologies announced an agreement to acquire (through demerger) all of the business of Geometric Limited except for the 58% stake that Geometric owns in the joint venture 3 DPLM Software Solutions Ltd. with Dassault Systemes. The swap ratio for the merger was fixed at 10 equity shares of Rs. 2 each of HCL Tech for every 43 equity shares of Geometric of Rs 2. each as on the record date. Geometric is one of India’s leading PLM consulting mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering services providers.On 8 June 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it has signed partnerships with two leading automotive solution providers Movimento and Rightware to expand its offerings for the fast-growing smart vehicle ecosystem. On 17 June 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it had signed a strategic IT partnership contract with LeasePlan a global fleet management and driver mobility company of Dutch origin. Under the terms of agreement HCL will create Group Competency in collaboration with LeasePlan Information Services to provide IT solutions in various domains such as core leasing platforms business intelligence and data warehousing solutions enterprise IT solutions and application development & maintenance services.On 1 September 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it has entered into a partnership agreement with Mesosphere a datacenter infrastructure and container orchestration company. The partnership combines Mesosphere’s Datacenter Operating System (DC/OS) with HCL’s unique Next-Gen IT & Operations capabilities to deliver a unified operational experience and achieve efficient resource utilization for clients.On 14 September 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it has won a contract to provide application management services to Western Australia’s leading energy provider Synergy. On 21 October 2016 HCL Technologies announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Butler America Aerospace LLC (Butler Aerospace) a provider of engineering design services and aftermarket engineering services to US Aerospace and Defense customers. On 24 January 2017 HCL Technologies announced that Swiss financial services company UBS AG has renewed its finance operations services contract with the company for three and half years. On 20 March 2017 HCL Technologies announced that it has been chosen as the strategic IT services provider to the Volvo Ocean Race the world’s longest professional sporting event. On 17 April 2017 HCL Technologies announced that Singapore Exchange has renewed its IT services contract with the company for five years. Expanding the scope from the earlier year 2010 engagement covering IT infrastructure data center services and IT management the new contract includes transformational IT services in a managed services construct – spanning IT infrastructure end-user computing data center cloud services workplace transformation managed networks enterprise security and GRC.On 24 April 2017 HCL Technologies announced an agreement to acquire US based Urban Fulfillment Services LLC a provider of mortgage business process & fulfilment services. On 18 May 2017 HCL Technologies announced that it has joined the Duck Creek Global Alliance Program. As a Delivery Partner of Duck Creek Technologies’ Global Alliance Program HCL will provide customers with industry-leading application maintenance and technical support solutions to reduce time risk and costs during implementation and throughout the lifecycle of the deployed software.On 20 June 2017 HCL Technologies announced the launch of its Next Generation Research Platform (NGRP) a pre-competitive drug-discovery ecosystem built with open standards. This Platform will provide research scientists with a collaborative ecosystem greater computational resources and the ability to mine research data to make more informed scientific decisions while improving productivity by automating and eliminating manual administrative tasks.On 29 August 2017 HCL Technologies announced the opening its new delivery centre in Gothenburg Sweden. The new centre will be a key hub in HCL’s global delivery network providing cutting-edge transformational IT services as part of the global shared services model. In addition the Gothenburg office will also become HCL’s global headquarters for its mainframe services and automotive centre of excellence.On 5 September 2017 HCL Technologies agreed to acquire ETL Factory Limited doing business as Datawave a UK-based company that has created an innovative data automation platform which enables enterprise customers execute large scale complex data-migration and data-integration projects in a leaner faster and smarter way. The flagship product Datawave won the Informatica Innovation Award and is also extendable to other platforms including big data.On 6 September 2017 HCL Technologies (HCL) announced a new strategic partnership with Alpha Insight an intelligent products and solutions company headquartered in London UK with industry leading expertise in Business Flow Monitoring and Operational Intelligence. The transaction which includes purchase of select assets bolsters HCL’s DRYiCE Platform and its positioning as an Enterprise A.I Foundation.On 30 October 2017 HCL Technologies (HCL) announced collaboration with Red Hat the world’s leading provider of open source solutions to offer HCL Application Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) services to enterprise customers globally. On 14 November 2017 HCL Technologies (HCL) announced that it had won a five-year IT infrastructure services contract from Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) one of the world’s leading providers of insurance reinsurance and employee benefits related advice brokerage and associated services. On 5 December 2017 HCL Technologies (HCL) announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Siemens on Industry 4.0 solutions with a strategic collaboration on the Siemens Industry Software Suite. The global partnership with Siemens on Mindsphere a cloud-based open Internet of Things (IoT) operating system comprises technology application development connectivity solutions system integration and go-to-market strategy.In January 2018HCL signed a global reseller agreement with SAP SE where SAP will resell the HCL next-generation maintenancerepair and overhaul solution under the brand name of SAP Enterprise Asset Management(SAP EAM).The company was also identified as one of the strategic partners by SAP in its global partner network to drive IoT business.The company has been awarded Best RPA Implementation in Supply Chain Management at Asia Outsourcing Leadership Awards 2018. As on 31 March 2018the company has 94 subsidiaries and 9 associate companies under its roof.During the fiscal 2019the company was awarded with Outstanding Achievement Award in Automation Implementation at the Asia Outsourcing Leadership Awards 2019 for EXACTOwhich harnesses the latest innovations in AI machine learning and computer vision techniques that integrates seamlessly with Robotic Process Automation to create differentiated solutions.The company’s solution DRYiCE XSM was conferred the Award of Distinction at the Open Group Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Kochi in February 2019. As on 31 March 2019 the company has 133 subsidiaries and 8 associate companies under its roof.During the FY 2019-20the company has launched a dedicated HCL Microsoft Business Unit focused on Microsoft Technologies. As on 31 March 2020the company has 137 subsidiaries and 11 associate companies under its roof.In February 2021HCL has signed a five-year Digital Workplace Services Agreement with Airbus. HCL will establish a modernized digital workplace to enhance the user experience and service quality for the majority of Airbus employees globally.