HCL Technologies


HCL Technologies Limited, is an Indian multinational information technology service and consulting company headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is a subsidiary of HCL Enterprise. Originally a research and development division of HCL, it emerged as an independent company in 1991 when HCL entered into the software services business.
The company has offices in 44 countries including United Kingdom, United States, France, and Germany with a worldwide network of R&D, "innovation labs" and "delivery centers", and 1,47,123 employees and its customers include 250 of the Fortune 500 and 650 of the Global 2,000 companies.
It operates across sectors including aerospace and defense, automotive, banking, capital markets, chemical and process industries, energy and utilities, healthcare, hi-tech, industrial manufacturing, consumer goods, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, media and entertainment, mining and natural resources, oil and gas, retail, telecom, and travel, transportation, logistics & hospitality.
HCL Technologies is on the Forbes Global 2000 list. It is among the top 20 largest publicly traded companies in India with a market capitalisation of $21.5 billion as of May 2019. As of July 2020, the company, along with its subsidiaries, had a consolidated annual revenue of ₹71,265 crore.

History of HCL

HCL Enterprise

HCL Enterprise was founded in 1976.
The first three subsidiaries of parent HCL Enterprise were:
The company tried to stay focused on hardware, but, via HCL Technologies, software and services is a main focus.
Revenues for 2007 were US$4.9 billion.
Revenues for 2017 were US$6.5 billion, and HCL employed over 1,05,000 professionals in 31 countries.
Revenues for 2018 were US$9 billion, and HCL employed over 1,10,000 professionals in 31 countries.
A unit named HCL Enterprise Solutions Limited was formed in July 2001.
Currently HCL Technologies is a subsidiary of Vamasundari Delhi through a chain of entities in between. Vamasundari is owned by Shiv Nadar and it in turns holds majority of shares in most HCL group companies.
On July 1, 2019, HCL Technologies acquired select few product of IBM. HCL Technologies took the full ownership of research and development, sales, marketing, delivery, and support for AppScan, BigFix, Commerce, Connections, Digital Experience, Notes Domino, and Unica.

Formation and early years

In 1976, a group of six engineers, all former employees of Delhi Cloth & General Mills, led by Shiv Nadar, started a company that would make personal computers. Initially floated as Microcomp Limited, Nadar and his team started selling teledigital calculators to gather capital for their main product. On 11 August 1976, the company was renamed Hindustan Computers Limited.
On 12 November 1991, a company called HCL Overseas Limited was incorporated as a provider of technology development services. It received the certificate of commencement of business on 10 February 1992 after which it began its operations. Two years later, in July 1994, the company name was changed to HCL Consulting Limited and eventually to HCL Technologies Limited in October 1999.
HCL Technologies is one of the four companies under HCL Corporation, the second company being HCL Infosystems. In February 2014 HCL launched HCL Healthcare. HCL TalentCare is the fourth and latest venture of HCL Corporation.
HCL Technologies began as the R&D Division of HCL Enterprise, a company which was a contributor to the development and growth of the IT and computer industry in India. HCL Enterprise developed an indigenous microcomputer in 1978, and a networking OS and client-server architecture in 1983. On 12 November 1991, HCL Technologies was spun off as a separate unit to provide software services.
HCL Technologies was originally incorporated as HCL Overseas Limited. The name was changed to HCL Consulting Limited on 14 July 1994. On 6 October 1999, the company was renamed 'HCL Technologies Limited' for "a better reflection of its activities." Between 1991 and 1999, the company expanded its software development capacities to US, European and APAC markets.

IPO and subsequent expansion

The company went public on 10 November 1999, with an issue of 1.42 crore shares, valued at ₹4 each. During 2000, the company set up an offshore development centre in Chennai, India, for KLA-Tencor Corporation.
In 2002, it acquired Gulf Computers Inc.

Acquisitions

Pending

On 12 April 2018 USA-based Actian announced that it will be acquired by HCL Technologies for $330 million.

Joint venture

On 23 July 2015, CSC and HCL Technologies announced a joint venture agreement to form a banking software and services company, Celeriti FinTech.
In October 2017, IBM struck a "strategic partnership" with HCL Technologies that had the latter firm take over development of the IBM Lotus Software's Notes, Domino, Sametime and Verse collaboration tools.
In May 2018, HCL Technologies announced that it has joined hands with Transportation Alliance, known for incorporating blockchain in the transportation industry, to implement blockchain.

Partnership

On 9 June 2015 PC maker Dell announced a strategic distribution partnership with HCL Infosystems.
In October 2018, TransGrid signed a 5-year managed services deal with HCL Technologies for IT services delivery and providing outsourcing support, with the outsourcing teams to be based in Australia.
HCL Tech signs seven-year exclusive partnership with Temenos - The exclusive strategic agreement will be for non-financial services enterprises, where HCL has been granted a license to develop, market, and support Temenos multi-experience development platform. This agreement will help provide HCL's non-financial services clients leading technology and the higher levels of services and support.

Operations

HCL Technologies operate in 44 countries, including its headquarters in Noida, India. It has establishments in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. In Europe it covers Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, and United Kingdom. In the Americas, the company has offices in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and United States.

Business lines

  1. Applications Services and Systems Integrations
  2. BPO/Business Services: This division has "delivery centres" in India, Philippines, Latin America, USA, HCL BPO Northern Ireland, and Europe.
  3. Engineering and R&D Services
  4. Infrastructure Management Services
  5. IoT WoRKS
  6. DRYiCE
  7. Digital & Analytics
  8. Cybersecurity and GRC Services

    Infrastructure Services Division

A subsidiary of HCL Technologies, HCL Infrastructure Services Division is an IT services company. Headquartered in Delhi, NCR, India, HCL ISD was instituted in 1993 with the objective to address the demand for cost-effective management of technology infrastructure across geographically dispersed locations.
HCL ISD, also known as HCL Comnet Systems and Services Ltd. in India, diversified ito provide enterprise IT infrastructure globally in 1993 winning the first order to establish India's first floorless stock exchange

United Kingdom and Ireland

On 7 September 2005, HCL Technologies expanded its operations base in County Armagh and Belfast in Northern Ireland. At the 2006 UK Trade and Investment India Business Awards in New Delhi, the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the expansion, which was aimed at creating more IT and BPO jobs in the area. HCL acquired the Armagh-based Answer all Direct earlier in 2005. HCL BPO services in Ireland are carried out through its main delivery centres in Armagh and Belfast. In November 2011, after HCL revealed an expansion plan in County Kilkenny in Ireland, its Business Process Outsourcing division in Northern Ireland won a contract for back-office services from the Department of Health. It was aimed at increasing the number of jobs and other employment opportunities in the region.

Sri Lanka

HCL announced on 16 June 2020 that it had commenced operations in Sri Lanka. The company plans to create 1,500 jobs in the country within the first 18 months of operations.

HCL Infosystems

HCL Enterprise's Infosystems subsidiary, as of 2015, was still active.
This part of HCL was formed in 1976 to produce calculators.

Criticism

HCL has been involved in criticism and litigation involving the H-1B visa program to replace U.S. workers with cheaper foreign labour, including the Disney collusion lawsuit, and the heavily reported case of replacing University of California's San Francisco Medical Center IT workers.