HCL Technologies expects its financial services pipeline in Europe to be in excess of $1 billion, this fiscal year, a senior official has said, as the economy improves and European clients become increasingly comfortable with the idea of offshore outsourcing; as the Economic Times reports.
HCL is India’s fourth-largest software services company, which gets nearly 30 per cent of its revenue in Europe, has said it is seeing an increased appetite for offshoring from customers in Europe. This is a market that has, in the past, shied away from outsourcing technology work to Indian companies.
“Financial services pipeline in Europe has never been bigger. About 70 per cent of this is expected to be signed this year,” says Stuart Drew, executive vice-president in charge of HCL’s financial services business in Europe and global head of insurance business.
In this quote, Drew was referring to the value of the contracts that HCL Technologies have been competing for, against other Indian companies as well as multinational competitors. Drew, who has been with the company for over a decade, said HCL’s financial services business in Europe grew by 21 per cent last year.
“We expect a similar growth this year,” in a year when India’s top software companies are betting on continental Europe as their next growth engine. Europe contributes nearly one-third of the $108 billion IT industry, but the bulk of that is currently accounted for by Britain.
“For Indian software companies, success in Europe has so far been largely limited to the UK and Nordic countries. We are finding increased business in Europe mainly as large customers look for ways to reduce costs in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash and the European financial crisis that followed,” he affirmed.
