Exodus at tech firms continues from Russia-Ukraine, impacting operations

Companies are taking all possible steps to keep employees safe and to ensure their businesses aren't impacted

Indian IT services players, which mostly do not have much exposure to Russia or Ukraine in terms of delivery centres, and global tech players who have a significant presence, are pulling out as operations get impacted.

A recent addition to this list is GlobalLogic, a Hitachi group company, which has engineering hubs in Ukraine. It is taking all possible steps to keep its employees safe and to ensure the business isn't impacted.

In a statement, the company said: “While there has been some interruption of services during employee transition, the company has been able to resume client projects and is working to get operations back to normal status. Due to the nature of the software engineering work, employees are able to perform their duties from remote locations as they were doing because of the pandemic and there has not been a significant impact on GlobalLogic’s operation at this moment.”

Hitachi Group is suspending exports to Russia and pausing all manufacturing activities within the country for the time being, with the exception of products, services and support for electrical power equipment that are indispensable to the daily lives of people.

“The revenues in the Russian market accounts for approx. 0.5% of Hitachi’s consolidated revenues forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2022, 10 trillion yen, and more than a half of this is from revenues of construction machinery. The revenues for which engineering hubs of GlobalLogic in Ukraine are involved in accounts for approx. 0.3% of Hitachi’s consolidated revenues forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2022,” said the company in a statement.

Hitachi is the recent addition to the list of MNCs that have pulled down from Russia as well as trying to make sure that operations are not impacted due to centre in Ukraine. GlobalLogic has a huge presence in India with over 20,000 employees working from its centre in Noida, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru.

US-based EPAM Systems that has about 14,000 employees in Ukraine has discontinued its services to customers in Russia and stated that it will provide transition support for customers in this market. “As previously announced, the company is executing business continuity plans and accelerating hiring across multiple locations in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and India. EPAM continues to operate productively in more than 40 countries and continues to provide consistent high-quality delivery in all geographies around the world," said the company in a statement.

Accenture in a latest media statement said: “Accenture is discontinuing our business in Russia. We thank our nearly 2,300 colleagues in Russia for their dedication and service to Accenture over the years. We will be providing support to our Russian colleagues. While Accenture does not have a business in Ukraine, we will continue our efforts to help our Ukrainian colleagues working around the globe at Accenture and their extended families; we are providing telehealth for those in Ukraine, and helping resettle family members who leave Ukraine.”

Accenture is donating $5 million to nonprofit relief organizations working to help people in Ukraine and those who are being displaced into Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) too today stated that the company is pledging $1 million to aid agencies involved in the relief efforts to support the humanitarian needs across Europe. “Additionally we will match contributions made by our employees as further support aid though these agencies. While we do not have offices in Russia and Ukraine we continue to monitor the situation. Our operations are running with business continuity plans in place for contingencies. We are also supporting our customers in their plans to prepare for all exigencies in this crisis,” said a statement from the company.

Meanwhile IBM too has discontinued its services and sale of technology in Russia, and the company in a statement said that it is taking all efforts to make sure that its employees in Ukraine are safe.

Other companies that have pulled out of Russia include DXC Technology, which has 4,000 people in the country. Consulting firm KPMG, which has 4,500 people in Russia and Belarus, too has stopped operations.