HCL BPO, a division of HCL Technologies, has signed a five-year deal with a Britain-based water utilities client that has around 5,000 employees. As of now, the company has less than 100 people working for the client, but it expects to add more by June-end.
HCL is also in talks with four other potential water utilities in the UK and Europe as well as some energy utilities.
“Utilities like water, energy and electricity are relatively immune to the economic slowdown and we are focused on the UK market in the first place, specially for water utilities,” Neeraj Tandon, global head, Retail and Utilities Business Unit, told Business Standard.
“HCL BPO has invested in creating service propositions in bringing in the domain skills for creating, building and adapting platforms for the utilities industry and in knowledge management, performance management and process management,” he added.
The company says investments in facilities and infrastructure are minimal and the margins in utilities are in line with the rest of the business. With over 12,750 professionals operating out of India, the UK and USA, HCL BPO runs 21 delivery centres.
It is currently servicing the telecom, retail & consumer packaged goods (CPG), BFSI, hi-tech & manufacturing, and media, publishing & entertainment verticals. Utilities are tied to the retail vertical (retail & utilities). The company’s areas of operations include supply chain management, finance & accounting services, knowledge and legal services, customer relationship management and technical support services.
The retail and CPG vertical contributed around 7 per cent to HCL Technologies’ revenues for the fourth quarter ended March 31 and grew 2.4 per cent in constant currency terms. Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, says retail is a growing business for the company.