HCL strengthens NZ market position with new partner

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 10:10

IT Industry - Market

IT services group, HCL, has boosted its presence in the New Zealand market with a new partnership agreement with local ICT services company, Optimation, and plans to go after business with New Zealand government and enterprise customers.

HCL’s head of its Asia Pacific operations,  Virender Aggarwal, said today that HCL had already successfully developed a strong New Zealand presence in over a decade, and that the deal with Optimation would prove to be a “significant step forward in our plans to grow HCL’s operations locally.”

Aggarwal said the partnership with Optimation would progress HCL’s ability to deliver “world class services to the industry at a highly competitive price point,” adding that HCL had chosen Optimation because of its long track record in New Zealand and their “detailed understanding of the nuances in successfully winning and delivering business here because of their long track record in New Zealand.

“The new partnership will combine HCL’s global scale and demonstrated capability in delivering high quality IT services with Optimation’s local New Zealand expertise. HCL will work with Optimation to offer innovative and flexible solutions to New Zealand Government and enterprise customers that reliably deliver on their business goals. The strengths of both organisations will bring improved cost effectiveness, industry best practice, global capabilities and specialist skill sets to New Zealand organisations.”

According to Aggarwal, HCL is particularly looking at making, what he calls, “a significant contribution to the local economy” and to create a “flurry of opportunities locally.”

“A significant number of our existing staff is local hires and we expect to expand our training facilities with a new IT competency centre planned for Auckland in the next two years. By providing the training infrastructure, we are directly addressing the wider industry skills shortage and investing in the future of our business.”

Optimation’s chief executive Officer, Rhoda Holmes, said HCL had developed a “very strong reputation in this part of the world,” and she said the company was looking forward to working with HCL to extend its own global delivery model and existing capabilities in areas such as SAP services and large-scale application development.
 
“HCL’s willingness to engage on a fixed outcomes basis and to share risk is in tune with our own business philosophy. In the current economic climate, we expect this approach to have broad appeal for New Zealand businesses looking to reduce costs and to get more business value out of their existing IT investments,” Holmes added.