We have identified 22 differentiated services: R Srikrishna

Interview with CEO and executive director, Hexaware Technologies

Mid-sized information technology (IT) services company Hexaware Technologies has reported better-than-expected numbers for July-September. This boosted its share price by nine per cent on the BSE on Wednesday. The Mumbai-based company’s chief executive and executive director, R Srikrishna, tells Aditi Divekar the strategy for Europe is starting to pay off and the firm plans to launch differentiated services. Excerpts:

Your September quarter growth seems led by Europe. What is the strategy you have adopted to penetrate deeper into this market?

Europe is a difficult market. The three factors that throw up challenges for global outsourcing here are language, labour laws and regulations. If a country has all of these, it is going to be hard to do business there, and Germany is a great example. So, the first thing is to pick up parts of least resistance in these three areas.

Second, the macroeconomic situation is bad in the region. Due to this, companies have lower budget. And when budget is low, the best thing to do would be to outsource.

The third factor: One needs to have the right mix of local and global employees. So broadly, these are the elements important to be successful in this region.

You had plans to focus on segments where you didn’t have presence. Progress?

For the medium term, we are going to stay focused on verticals we are into, such as banking and financial services, insurance and health care, and then build out additional verticals in waves. Also, expansion in manufacturing and retail will continue. Pharmaceuticals is a difficult market. So that is not going to be our first option. But a difference in our thinking is we are now looking at what horizontal services will allow us to eventually expand into adjacent verticals.

What is your plan on horizontal services?

We have identified 22 differentiated services, which have emerged from the existing service lines and are more enriched offerings. In the medium term, this will allow us to get into adjacent verticals. As the investment for this is already done, we don't need to make any major incremental investments.

We are re-focusing on whatever has been invested to see it is directed towards the specific areas where we are making a choice. Some of these differentiated services will start as early as January. Also, more than half will have parts of social media, mobility, analytics and cloud as the underlying fabric.