Zensar Technologies invests in platforms to bolster 'digital' offerings

At a time when most Indian technology services companies are rapidly expanding their digital portfolio to offer next generation technologies to global clients, midsize IT services company Zensar Technologies is gearing up for another level, expecting its investments in platforms and solutions to play a major role.
 

The company, which drives close to 39 per cent of its revenues from digital offerings, aims to pivot its business model, wherein it intends to take the platforms built in-house to global customers and also corner steady source of recurring business.  
 

“We have done very well in the digital side of our business, both organic and inorganic, and our objective clearly is to grow it faster. That’s where we are investing in, and we are taking the digital platforms to every single customer of ours,” said Sandeep Kishore, CEO & MD of Zensar Technologies. “So, by design, we are pivoting the company to where we think we can create more value for our customers and what is relevant to them.”
 

The Pune-headquartered company boasts of building close to 30 different platforms, which have helped it raking in close to $2 million in revenues during the last six months. All these platforms were built by in-house team, the size of which at peak accounted for around 5 per cent of its overall workforce and still continues to remain large.
 

“We are still in early stages, but it helps to position us differently in the company,” said Kishore.
 

In the quarter ended 31 December, the contribution of digital services to Q3FY18’s revenues of $122.6 million was 38.8 per cent, a sequential growth of 9 per cent. The company said more than half of its recent wins were digital led.
 

Kishore said the company’s digital transformation journey started around two years ago with an intent to completely digitise its internal processes to position itself as a “living digital” company. One of the key results of that was Zen ROD or Zensar “Return on Digital” platforms, which the company launched in July last year. The almost ready-to-be installed platforms are 80 per cent built, while the rest can be configured depending on requirements of individual clients.
 

“Traditionally, we were a services company. So the future, we think, will belong to those who offer both platforms as well as services. It will not be about pure-play services anymore,” said Kishore.  
 

Spending on digital technologies is expected to sustain and drive the growth for the IT services industry, which is going through a rapid transformation with the arrival of newer technologies and change in clients’ priorities. According to various estimates, the worldwide spending on digital transformation technologies, including hardware, software and services, is expected to top $1.3 trillion in 2018, an increase of 16.8 per cent over the previous year.
 

According to Zensar, all the three focus segments for the company — financial services, retail and manufacturing — are now at the forefront of driving the global spending on digital technologies. Retail, for example, accounts for around 30 per cent of Zensar’s overall revenues, higher than most other large and small India IT services players.