Shell opens IT centre in Bengaluru

Shell India Markets today announced the inauguration of its global in-house IT centre in the city which is expected to have close to 1,000 staffers by the end of this year.
The centre is likely to have several thousand employees by 2020, company officials told reporters here.
"To date we have 900 people and we expect this one to grow to 1,000. We plan to see same type of consistentgrowth over the next two to three years," Royal Dutch ShellChief Information officer Jay Crotts said.
Officials said the IT centre building can accommodate 2,300 people and the capacity can be expanded if the need arises.

Shell has Projects and Technology (P&T) centers at Bengaluru, Amsterdam, Houston (US) and IT centers at Houston, Hague, London and now in Bengaluru.
Crotts said "abundance" of skill and talent was themost important trigger to set up the IT centre in the city.

"The IT world that we are operating in today, the talent that India and Bengaluru, in particular, has... It was a clear decision for us to come here," he said.
Shell Companies in India Chairman Yasmine Hilton said the centre would also hire freshers in the future.
"We haven't taken freshers this year, the idea is toset up the centre and build from an experienced base. We will start recruiting freshers at some point soon," she said.

Noting that skill sets of people working at the center will cover all aspects of IT, Crotts said, "We see Bengaluru centre being absolutely critical for IT cloud centre and our project delivery, also from innovation to new development of technology."
Shell said it supports the vision of 'Make in India' and Skill India and is contributing towards the initiative by developing its largest IT delivery engine via the centre here.
Asked whether with the opening of the centre, Shell will consolidate the work it outsources, Crotts said, "We do have significant number of outsourcing contracts. Shell is on the path to in-source our projects with delivery capabilities."

"Our concentration is on bringing itin-house and focus on our delivery centre here in Bengaluru. Itwill be our largest centre by the end of the year... Where most of thedelivery and innovation comes from."
He also said project delivery is among the corefunctions it plans to bring in-house, along with IT cloudoperations.
Hilton said Shell sees India as a long term bet.
"The centre is a talent place for the Shellgroup. This is not about responding to a current oil price. This is about looking at capabilities, building skills,knowledge in-house to be the world's number one company.
"Yes, it is important to be cost efficient, butactually it is more important to deliver value," she added.

Stating that Shell in India has over 4,000 employees, Hilton said, "2016 will be the fastest growing year for us because of the IT centre and also because of the expansion into other businesses.