IT-BPO model past its expiry limit?
Magic will happen. When Vineet Nayar of HCL Technologies iterates this about a strategic shift his $3.9 billion company charted, it may seem like the stubborn defence of a man who is too proud to admit he might have been off.
About three years ago, HCL and the top-tier IT players threw their weight behind a model they sensed was the future: an IT-BPO combine. Global majors like Accenture were already on to it. The thinking was that IT already shapes certain kinds of business process solutions, and that if they offered both, it would put them on a stronger wicket with a client.
So, say, HCL was already making payroll software for a bank. What if it also took over all processes related to paying salaries to the bank's employees? Each would feed the other. The BPO (business process outsourcing) side would give HCL a better understanding of what the bank wants on payroll and enable it to craft software accordingly.
And if it crafted good software, it had a strong