HCL is the fifth-largest India-centric IT service provider in terms of revenue (after TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, and Wipro). While it only derived about 15% of its global fiscal 2012 revenues from markets outside of Europe and the US — slightly lower than the four larger Indian firms — HCL has built a strong base in Asia and now boasts more than 300 customers served by more than 8,000 employees. I recently attended HCL’s Asian analyst event in Sydney; below are some key reasons why I believe that you should consider HCL on your shortlist of systems integrators (SIs) and outsourcing providers:

• Flexibility. When I asked some of HCL’s Australian, ASEAN, and Indian clients what characterizes HCL’s approach to managing client relationships and delivering projects, most mentioned “flexibility” and “HCL is easy to work with,” particularly  during the transition phase in outsourcing contracts.
• Co-innovation focus. HCL’s Asia growth strategy is both focused (on a limited number of vertical and horizontals) and pragmatic. Starting small with staff augmentation deals, the company invests in relationships to develop its presence and its expertise with its clients’ challenges — 2% of the revenue generated from clients is reinvested in the engagement as an innovation budget.
• Local commitments. HCL has increased its regional presence via local management and delivery capabilities and local partners, including universities like Singapore Management University; IT companies like Lippo Group in Indonesia; and government, such as its work on the Mobility Lab initiative for EDB in Singapore.

 I needed to order a tool from Amazon.com recently, and I was greeted with a “New Year, New You” panel linking me to whole host of exercise equipment targeted to my lifestyle. Same old New Year’s resolution song-n-dance, right? Well, the idea of self-improvement in 2013 got me thinking:  We keep telling the SVM world that they need to stay relevant in a Business Technology world, so we’re now showcasing specific self-improvement tools to help you feel empowered stepping into 2013. In our recent “SVM Activities, Roles, And Skills Are Evolving” report, we have outlined the root rationale for SVM’s evolution and our prescription on how to move forward: 

• Roles are becoming more complex. As technology spending habits change, and spending  ripples outward from IT to the business, classic SVM roles (e.g., sourcing; contracts; vendor management) are broadening and deepening to include skills related to strategy, governance, and business value (see top column labels). 
• These roles require new skill sets and certifications. In order to fill out these new roles, SVM managers should encourage staff to grow their skill set with training and certifications in emerging categories including innovation, diversity, eco-friendly/green, globalization, and strategy (see left-hand row labels). There are a host of organizations and authoring bodies that can help you demonstrate credibility in SVM emerging impact areas.

with Rita Xia

On November 2 in Shanghai, Microsoft announced the availability of Office 365 and Windows Azure services for customers in mainland China; both have been available in Hong Kong for several years. Through its collaboration with 21Vianet Group and HiSoft (now part of PactEra, a merger of HiSoft and VanceInfo), Microsoft is the first multinational vendor to provide public cloud services in mainland China delivered through onshore cloud infrastructure.

Under the agreement, Microsoft has authorized 21Vianet Group, which has a “value-added telecommunications service” license, to operate Office 365 and Windows Azure in China. This is critical to Microsoft’s overall strategy in China, as only Chinese companies qualify for this government license, which is normally issued by ministry or provincial bureaus of MIIT (the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology). Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft is sharing cloud services revenue with 21Vianet Group and in exchange is able to leverage 21Vianet Group’s license to operate cloud data centers in China.

Microsoft’s entrance into the public cloud services market in China will affect both local and multinational cloud services/technology vendors in a number of ways:

• Government regulations restricting multinational companies from offering public cloud services in China are gradually loosening. We expect other multinational cloud providers to follow Microsoft’s approach of partnering with a local service provider that has the “value-added telecommunications services” license. The government’s primary objective with this license is to protect local providers and stimulate onshore cloud infrastructure investments, and this goal is met through partnerships like this.

I spent two days last week at an IBM Global Business Services (GBS) analyst event titled “Transforming the Front Office.” The event was designed for IBM to share its view of the future of the technology marketplace with industry analysts — and of course speak about how IBM fits into that role.

What’s clear is that IBM believes in the power of big data. Ok, so this may be obvious to the IBM watchers in the marketplace, but it’s interesting to see IBM bring to the table better marketing messages, case studies, and examples — all focused on how the GBS organization can apply that data to help clients stay competitive.

Throughout the two days with GBS, it was clear that this is more than just good marketing from IBM, it’s the core of its strategy. And that’s a fairly healthy place to be right now: Many firms tell Forrester that analytics is at the top of their list of emerging technology efforts. 58% of firms Forrester surveyed recently indicated that they’ve either implemented or are planning to implement, expand, or upgrade their BI tools over the next 12 months.

Some observations about GBS from this event: