Kalyan Kumar, Chief Product Officer at HCLSoftware, highlights the company’s commitment to empowering global enterprises with cutting-edge digital transformation solutions. By prioritizing customer-centricity, embracing emerging technologies like AI, and fostering collaborative partnerships, HCLSoftware drives innovation and sustainable growth. With a strategic focus on the Middle East, the company aims to unlock new opportunities and accelerate regional transformation.
How would you describe HCLSoftware’s core mission and values?
HCLSoftware is the largest enterprise software product business headquartered in India, serving 10,000+ clients across 130+ countries. Our vision is to empower enterprises globally on their digital transformation journeys and drive innovation with a deep commitment to our purpose and values while delivering sustainable value for our customers, partners, and communities.
At HCLSoftware, our core values are Integrity, Inclusion, Value Creation, People Centricity and Social Responsibility. They are not just words but our guiding principles that define who we are and how we operate. These values are the foundation of our success and create a strong sense of community within our company.
What are the key differentiators that set HCLSoftware apart from its competitors in the market?
At the heart of HCLSoftware’s differentiation lies an unwavering focus on customer success and empathy – a stark contrast to the rigid, product-centric approaches. We’ve made it our mission to build deep, lasting relationships with our customers, taking the time to intimately understand their unique challenges and pain points. Armed with these insights, we then align our world-class engineering prowess to craft high-quality solutions that deliver unparalleled value.
Our commitment to co-creation is what truly sets us apart. We actively invite customers into the development process, tapping into their real-world expertise to ensure our products are perfectly tailored to their needs. This collaborative mindset fosters a culture of empathy and shared innovation, transforming us from mere vendors into trusted strategic partners.
What strategies do you employ to ensure that your products meet the evolving needs of your customers?
At the core of our relentless pursuit to meet customer needs lies the customer-centric philosophy that sets us apart. The differentiators we discussed earlier set the tone of our product strategy. Our product management teams are dedicated to closely listening to our customers and actively understanding their needs and pain points so that we deliver solutions that are not only viable and measurable but also genuinely desirable – driving meaningful impact and long-term value.
Also, our philosophy of aligning ourselves to voice of customer fosters an open, collaborative dialogue, empowering us to deeply understand evolving customer needs. It’s a unique networking opportunity for our customers to exchange ideas, collaborate, and co-create tailored solutions. A true win-win for all involved.
Moreover, at HCL Startup SYNC (Speed Up Your Novel Conception) – a dynamic platform that functions as both an open-innovation hub and a startup accelerator amplifies our efforts to drive innovation for customers at a breakneck pace
How is HCLSoftware leveraging emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and automation in your products?
At HCLSoftware, our approach to AI is driven by a steadfast commitment to innovation. We’ve developed a guiding philosophy that informs how we adopt, embed, and infuse these transformative technologies across our entire Products to Cloud/XaaS.
We look at value creation through a simple, yet powerful, set of lens: transforming the way we work from a “Human-Led and Automation Assisted” model to an “Automation-Led and Human Assisted” approach. This is across automated workloads, operational intelligence, self-healing systems and self-service workflows through usage of Generative AI.
But our AI innovation doesn’t stop there. We leverage GenAI in multiple ways like – forging deep partnerships with industry-leading hyperscalers to propel product velocity, embedding Generative AI into our products through partner ecosystem, plugging groundbreaking solutions like HCL PromptO into the portfolio, enhancing employee experience and automating infrastructure management, and much more.
Can you share any recent innovations that HCLSoftware has introduced?
Innovation and R&D are at the core of HCLSoftware. It’s the driving force behind every cutting-edge solution we develop, empowering our customers to reach new heights of success. We proudly hold over 400 patents – a testament to our relentless pursuit and dedication to pioneering new technologies.
But our culture of innovation doesn’t just live in a vacuum. It’s manifested through a robust ecosystem of specialized R&D teams, each laser-focused on driving transformative breakthroughs within their respective product lines.
HCLSoftware SPARC (Software Products Advance Research Centre) serves as the central research hub for all things emerging tech, a proper crucible where our brightest minds collaborate with leading universities, government entities, and external partners to tackle society’s most complex challenges. It’s here that we incubate the groundbreaking, next-generation solutions that will define the future.
A few of our recent innovation footprints include Innovations in the AIOPs area that simplify IT operations with artificial intelligence capabilities and business flow observability. Zeenea is another example from our Data and Analytics group. It is a valuable tool for organizations looking to improve their data governance, democratize data access, and derive greater insights from their data.
Another innovation from our stable is the launch of the world’s most scalable database (HCL Informix 15), which has the capacity to house four times the entire storage of all the internet and is also fully AI-enabled.
Predicting sink vulnerability in software systems leveraging compact language models.
Which products from your portfolio are driving your business in the Middle East?
HCLSoftware has a comprehensive set of offerings which are divided into seven portfolios – Business Applications & Industry Software, Total Experience Software, Data & Analytics Software, Intelligent Operations Software, Security & Compliance Software, Specialized Software, Sovereign Collaboration Software. We see strong growth across our entire portfolio with each segment contributing to our overall success.
Products like BigFix, AppScan, Total Experience, HCL Unica are playing a key role in fuelling our growth and driving momentum forward in Middle East.
What is the role of partners in your market strategy, and how do you engage and enable them to work with you?
Partners are central to our market strategy, helping us scale our impact and gain invaluable insights into the evolving needs of our customers. Our aim is to foster win-win relationships where each partner – hyperscalers, global consulting firms, service providers, technology innovators, or resellers – brings a unique set of strengths and capabilities to the table.
Our engagement focuses on collaboration rather than a typical supplier relationship. We prioritize partner and customer needs, even if it means putting their interests first at times. To support our partners, we offer comprehensive training and dedicated HCLSoftware representatives who help develop tailored business plans and go-to-market strategies. Our certification programs also empower partners to showcase their expertise, driving customer satisfaction and long-term success for everyone involved.
What is your roadmap for the region and how are you planning to grow your business in the Middle East?
Tapping into new and emerging markets (like India, Middle East and Africa), where we see exciting opportunities for innovation and expansion, is one of the strategic focuses for HCLSoftware. By staying ahead of market trends, we’re positioning ourselves to lead in areas with a high growth potential.
We are currently in a growing phase in Middle East, expanding our footprint by investing in increasing the capacity of the local teams for client interaction, along with the support from the engineering teams from India and worldwide. We are also keen on strategic partnerships in Saudi Arabia and UAE with aligned stakeholders like government entities, business partners etc.
What kind of growth are you expecting in the next 12-24 months from the Middle East region?
Our aim is to drive sustained revenue growth and enhance our market presence in the Middle East, while leveraging emerging opportunities and reinforcing our competitive position in the region. Middle East remains an important region for HCLSoftware where we continue to focus and invest.
