North America, Europe our primary focus markets': Coforge CEO
How has your business performance been and what is the outlook?
We clocked a revenue growth of around 38 per cent last year. From being about a $400 million firm in FY’18 we are on course to be a One-billion-dollar-plus IT services firm in the current fiscal year. We are now focused on carving an accelerated growth path to the $2 billion revenue milestone.
Coforge is one of the strongest Indian IT services turnaround stories. The change in leadership starting FY’18 helped establish a new performance ethic within the organization. The change in organization structure and the complete recreation of the firm’s tech stack offerings helped us drive robust, sustained, and profitable growth. As a company, we are hyper-focused on growth – growth of our people, growth of our customers in their businesses and growth for our shareholders and investors. We continue to focus on our strategic pillars as we look forward to the $ 2 billion roadmap.
What are your leading priorities today?
We continue to prioritize our time-tested and proven strategic pillars that have delivered continuous value to our clients.
First, as a tech services firm, we hyper focus on building deep, differentiated functional expertise in the select industries we work across. This enables us to contextualize new and emerging technologies that can drive transformational outcomes for our clients. Over the last five years, we have focused almost exclusively on three core business verticals i.e. BFS (Banking and Finance), Insurance, and Travel, Transportation and Hospitality. Over the next few years, we will explore and accentuate our presence in Public Sector, Hi-Tech and Healthcare.
The second focus area is in line with our vision as an organization to “Engage with the Emerging” technologies to drive real-world impact for our clients. We continuously innovate the technology stack of the organization with a focus on product engineering, data & analytics, cloud, AI, blockchain, low code application development, cybersecurity, and Metaverse. In this journey, we have established strong partnership networks with the world’s leading companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Pegasystems, ServiceNow, and Duck Creek amongst many others.
The third and possibly most important factor is our continued focus on our people. We are a Great Place to Work certified organization two years in a row and we maintain the highest employee retention in the IT services industry. Our policies and talent shaping exercise are employee centric, helping each of our employees grow their skills and career with Coforge.
Which are your key primary markets for growth, and why?
North America and Europe are and shall continue to be our primary focus markets till we reach the $2 billion target. As of Q1FY23, the firm generated 51.3 per cent revenue from the Americas, 36.9 per cent from EMEA, and 11.9 per cent from the rest of the world. We are serving 61 clients from the Forbes Global 1000 list of companies worldwide and continue to grow the list to our base. We pride ourselves on our delivery execution. The trust bestowed in by our clients is the fuel that drives us to innovate more on their behalf.
What emerging technologies are Coforge capitalizing on, and how?
We operate across the product engineering and application services continuum. Our differentiated value proposition is driven by our strong capabilities in product engineering services and digital transformation including capabilities like data and analytics, cognitive, AI/ML, cloud, digital process automation, and business process management (BPM) services.
Additionally, our innovation group mainly focuses on emerging technologies in the areas of Metaverse including mixed reality, web3 including blockchain, AI, and cognitive services such as video analytics, advanced natural language processing, advanced and interactive user interfaces, etc. We recently launched a Center of Excellence (CoE) on Metaverse and are creating an ecosystem of capabilities through our partnerships. We recently conducted our own TechCon leveraging Metaverse with over 1000 associates trained through masterclasses. We are also offering services across the full low code application lifecycle, from product advisory to implementation to integration to ongoing management and operations.
How would you say the Indian IT companies have fared, compared to global competitors in the last few years, and what does the future of Indian IT look like?
In recent times, Coforge and the general Indian IT companies have witnessed growth despite pandemic scenarios, pushing rapid digitalization and innovative models with clients. Most of the domestic mid-tier and large IT companies operating in both the IT services and engineering services space have won large deals and increased their businesses from existing clients. This changing trend indicates a bright future for Indian IT companies. When it comes to the work environment, the Indian IT companies are focusing on providing an open and agile work culture combined with business opportunities that have built company reputation and employer branding. Therefore, attracting the right talent is further contributing to the company’s growth trajectory. India is still considered as the hotbed for STEM talent and now that talent is converting into STEAM (STEM+Arts). To develop further STEAM, we just announced that we will train over 1000 consultants on Metaverse, Web3 and related technologies. We believe this scale can only be available in India.
While there is softness in Rest of the World, the India machine continues to fire on all cylinders with a healthy and vibrant set of innovative startups. India has emerged as the 3rd largest ecosystem for startups globally with over 77,000 official recognized startups (according to Invest India). In 2016-17, India used to produce 1 unicorn per year, now India is home to 107 unicorns.
