London/Noida, December 8th, 2009 - HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL), a leading global IT services provider, has entered into a multi million pounds, five year technology Infrastructure Management and Transformation engagement with News International, a UK subsidiary of News Corporation, the world's leading diversified global media company. News International produces some of the UK's most widely read newspapers including The Times, The Sun, The Sunday Times and News of the World.
HCL will be responsible for managing News International’s datacenter and network environments along with strategically transforming them. To begin with, this will involve transformation projects such as migrating operating systems to lower cost industry standard solutions, business continuity improvements and virtualization, consolidation & standardization of storage and servers. Thereafter, further innovations and improvements will be driven by HCL’s world class IT management practice.
“The focus within New International on reducing operational costs and increasing technology process standardization requires a flexible, on-tap technology organization with a global presence and the best global technology partnerships. HCL’s proven track record in the Media & Entertainment industry and world-class Infrastructure Management assures us that entering this engagement will provide News International with reduced costs, an improved end user experience, more resilient systems and reduced technology complexity”, said Nick Leake, Director of Technology Services, News International.
HCLT is already successfully working with other News Corporation companies for their technology Infrastructure Management requirements.
“We see the benefit of working with the same global partners across News Corp” said Andrew Hickey, CIO of News International and a member of News Corp’s CIO Council. “We saw the good work HCL had undertaken with other News Corporation companies and wanted to use their expertise for our company too. I believe that longer term, technology cost optimization, after standardization, will be driven by shared tenancy models and this deal positions us to take advantage of this model in the medium term” he continued.
“We will leverage our experience in transforming the IT operations landscape of hundreds of global enterprise and our globally benchmarked best practices in Infrastructure Management to add exponential value to News International,” said Pradeep Bindal, Senior Vice President & Worldwide Head of Sales for Infrastructure Management & Transformation Services, HCL Technologies Infrastructure Services Division. “We are confident of providing efficient operations, reduction in ongoing opex and capex and IT Operations best practices to News International over the tenure of this engagement”, he added.
HCLT boasts of 40+ leading Media and Entertainment companies worldwide including 4 of the top 5 publishing companies. It has recently announced engagements with leading global players in this space like Reader’s Digest Association and Viacom Inc.
"We're delighted to have this opportunity to partner with News International," said Sanjeev Nikore, President, Strategic Verticals, HCL Technologies. "Media and Entertainment companies face increasing global competition and rising cost pressures. HCL’s value proposition for this industry offers an avenue to differentiate and build competitive advantage with reduced costs. We look forward to applying our technological and industry expertise to support News International's business goals."
HCL was recently ranked as the World’s No.1 IT Infrastructure Services Provider by the Blackbook of Outsourcing’s Survey for 2009.
About HCL ISD
HCL ISD is a leading IT services company and a subsidiary of HCL Technologies Ltd. (also known as HCL Comnet in the domestic market). A focused player in the IT services arena, HCL ISD seeks to provide simplified infrastructure solutions through delivering high-performance management services for complex, distributed infrastructure environments encompassing the Internet, Client and legacy based infrastructures. HCL ISD addresses the growing demand for the cost-effective management of technology infrastructure across geographically dispersed locations. With a mission to develop innovative solutions for enterprises worldwide, the company has developed a unique model for Remote IT infrastructure management that enables customer organizations to achieve superior infrastructure performance and significantly reduced costs through a global delivery model. For more information, please visit www.hclisd.com
About HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL focuses on ‘transformational outsourcing’, underlined by innovation and value creation, and offers integrated portfolio of services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 26 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of ‘Employees First’ which empowers our 54,443 transformers to create a real value for the customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 2.3 billion (Rs. 11,270 crores), as on 30th September 2009 (on LTM basis). For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com.
About HCL Enterprise
HCL is a $5 billion leading global Technology and IT Enterprise that comprises two companies listed in India - HCL Technologies & HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India's original IT garage start-ups, a pioneer of modern computing, and a global transformational enterprise today. Its range of offerings spans Product Engineering, Custom & Package Applications, BPO, IT Infrastructure Services, IT Hardware, Systems Integration, and distribution of ICT products across a wide range of focused industry verticals. The HCL team comprises over 60,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 26 countries including over 500 points of presence in India. HCL has global partnerships with several leading Fortune 1000 firms, including leading IT and Technology firms. For more information, please visit www.hcl.com.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward looking statements, including but not limited to the statements containing the words 'planned', 'expects', 'believes', 'strategy', 'opportunity', 'anticipates', 'hopes' or other similar words. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding impact of pending regulatory proceedings, fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services, Business Process Outsourcing and consulting services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, customer acceptances of our services, products and fee structures, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, our ability to integrate acquired assets in a cost effective and timely manner, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, the success of our brand development efforts, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies / entities in which we have made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property, other risks, uncertainties and general economic conditions affecting our industry. There can be no assurance that the forward looking statements made herein will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objective and plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward looking statements made herein are based on information presently available to the management of the Company and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company.
For details, contact:
Zulfia Nafees
Mob +91 9810495138
Email: zulfian@hcl.com
Kunal Takalkar
Mob: +91 9810073217
Email: kunal.takalkar@adfactorspr.com