HCL finishes its year with 15 percent growth, 100 million minutes-a-month Teams usage Indian services giant HCL Technologies has wound up its 19/20 financial year by reporting 15 percent annual growth but a flat Q4. The company today reported Q4 revenue of US$2.543 billion, with EBIT of $531m and net income of $431m. That translates to 0.8 percent revenue growth in constant currency, 3.2 percent EBIT growth and …
Maybe it's just my misfortune or dumb luck of having had to inherit HCL on two separate ERP programmes for different clients; but my overriding experience of them as a company is that in terms of thought leadership, project/programme management and "feet on the ground" implementation skill and knowledge, that they are absolutely hopeless. Worse even than Wipro - and they have taken some beating.
My overriding view on HCL is that they get their contracts by always bidding low (which the end client accountants love) and then they try to actually make their profits via commercial disputes and by the overzealous issuance of CRs.
As does every 'cheap' day rate implementer. It's not cheap when you look at TCO, same as calling a bad plumber back to fix what they fudged the first time. Just pay the people who know what they're doing to sort it properly. How do you know who that is? Same as plumbers, go by reputation and/or eyeball them first... no quick wins on this process
I have had relatively good/neutral experiences with other Indian companies, like Infosys, Tech Mahindra etc
But HCL I would not wish on my worst enemies. Sorry, but they are the worst. I have had the misfortune of working with UK companies who were offshoring work to HCL. This would result in HCL "consultants" flown in who contributed absolutely zilch and basically used their time and everyone else's time to upskill and train their people to carry out work that they were being contracted to do in the first place. They would call it "onboarding". Oh, but it gets better. Once the consultants were "onboarded" the average retention time was around 3 months. Either they would be flown back to India to work on more valuable projects or the consultant would take the opportunity to apply for a visa and find a better work in the UK. Rinse and repeat. Simple projects would drag out for years.
Best one was when I was teaching an HCL consultant about basic 3PAR features. He was the guy flown in from Bangalore to lead a project to optimise a financial company's storage estate. My company send me in for free because our support org were overwhelmed with his questions. 10 days into the project, the HCL consultant left the company and joined my company as a TC. He sent me a thank you card for being a good teacher.
Dear Valued Partner,
We hope that you are well and safe in this time of crisis.
As you are aware, the global outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic is a humanitarian crisis and has given rise to unprecedented challenges to businesses globally. The situation calls for businesses to respond quickly to the circumstances that are changing very rapidly. And businesses are required to quickly realign, adjust and adapt to be able to cope with the tough challenges that we all face today.
In view of this crisis, your Client (HCL) is reaching out to you via Valueleaf, to propose certain changes to the terms of our relationship that are in the best interests of all parties involved, so that we may jointly engage and identify measures for cost reductions. Also find attached communication from HCL CPO.
In summary, HCL has changed the payment terms to all Contractors and(or) Agencies to 90 days, with immediate effect, and has requested Valueleaf to cascade the same. Just to be clear, Valueleaf shall pay the contractor/agency, within 5 business days upon receipt of funds from Client (HCL). Please find attached Valueleaf Addendum. We recognize that this will be impactful to your operations and are open to discussing different operational, delivery, and service options to achieve this HCL & Valueleaf are committed to our customers’ success and we expect the same from our partner ecosystem.
Thank you for you continued support in servicing our joint customers and we wish you, your company, your employees, and your families good health and safety.
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I would wish HCL on a worst enemy, but not on nice people!
Also had the misfortune to deal with them quite closely over two years on UrbanCode, another product they acquired from IBM along with Notes, Domino etc.
It is fair to say they knew nothing about basic database design and relational principles, but they were very good at dragging their knuckles on the floor, missing SLAs and holding management meetings. HCL were unable to provide any technical skill, support or experience for certain supported platforms and were largely incapable of engaging technical support from outside. The end customer was just left to flounder, strung along with meaningless promises. I found HCL to be arrogant and unwilling to listen and learn.
Just personal experience, but in the sheer awfulness stakes they are still pipped to the post by TCS and IBM India.
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