India’s Hexaware targets public sector business as it expands UK operation
Indian heritage IT services firm opens office in Canary Wharf and sets is sights on growing its UK public sector business
India’s Hexaware has expanded its UK presence through a new office in London’s Canary Wharf, as part of an expansion plan that will see it bid for UK public sector business.
The IT services firm said IT suppliers that currently dominate the public sector are in its sights as UK government departments and public sector bodies have a changing appetite for tech.
This, combined with struggles faced by traditional public sector IT suppliers like Fujitsu, creates an opportunity for suppliers outside the traditional cohort.
Hexaware’s latest UK premises in Canary Wharf adds to an IT services operation opened in Birmingham in 2023.
Indian heritage suppliers such as Hexaware have to date struggled to win significant public sector business in the UK. Since Indian IT service providers started winning significant business at the turn of the century, there have been fears over outsourcing public sector work to IT suppliers based in India. The perception was that confidential data would not be safe, and there were also concerns that jobs in the UK would be moved to India.
But like its giant Indian counterpart, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Hexaware now sees the UK public sector as an opportunity to grow.
TCS, India’s biggest IT service provider, confirmed this last year. Speaking to Computer Weekly then about TCS’s UK public sector plans, Amit Kapur, its UK country head, said there was “potential, paucity and action” with “good engagement”.
Range of clients
TCS already provides services to the Department of Work and Pensions, public sector organisation pension provider Nest, the Department for Education, the BBC and Cardiff City Council in local government.
Infosys and Wipro are other examples of Indian heritage suppliers seeking public sector opportunities in the UK.
Hexaware’s UK customers today include Yorkshire Water, insurance company Liverpool Victoria and Lloyds Banking Group, but only about 5% of its overall UK business is with public sector organisations.
Speaking to Computer Weekly on the announcement of a new office in Canary Wharf, Amrinder Singh, head of EMEA and APAC operations at Hexaware, said the company is still in the “discovery phase” in relation to UK public sector work.
But when asked whether the UK public sector is more open to Indian suppliers, he said: “This is a trend we are seeing in the market, absolutely, that they are, and for a variety of reasons.
“We feel that the need for efficiency through technology in public sector is actually quite acute,” added Singh. “Also, in the past, the public sector has been overtly reliant on some large players. How large you are and how long you have worked in the public sector counts a lot.”
Fujitsu, one of the UK government’s biggest IT supplies, is currently facing huge challenges retaining business due to its much-publicised role in the Post Office scandal. Singh sees this and the struggles of other suppliers as an opportunity.
Like with TCS, the addition of public sector work will mean Hexaware’s UK workforce will increase. Out of its global staff count of about 30,000, only 650 are currently in the UK.
But the supplier’s workforce will look far different by 2030 if its self-imposed target to have half of all work delivered by artificial intelligence (AI) workers is reached. “One of the vision statements that we have is that by 2030 we want nearly 50% of our work to be delivered and revenue to be generated through digital labour, not just human labour,” Singh told Computer Weekly.
This does not mean the human workforce will be smaller, with the growth of the company meaning more will be needed, but he admitted the growth of the human workforce may slow down
Humans will also be trained to ensure they can get the best out of AI, with almost the entire human workforce to be trained and certified in the technology. “We said that there is no future for single-skilled people,” he said. “Unless you are multi-skilled with domain understanding, as well as understanding how to use AI and technology, you will not survive.”
Hexaware has provided what Singh described as a “playground” for staff to experiment with AI. Known as bottom-up disruption, the initiative will tap staff domain experience and give them freedom to “identify areas in which they would like bring automation and AI to our customers”.
“Every employee is given a mandate to identify certain areas in which they would like to work on commissions if they have great ideas,” said Singh. “There are some hackathons and staff get a fast-track career path where they can also be part of our innovation team, not just delivery team.”
