HCLTech appoints Kiran Cherukuri as global head of GCC practice

HCLTech on Monday announced the appointment of Kiran Cherukuri as global GCC practice leader.

In this role, Cherukuri will be responsible for scaling HCLTech’s global capability centre (GCC) practice by bringing focussed offerings that leverage the company’s services and technology portfolio, as well as corporate functions capabilities, the third-largest IT player said in a statement.

HCLTech partners with over 200 GCCs in the country.

"GCCs are poised to deliver higher value through the transformation of technology and skills,” said Cherukuri.

The appointment comes as a slew of India's IT services companies, in a bid to offset the loss of business share to GCCs, are setting up dedicated divisions with separate leadership and teams to help multinational corporations (MNCs) establish such facilities here and provide tailored services, ET reported in March.

Companies driving these initiatives include Accenture, Cognizant, Infosys, Wipro, Capgemini, Tech Mahindra and Persistent Systems.

Larger peer Infosys, for instance, is also expanding capabilities with a GCC practice and has appointed Deval Shah to lead this, as per reports from April.

Mid-last year, HCLTech chief C Vijayakumar told ET that the company will focus on opportunities to build India centres for its global clients, dismissing fears of more insourcing eating into the share of Indian software exporters.

Around October, Everest Group estimated the revenue generated by IT and business process service providers from GCCs and GCC-related support at $20 billion, with Indian GCCs contributing much of this.

"GCCs have evolved into centres of strategic digital innovation for global enterprises. HCLTech plans to double down on this fast-growing segment with a sharp focus on India,” said Rahul Singh, chief operating officer-corporate functions, HCLTech.

Cherukuri has worked with HCLTech for over 14 years, contributing significantly to digital foundation services, engineering and R&D services, industry solutions and talent solutions. He successfully set up global delivery centres and managed business development, alliances and marketing.