Kamal was addressing a room of dignitaries, staff, media, invited guests, and other members of the HCL Technologies leadership team at the official opening of the HCL Technologies Delivery Centre in Hamilton on Wednesday.

HCL is the largest India-based global IT services provider in New Zealand, serving this market since 1999. The company works in developing apps, design thinking, block chain, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. It delivers integrated IT services to 50 leading companies in New Zealand, including those in dairy, banking, insurance and government. It also has offices in Auckland and Wellington.

Kamal was talking about his experience when first visiting Hamilton many years ago. He was taken aback with the pace of the industry here and the focus on valuing work-life balance and partnerships.  This theme was echoed as being at the core of HCL Technologies’ operations, along with a foundation of trust, transparency, flexibility and innovation.

This culture has seen the company grow from its beginnings in 1976 to operate in 44 countries, with over 143,900 ‘idea-preneurs’, and a consolidated revenue of $US 8.9 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, 2019.

Opening a Delivery Centre in Hamilton has been a dream of HCL’s Associate Vice President & Business Head Naved Shafiq since 2007. The company has had staff based here since 2009 servicing their local customer base, which includes Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) and ANZ.

Michael Horton, HCL’s Executive Vice President & Country Manager Australia & New Zealand, and Jannat Maqbool, Operations Manager at CultivateIT, discussed what this means for the Waikato and our local technology sector.

The discussion focused on the existing strengths of the Waikato tech sector as well as the digital and ICT programme of work within the Waikato Economic Development Plan.

This plan covers a number of portfolios that are aligned with much of the capability and connections that HCL Technologies brings to our region, as well as their interest in supporting economic and community development initiatives. 

Oliver Brinkmann, Head of Enterprise Systems & acting Head of Digital at LIC, said the move to open a local office “adds another layer of value to our Waikato customers as we seek to remain profitable, competitive and sustainable.”

Craig Bunyan, GM Technology at ANZ Bank, added, “This is great for the region. A place that we might leverage as well.”

Michael Horton was encouraged to hear that the Waikato was the fastest growing technology sector in the country and reiterated that Hamilton was chosen for a reason. Our stable infrastructure and location in terms of other major cities made our region an attractive choice. There is also an opportunity to leverage the strength of our local tertiary sector.

Hamilton Mayor Andrew King cut the ribbon to officially open HCL’s new offices and talked about the opportunity to partner with them to leverage technology and insights in the area of environmental protection and combating climate change.

HCL Technologies Corporate Vice President Swapan Johri spoke of the company’s partnering mindset and promised “to make a strong commitment to working with you, your business and community to further every cause that you have.”

As CEO of Waikato’s regional economic development agency, Te Waka, Michael Bassett-Foss said that with our region’s existing strengths and emerging sectors, there are a number of opportunities for high-calibre ICT solutions and service organisations like HCL Technologies.

“We look forward to working alongside CultivateIT to connect HCL to the wider Waikato tech ecosystem and to collaborate on initiatives to drive the region forward,” he said.

The High Commissioner of India to New Zealand, Muktesh Pardeshi, said he sees the opening of the first Delivery Centre in New Zealand as “bringing the IT face of India to Hamilton” and looks forward to building on the existing friendship between the two nations into a reliable, long term and strategic business partnership.

Image by Stephen Barker