HCL Tech, one of the top five IT services providers based out of India, announced the opening of its largest delivery center in Sri Lanka.
Located in a newly built complex known as Cinnamon Life in Colombo, the 10-storey center will accommodate 4,000 workers — four times the number of Sri Lankans employed by the company at present.
“HCL intends to occupy 80% of Cinnamon Life, a project by John Keels, with plans of taking up 10 floors now and 10 floors at a later stage,” the company said.
The move is an aggressive one, given the uncertainty associated with office-based work due to COVID-19. Companies like TCS have announced aggressive plans to move towards a hybrid work model, where a large number of workers would be working from remote locations at any point in time, and only a small part would be located in the office.
HCL Technologies recently surpassed the milestone of recruiting more than 1,000 local workers in Sri Lanka, including freshers and veterans of the IT industry.
The new center was designed by Tikri Bibile Associates (TBA) and WIDAC Commercial Interiors Pvt Ltd and Leema Associates.
“From this new development HCL will provide IT services to global clients in the areas of digital applications and system integration services, product development and support, and infrastructure management services including digital workplace solutions,” the Indian company, started by iconic engineer-cum-entrepreneur Shiv Nadar, said.
Interestingly, the new Colombo center will be the closest HCL delivery center to Nadar’s birth place in Tuticorin, at the southern tip of India, as the two places are separated only by a stretch of sea.
HCL Tech used to be one half of the HCL group, founded nearly fifty years ago as Hindustan Computers Ltd. The second half, which used to sell HCL branded IT hardware such as computers and laptops, has not had as much success as the outsourcing and services focused HCL Tech.
HCL Tech, with annual revenues of more than Rs 80,000 cr, today has 187,000 employees in 50 countries.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, is considered a promising location of talent with a culture very similar to that of South India.
“Sri Lanka is one of HCL’s key global delivery hubs and we are very excited to continue expanding our operations in the country with the opening of our new office here,” HCL said today.