Michael Horton (HCL Technologies)
HCL Technologies is planning a major expansion in Australia with the launch of a 150-person office in Melbourne next year.
The India-founded software service provider revealed plans to open the IT service centre in April 2019, which will be its biggest base in Australia and New Zealand.
HCL A/NZ country manager Michael Horton told ARN that the company had a customer in Melbourne, which the office would serve, but was unable to divulge further details.
The announcement comes as HCL also opened a 50-person services centre in Adelaide to service agribusiness Elders. The company currently employs 1,600 people in Australia.
Launched on 4 December, the centre will handle infrastructure management, app support, service desk, application management and security.
Although opened as part of HCL’s tender bid for Elders, Horton said the base was intended to be scalable for other clients.
“Being in Adelaide gives us a good jump into the market here,” Horton said. “We are excited to explore other areas of growth in the region as well as build more future partnerships.
"We look forward to continuing our engagement with the South Australian Government and our commitment towards strengthening the local ecosystem."
HCL, which operates in 43 countries, has been in Australia for more than 20 years and has small sales and administration offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
From a technology perspective, the provider partners with vendors including SAP, Pegasystems, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, IBM and Software AG, serving 60 customers in Australia.
In September, HCL signed a five-year managed services deal with TransGrid, the operator of the high voltage electricity transmission network in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
According to Horton, HCL’s revenues for A/NZ year grew by 12 per cent during the last financial year and are ‘on track’ for up to 20 per cent growth for 2019.
He added that the company also plans to expand its New Zealand footprint with a services office in Hamilton also next year, where it has a partnership Optimation New Zealand.
