HCL to boost IT infra at UK retailer Asda

HCL Technologies (HCL), an Indian IT services provider, said on September 20 that it had won a contract to help drive IT transformation at the UK’s third-largest grocery retailer, Asda. The three-year deal will see HCL transform Asda’s IT application services with a new delivery model to drive data and analytics, while supporting back-office applications through the lifecycle of development, testing and support. HCL will also build a central data management platform to enable Asda to improve its insight and analytics capabilities. Asda operates more than 600 stores across the UK, with weekly footfall of over 19 million.

As physical retailers take up digital transformation to drive business growth amid stiff competition from online rivals, Asda is building the capacity to be able to respond quickly to consumers’ changing needs, mainly through data and analytics. With the new capacity, Asda will be able to respond faster to evolving business needs and reduce time to market, while driving better user experiences. Through modernizing its data platform and adopting a new operating model, Asda will be able to better employ its internal IT teams, increase visibility into the application lifecycle and accelerate innovation across the business.

HCL operates out of 41 countries and reported revenue of US$8 billion for the year ended June 30th. Last month, it had launched IoT (Internet of Things) COLLAB, dual-location IoT innovation centres in Seattle and Noida. Each IoT COLLAB will serve as a joint incubation lab that will allow Fortune 500 companies to accelerate IoT initiatives by bringing together experts, partners, financiers and other IoT stakeholders. The partnership will aim to take advantage of what is expected to be a US$1 trillion market opportunity by 2021. With such initiatives, India is coming up as a development hub of next-gen technologies.