Keeping pace with change

Kalyan Kumar, Chief Product Officer, HCL Software, explains how the company’s portfolio remains competitive and relevant in a fast-evolving technology landscape.

How do you ensure that HCL Software’s product portfolio stays competitive and relevant in the rapidly evolving technology landscape, especially with the rise of AI and automation?

HCL Software ensures its product portfolio remains competitive and relevant in the rapidly evolving technology landscape by leveraging a range of strategies.

First, the company emphasizes Continuous Innovation and Research. HCL Software invests significantly in research and development to stay ahead of technological advancements, with an internal R&D wing dedicated to this purpose. Additionally, it maintains innovation labs where teams can explore new technologies and experiment with emerging trends such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, ensuring that they stay at the forefront of industry innovation.

Another critical approach is through Strategic Acquisitions and Partnerships. HCL Software has a history of acquiring promising technology companies, which allows it to expand its product portfolio and capabilities. Furthermore, the company forms strategic partnerships with other technology providers to facilitate joint product development and broaden market reach. Through its Startup SYNC program, HCL Software also collaborates with a large set of startup partners in an open innovation ecosystem, identifying niche solutions and exploring potential synergies with its existing products and platforms.

HCL Software is also focused on AI and Automation Integration. It actively integrates AI capabilities into its products to enhance their functionality, support better decision-making, and automate repetitive tasks, providing customers with more efficient and intelligent solutions.

Additionally, Market Analysis and Trend Monitoring play a vital role in HCL Software’s strategy. The company conducts thorough market research to identify emerging trends and customer needs, feeding this information back to its R&D teams to ensure they are aligned with current and future market demands.

HCL Software’s extensive product portfolio is categorized into seven key areas:

1. Business Applications and Industry Solutions Software – To deliver memorable customer experiences.
2. Total Experience Software – Orchestrating delightful experiences on a platform of trust.
3. Data and Analytics Software – Enabling confident data-driven organizations.
4. Intelligent Operations Software – Humanizing AI to elevate IT operations.
5. Security and Compliance Software – Ensuring secure DevOps and compliance from applications to endpoints.
6. Specialized Software – Purpose-built solutions for niche use cases.
7. Sovereign Collaboration Software – Providing data autonomy with secure and flexible solutions.

Finally, HCL Software’s innovation strategy includes both incremental and radical innovation, ensuring that it remains competitive by constantly adapting to the latest technological advancements.

How do your Total Experience solutions help businesses deliver seamless and secure customer experiences across digital touchpoints?

Organizations often struggle to maximize ROI from digital transformation projects, including those aimed at customers, employees, citizens, and channel partners.

Onboarding new digital services and creating digital products is often hindered by reliance on fragmented and extensive pro-code efforts, multiple development tools, multiple software stacks, and inconsistent functionality and design. This adds cost and complexity and makes it more challenging to maintain and evolve quickly.

Also, today’s experiences intersect with content, processes, and applications needed to create tailored and targeted experiences that drive adoption and repeat usage.

At HCL Software, our Total Experience solutions are designed to enable organizations to create cohesive and secure digital experiences by merging all digital touchpoints. Through platforms like HCL Volt MX and HCL Digital Experience, we aim to help businesses seamlessly bridge customer and employee experiences, ensuring every interaction reflects the brand’s value, supports end-users, and empowers employees.

 Can you explain the role HCL’s solutions play in post-quantum cryptography and data protection?

 HCLSoftware is doing focused incubation activities around Post Quantum Cryptography. We are running a couple of internal pilot projects around CRYSTALS Kyber algorithm, to check the feasibility and migration modalities. We are also trying to use our in-house capability of Quantum Random Number Generation, to create quantum safe encryptions. The most important thing here for us is to be crypto agile are working on that front.

Our comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program positions us to respond to the constantly evolving regulatory and security landscape. Cybersecurity practices are aligned with the Global NIST cybersecurity framework and industry standards such as ISO 27001. Our privacy program is supported by an enterprise-wide Privacy and Data Protection Framework that is tailored to accommodate the company’s operations, the nature, scope and sensitivity of personal data, as well as legal, regulatory and contractual obligations, risks to data and defined privacy principles.

We have established minimum baseline control standards and a defense-in-depth approach to ensure privacy and cybersecurity controls are embedded throughout the asset, identity and data lifecycle.

Could you elaborate on how your AI and Intelligent Operations solutions are driving innovation for enterprise IT management?

HCL Software’s AI-fueled framework is designed to transform & elevate business IT and Operations by harnessing advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, enabling a software-defined organizational strategy with three primary tenets: Synergize, Strategize and Streamline, and ensure your organization is future-ready.

• Synergize: Boost workplace productivity by leveraging the digital workplace and build agile, scalable IT frameworks.
• Strategize: Align all departments and functions with strategic goals to drive growth, customer retention, and deliver business value through superior service and innovative solutions.
• Streamline: Simplify business processes, enhance compliance and risk measures, and secure your operations.

Our product portfolio is designed to build a truly digital, scalable and secure enterprise with AI and Cloud at its heart. The solutions empower businesses by delivering real-time insights, end-to-end visibility across IT and business operations, robust endpoint security, streamlined service delivery, and assured compliance.

We are currently serving 2500+ customers across the US, EMEA, and Asia, backed by 22 years of complex global IT ops management services. We are managing 100M+ endpoints in 47 countries.

 By leveraging these AI and Intelligent Operations capabilities, enterprises improve on their operational efficiency, reduce costs, enhance customer satisfaction and gain a competitive advantage.