Techwave upbeat on talent in tier-II cities of Telangana

Techwave, a global software solutions company, aims to become the world's most trusted digital transformation partner. With more than 25 years of experience in information technology and engineering services, the company is enabling its clients to maximise the potential and achieve a greater market with a wide array of services.

In an exclusive interview, its Co-founder and Chairman Damodar Rao Gummadapu tells Bizz Buzz about their aggressive hiring prospects, expansion plans and investments into new verticals. He also anticipates shifting the company's facilities from the existing leased premises to their own new buildings over the next three years

When Techwave was established as a global IT solutions company? How was the journey so far?

The journey of Techwave was started in 2004 offering traditional SAP solutions and services to the clients, and we quickly spread around the globe with a range of digital transformation services - from business intelligence (BI), enterprise performance management (EPM), Cognos and Informatica services, we have evolved into a global end-to-end IT solutions provider.

Techwave rapidly expanded its footprint across the globe through the years, and it has secured an enviable clientele and continues to work with some of the best companies in the world while delivering superior customer value. We also partnered with leading companies like AWS, IBM, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft to offer a comprehensive and diverse range of services to the clients.

What services does Techwave provide to its clients?

Techwave is offering a multitude of services across a range of fastest-growing industries such as banking and finance, consumer packaged goods, life sciences, logistics, telecom, retail, manufacturing, fintech, health tech and utilities. Ever since our inception, we've been winning the attention of blue-chip companies in search of business-edge IT solutions.

Today, we have more than 500 customers globally. For our clients, we are building capabilities, capacity and centres of excellence. We have a team of experts leveraging services including enterprise resource planning (ERP), application development, analytics, digital transformation and the Internet of things (IoT).

We have classified our services into three integrated business units – enterprise digital services, engineering services and business services. As experts in digital transformation, our sole purpose is to drive innovation in an increasingly competitive climate. We use both turnkey and segmented approaches to create bespoke, cost-effective solutions, and ensure quality.

Techwave's wireless engineering services provide necessary engineering expertise to the clients. In telecom, we support fiber designs, surveys, and capabilities and we bring automation and innovation to the design process. In addition, we are building a centre of excellence in telecom and distribution to automate the process and reduce supply chain issues.

In enterprise business services, applications are at the heart of all progressive enterprises to support business strategy and delivery elements. We offer a complete portfolio of enterprise application solutions to help and keep customers engaged and support their long-term business goals.

The company is currently operating in how many countries?

Techwave is a Houston-headquartered company, which operates in five regions across the globe. We run the business having three regional development centres (RDCs) at Melbourne in Australia, Budapest in Hungary and Houston in the USA. We have 11 offices across 11 countries we work through.

North America is our biggest market, where we have more clientele. We are focusing on expanding our presence in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and France in Western Europe, and Hungary in the Eastern Europe. In India, we have a global development centre (GDC) with 80,000 sft in Hyderabad, having branch offices in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Khammam.

We also have operations in the Middle Eastern countries. We have recently forayed into the utilities industry to adapt and develop the services to meet the needs of an increasingly customer centric marketplace. At present, we are offering LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and pole loading services in Australia. We will be extending these services in North America.

How big is your team right now? What are the hiring plans ahead?

The company has aggressive hiring plans in the coming three years as we have set an ambitious target to achieve 2.5 times growth in the topline to $250 million by 2025 from $105 million in 2021. We are planning to increase the global headcount to 10,000 by 2025 from the existing 2,500 employees.

Speaking only about India, about 1,500 employees are currently working at two facilities in Hyderabad and 250 in Khammam. We will be gradually increasing the team size at Hyderabad to 6,000 by 2025. We will be adding around 800 employees in Khammam by the end of this year. We are planning to set up a centre in Warangal with a workforce close to 1,000 people.

We will be investing Rs 2 lakh per head for providing a laptop and internet connection. We are following a permanent hybrid model with almost 90 per cent staff coming to office two days a week and three days from home. About 6-7 per cent of the employees totally work from home (WFH) and we want to further increase that number.

The WFH infrastructure is still evolving in Telangana. When we started WFH option in December 2021, we were initially pessimistic about the outcome. But, we have seen good results and this has motivated us to hire more people from tier-2 cities of the State, and we are getting reliable talent.

Where are you setting up the new facilities? Could you throw some light on the investment details?

We are investing around Rs 200 crore to set up our own office infrastructure at Hyderabad, Khammam and Warangal. We will be shifting the GDC from the existing leased premises to a new building over the next three years. We are constructing a facility for GDC at Kollur with an investment of Rs 150 crore.

Similarly, we will be moving from the leased premises in Khammam to our own 30,000-sft facility, which is under construction at a cost of Rs 30-50 crore. We are also planning to open a facility in Warangal by the third quarter with a focus on engineering services. Initially, we will start in a leased property at the IT Park, and later we will be building our own facility.

Could you let us know about the awards and accolades received by the company?

Techwave is officially certified as a Great Place to Work. This achievement recognises the high-trust, high-performance culture that we strived to foster at all levels of the organisation. In the first quarter of 2022, the company has received the 'Dream Employer of the Year' by The Jury Council of the World HRD Congress.

Techwave has also received the EAW 2022 Culture Champions Awards – by Emplus for the second consecutive year.