India based data-driven business transformation specialist BluePi Consulting has appointed Gaurav Sharma to the role of CEO for Australia and New Zealand, following the opening of the company’s first international operations in Sydney.

“Gaurav Sharma has an incredible track record driving growth within enterprise technology companies, and we’re excited to have him as a co-founder, leading the business in our first international market that has emerged strongly from the pandemic and shows incredible potential across a diverse range of industry sectors from banking and financial services to retail, public sector, telecommunications, construction and logistics,” said BluePi founders Pronam Chatterjee and Kaushik Khanna.

Gaurav Sharma has more than 20 years of consulting and sales experience in the IT Industry.

He joins the company from Cognizant, where he worked as ANZ vice president and head of industries business.

Sharma previously worked for HCL (most recently as vice president for Australia and head of sales for various industry sectors), and for Tech Mahindra (most recently as APAC head of airlines business).

It was his first role with Tech Mahindra – principal relationship manager for Qantas – that in 2006 brought Sharma to Australia from Germany, where he was working as a senior consultant at Siemens Information Systems.

Sharma holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science, both from Banaras Hindu University (India).

“The innovations that BluePi has pioneered will completely transform enterprise digital business models and I’m thrilled with the opportunity to bring our skills, knowledge and experience to enable customers and partners in Australia and New Zealand to leverage new-age technologies,” said Sharma.

BluePi expects its presence in Sydney will accelerate its growth in the ANZ region.

The company offers consulting and strategic solutions across cloud, data, AI driven supply chain and app modernisation, and has particular expertise in the retail, BFSI, and logistics industries.

BluePi is an AWS premier consulting partner, and also has relationships with Snowflake, Databricks, GCP and Cloudera.

Gaurav Sharma named CEO for Australia and New Zealand.

India-founded Amazon Web Services (AWS) partner BluePi Consulting has launched an operation in Australia and New Zealand.

The artificial intelligence specialist has hired former Cognizant executive Gaurav Sharma to lead the new operation from Sydney.

Sharma will be tasked with growing BluePi’s local technology investments, enterprise partnerships and customer base across the A/NZ region.

Headquartered in Gurgaon, BluePi is an AWS Premier Consulting partner and also has partnerships with the likes of Snowflake, Databricks, Google Cloud and Cloudera.

With customers from industries including retail and logistics, BluePi said it focuses on helping businesses “adopt scalable, intelligent data driven, cloud-based strategies that will liberate siloed data” and produce superior business outcomes.

Sharma most recently served as vice president and head of industries business for A/NZ at Cognizant, having first joined the global systems integrator in 2016.

He has also held regional roles at HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and Siemens.

“The innovations that BluePi has pioneered will completely transform enterprise digital business models and I’m thrilled with the opportunity to bring our skills, knowledge and experience to enable customers and partners in Australia and New Zealand to leverage new-age technologies,” Sharma said.

In a joint statement, BluePi founders Pronam Chatterjee and Kaushik Khanna said Sharma has “an incredible track record driving growth within enterprise technology companies”.

“We’re excited to have him as a co-founder, leading the business in our first international market that has emerged strongly from the pandemic and shows incredible potential across a diverse range of industry sectors from banking and financial services to retail, public sector, telecommunications, construction and logistics,” they added.

Indian AWS consultancy BluePi Consulting (BluePi) has launched its first international operations in Sydney and named a new ANZ boss, Gaurav Sharma.

The company said the new office momentum in the region and give it better access to local clients.

BluePi offers enterprises consulting and strategic solutions across cloud, data, AI driven supply chain and app modernisation including AI/ML based data and cloud solutions for retail, BFSI, logistics and other industries enabling local and global enterprises to adopt scalable, intelligent data-driven, cloud-based strategies that will liberate siloed data, according to a company statement.

The company is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner and also offers solutions from Snowflake, Databricks, GCP and Cloudera.

Sydney resident Gaurav Sharma has most recently worked for Cognizant as head of industries in ANZ and before that for HCL Technologies as a sales executive. His previous experience includes stints at Tech Mahindra and Siemens.

“Gaurav Sharma has an incredible track record driving growth within enterprise technology companies, and we’re excited to have him as a co-founder, leading the business in our first international market that has emerged strongly from the pandemic and shows incredible potential across a diverse range of industry sectors from banking and financial services to retail, public sector, telecommunications, construction and logistics,” BluePi founders Pronam Chatterjee and Kaushik Khanna said in a joint statement.

Speaking on the new role, Sharma said, “The innovations that BluePi has pioneered will completely transform enterprise digital business models and I’m thrilled with the opportunity to bring our skills, knowledge and experience to enable customers and partners in Australia and New Zealand to leverage new-age technologies.”

Australia has been selected for BluePi Consulting’s first international expansion out of India, with the tech advisory launching a Sydney office and appointing Gaurav Sharma as regional CEO.

In its first international foray, India-origin tech advisory BluePi Consulting has expanded into Australia with an office launch in Sydney. The firm’s regional operations will be headed by Gaurav Sharma, who crosses from Cognizant to take on the role of CEO for Australia and New Zealand.

The company founders cited Australia’s “incredible potential” across a diverse range of sectors as motivating the move.

Founded in the global tech hub of Gurgaon in 2012 by Pronam Chatterjee and Kaushik Khannin, respectively CEO and CTO, BluePi Consulting supports clients in their digital transformations with consulting and service offering across cloud, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and app modernisation.

Premier Consulting Partner status with AWS in 2018, and also has partnerships with Snowflake and Databricks among others.

“The innovations that BluePi Consulting has pioneered will completely transform enterprise digital business models and I’m thrilled with the opportunity to bring our skills, knowledge and experience to enable customers and partners in Australia and New Zealand to leverage new-age technologies,” said Sharma, who joins after more than six years with Cognizant, latterly as vice president and A/NZ head of industries.

Altogether, Sharma brings over two decades of IT industry experience to his new role. Prior to joining Cognizant, he spent four years with Indian tech giant HCL Technologies, including as area vice president and head of sales for its travel, transportation, hospitality & logistics, and energy & utilities practices. Earlier, he was the head of Tech Mahindra’s airline business for APAC, and also spent time with Siemens in Europe.

“Gaurav has an incredible track record driving growth within enterprise technology companies, and we’re excited to have him as a co-founder leading the business in our first international market,” said Chatterjee and Khanna, who noted Australia’s strong emergence from the pandemic and incredible potential across diverse industries such as financial services, retail, public sector, telecoms, construction and logistics.

In a statement, the company said Sharma will be tasked with accelerating its ANZ presence with a focus on aligning business objectives, technology investments, enterprise partnerships and customer outcomes as the cornerstone of accelerated growth in the region.

BluePi Consulting also noted that its partnerships, which further include GCP and Cloudera, would provide a strategic advantage courtesy of their growing local customer base.

New SAP®-based Platform Will Enable Greater Business Insight, Agility and Automation

TEANECK, N.J., June 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) today announced that it has been selected by Australia’s Endeavour Energy, a leading electrical distribution network, to modernize Endeavour’s technology landscape and help the company transform and automate customer experience, energy market and business processes.

Endeavour Energy services the third largest economic market in Australia and is responsible for the safe and reliable supply of electricity to over 2.4 million people across Sydney’s Greater West, the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands, the Illawarra and the South Coast regions.

Cognizant business and SAP experts will design a future-ready, scalable SAP platform that will enable Endeavour Energy to harness real-time data for deeper business insight, automate processes and be more agile to meet changing business needs. As part of the engagement, Cognizant will digitally transform Endeavour Energy’s procurement and supplier management, human resources and finance systems using the SAP S/4HANA suite and a range of SAP Cloud solutions such as SuccessFactors, Ariba and Concur, as well as the SAP Industry Solution for Utilities.

“As we embark upon a journey of technology modernization, we are working with a company with a deep understanding of not just technology, but also the deep domain knowledge that underpins the entire process,” said Andrew Bettenay, Chief Information Officer, Endeavour Energy. “Cognizant’s extensive SAP practice, worldwide implementation experience and the speed with which they pulled together a comprehensive response, aligned perfectly with our business needs. This project will help us enhance our customer focus and increase our responsiveness to the changing industry landscape.”

“Endeavour Energy is making fundamental, technology-enabled changes across its core enterprise functions to build a data-driven digital organization,” said Jayajyoti Sengupta, Head of APAC, Cognizant. “With power demands increasing and supply needing to be efficiently managed, it is essential for utilities to embrace new technologies to deliver better services and outcomes for their customers. We are building a robust and scalable enterprise system using our market-leading digital and process capabilities, coupled with our long-standing alliance with SAP, to support Endeavour Energy’s vision for the future.”

About Cognizant

Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 195 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.

Hills to Collaborate with Cognizant to Reimagine Digital Customer Experiences and Key Processes for an Agile and Scalable Business

SYDNEY, Sept. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Hills Limited (ASX: HIL) today announced that it has embarked on a digital transformation programme in partnership with Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH), a global professional services leader, to revitalise the company’s e-commerce capabilities and improve core business processes, customer engagement, and operational efficiencies.

Hills is focussed on the distribution of technologies that ‘connect, entertain and secure people’s lives’. With a strong presence in security, audio-visual, communications and health markets, Hills has positioned itself as a ‘one-stop shop’ for integrated building technology solutions, targeting industry verticals such as health, education, banking, and government infrastructure.

Cognizant will leverage its digital strategy, design, and technology capabilities to develop an e-commerce platform that will provide the customers of Hills with 24×7 real-time inventory and self-service capabilities, including customer statements, invoices, pricing, online payments, and delivery information. Cognizant will implement a managed service model to enable Hills to improve operational agility and lower costs, while re-deploying savings to fund investments in innovation for growth. Hills believes it will allow staff to be more engaged with customers and vendors, and create a stronger platform to promote vendor products.

“The digital transformation initiative is integral to our ‘back to growth’ strategy,” said David Lenz, Chief Executive Officer at Hills. “The digital experience is critical in our endeavour to transform Hills from a product-centric to a customer-centric company. It’s an enterprise-wide transformation that will see Hills exit third-party supply chain arrangements early next year, to take control of our own supply chain – a decision key to the performance of the business.

“The transformation is technology-enabled but it’s customer focused. We’re improving warehousing and dispatch processes to create a better buying experience, tailored specifically to the B2B market. Cognizant’s expertise in systems, technology and business operations will help us create world-class capabilities to better compete in today’s digital economy. Customers will see improvements in our level of service, our product range and our engagement in the market,” Lenz added.

“Winning in the digital economy requires that business leaders use the latest technologies to improve productivity, consumer experiences, business processes, and core IT infrastructure,” said Dr. John Burgin, Head of Australia and New Zealand at Cognizant. “We improve consumer experiences with solutions that integrate human behaviour insights, digital strategy, design services, analytics, IoT services, cloud applications, and interactive content. That — coupled with process expertise, technology modernisation, and as-a-service business model — will allow us to enhance brand differentiation for Hills. We are pleased to be chosen by Hills to help them on their journey to provide even better technology solutions to schools, hospitals, homes and businesses.”

The planned go-live date for Hills’ e-commerce site is early 2018.

About Hills Limited

Hills is a majority Australian-owned publicly listed company (ASX:HIL), a value-added distributor of integrated technology solutions that connect, entertain and secure people in the environments they trust the most: their homes, schools and universities, hospitals and aged care facilities, workplaces and government institutions. For more information, visit www.hills.com.au.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (NASDAQ-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 205 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.

Cognizant Builds SAP® S/4HANA Platform on Microsoft Azure to Help Enhance Business Responsiveness, Efficiency, Innovation and Growth

TEANECK, N.J., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) has been selected by Orica (ASX: ORI), one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems, to migrate Orica’s IT infrastructure to the cloud. This important initiative will enable Orica to achieve higher levels of efficiency, agility and business impact, while optimizing Orica’s capital investment and operating costs.

Orica selected Cognizant as technology advisor and managed cloud-platform provider to develop a highly available, scalable, and resilient IT platform on a pay-per-usage model, to enable “anywhere, anytime, any device” mobile access to core enterprise systems. As a part of this initiative, Cognizant has designed and implemented a managed platform-as-a-service based on the SAP® S/4HANA intelligent ERP solution on Microsoft Azure. Furthermore, as part of the ongoing implementation, eight of Orica’s core enterprise business processes are being transitioned to the new S/4HANA platform in 57 countries around the world.

As a partner of Microsoft, SAP® and SUSE, Cognizant leveraged its innovative service delivery model through the Cloud Assessment and Transformation Framework to design and develop the SAP® S/4HANA systems on Azure.

“New technologies hold great potential for us to align with the needs of a fast-changing market by driving innovation and enabling new ways to work across every part of Orica,” said Gabriela Azzali, 4S Program Director, Orica. “Cognizant leveraged its deep cloud technology and platforms capabilities to architect, design and build SAP® systems on HANA deployed on Microsoft Azure. They built business critical SAP® systems to kick-start the program right on schedule and implemented automation processes in operations to keep infrastructure costs under control.”

“Cognizant is the right technology partner for us, with their strong credentials in architecting managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for SAP® on Microsoft Azure. Hosting SAP® S/4HANA on Azure needed a best-in-class foundational design and Cognizant’s technology architects were able to create an effective technology governance model that laid the basis for this implementation,” said Sascha Wenninger – Technology Lead, 4S Program, Orica.

“The Orica 4S transformation project has achieved solid business outcomes on time and on schedule. SAP® S/4HANA certified VMs on Microsoft Azure and other Azure services have enabled Cognizant and the Orica project team to rapidly deploy SAP® systems as and when needed. Orica will also benefit from Microsoft’s world class datacenters, security, SAP®-certified infrastructure with High Availability solutions and the added assurance of Azure Site Recovery for Business Continuity and DR,” said Brett Shoemaker, Business Group Leader, Cloud & AI, Microsoft Australia.

“Making business critical systems such as SAP® S/4HANA highly available requires a well-defined architecture, and Cognizant, Microsoft and SUSE worked together to build a collaborative solution based on multi-node iSCSI server configuration. Significantly, this configuration is the first ever such deployment on Microsoft Azure,” said Thomas Di Giacomo, SUSE CTO.

“The ability to quickly and cost-effectively deploy, manage and operate modern, dynamic and scalable architectures on industry-leading cloud platforms is crucial for enterprises to achieve the future of work today,” said Rajesh Balaji Ramachandran, Senior Vice President, Global Delivery Leader for Enterprise Application Services at Cognizant. “We are pleased to be helping Orica embrace the cloud and develop powerful provisioning, monitoring, and automation capabilities to increase operational resilience and manage market volatility. Cognizant’s future-ready CRI framework providing IT on demand will help Orica empower employees, improve speed-to-market, and make operations safe, secure and reliable to deliver sustainable value to its stakeholders.”

About Orica

Orica (ASX: ORI) is the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction markets, a leading supplier of sodium cyanide for gold extraction, and a specialist provider of ground support services in mining and tunnelling.

For more information about Orica, please visit: www.orica.com/about-us.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 195 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.

Building a Platform to Support, Connect and Empower Students Across 30 Countries

MELBOURNE, Australia, May 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) today announced that IDP Education Ltd. (ASX: IEL), a leading provider of international student placement services, has partnered with Cognizant to build a global platform that aims to digitally support students to achieve their global study and career aspirations.

The platform will connect and empower students, alumni, counsellors and universities via web, mobile and social channels. The initial release of the platform was launched in Singapore, and will be rolled out across all countries where IDP Education has student placement operations.

IDP Education leveraged Cognizant Digital Business capabilities in Melbourne to build student engagement solutions and derive business value from the programme. Cognizant has also collaborated with IDP Education in enhancing IDP’s global business processes, designing contact centres by using data sciences, and assisting with organisational change.

In its initial release, IDP Education’s digital platform has allowed students and parents to search and shortlist universities. Analytics-based insights and digital dashboards provided through the platform are also enabling counsellors to understand the customer journey. The platform aims to provide IDP with the ability to engage better with students and optimise offerings based on their needs and expectations.

“Delivering immersive digital experiences is key to guiding digitally confident students in their educational journeys,” said Andrew Barkla, Chief Executive Officer, IDP Education. “Our aim is to translate the support, trust and empathy that our customers receive from our face-to-face meetings with our counsellors across all touchpoints with IDP.”

“As our strategic technology partner, Cognizant has applied its expertise to help us further strengthen our position as world-leading international education specialists. Our digital initiative has helped us bring together the physical and virtual worlds to providing seamless and personalised support at every step of the student journey,” Barkla said.

“IDP Education’s digital initiative is a significant leap forward in improving the way it delivers its services to thousands of students across borders,” said Jayajyoti Sengupta, Head of Asia Pacific at Cognizant. “Leadership in the digital economy is about reimagining experiences and business models by balancing new technologies with human wants and needs. We are proud to be a part of IDP Education’s digital journey, which places students at the centre of the educational experience, while building a connected community, driving insights, and making student experiences with IDP Education more compelling and rewarding.”

A leader in the international education space, IDP Education helps students from more than 30 countries to study in Australia, the UK, the U.S., Canada and New Zealand.

About IDP Education Ltd.

IDP is a global leader in international education services. The organisation helps international students study in English speaking countries. Its success comes from connecting students with the right course in the right institution and the right country. IDP has been operating for close to 50 years, creating a huge network of opportunity with offices in over 30 countries. IDP is also a proud co-owner of IELTS, the world’s most popular high-stakes English language test, and operates 11 English language teaching campuses across South East Asia.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 205 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.

Synopsis – HCL Technologies will support SAI Global with multi-country managed service, which will help reduce support costs and shorten implementation times

NEW DELHI: HCL Technologies has signed a five-year contract to provide IT managed services to risk management company SAI Global.

The contract is expected to save SAI Global around $27 million, HCL saud in BSE filing on Thursday.

“We are delighted to have been selected as a strategic partner to a leading Australian information services company that helps organisations worldwide to manage risk, achieve compliance and drive business improvement,” said Sanjeev Nikore, President and Senior Corporate VP of HCL Technologies.

As part of the deal, HCL Technologies will support SAI Global with multi-country managed service, which will help reduce support costs and shorten new implementation times, as well as deploy standardised processes across SAI Global’s business units and provide ongoing support for the organisation’s global Epicor ERP platform.

Application Support and Maintenance.

Sydney Trains has awarded Indian IT outsourcer HCL Technologies a five-year, $34.9 million deal to maintain and support 107 of the agency’s legacy applications.

Late last year the rail operator went to market for offers to replace a network of 11 different external suppliers which had been supporting and maintaining the suite of customised and bespoke business applications inside the freshly re-branded agency (formerly CityRail).

“These contracts had been in place for varying periods of time and so there was an opportunity to go back to the market and consolidate our approach and vendors,” a Sydney Trains spokesperson told iTnews.

It marks the first time HCL has partnered with Sydney Trains on this specific program of work.

The spokesperson said while the work would be performed offshore under the new contract, a number of the previous 11 vendors had also been located offshore and used offshore models to support the applications in scope.

The agency said no Sydney Trains staff would be impacted by the change.

The spokesperson would not comment on the privacy and security implications of offshore workers accessing the data residing in the business-critical applications, saying only that “appropriate data and security controls are in place”.

The partnership follows a recommendation from the 2012 NSW Commission Audit, which found 130 corporate systems in use across the transport cluster, and suggested that amount be reduced to between 8 and 24 in order to reap annual savings of $100 million.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Satyam Computer Services today signed a seven-year contract worth $145 million with leading Australian airlines Qantas Airways.

TCS said the expected value of the contract “” to provide a range of IT application, transformation and maintenance services to Qantas “” was around AUD $120 Million ($90 million).

Satyam maintained the agreement covers application development and maintenance services for over 150 applications across a portfolio of technologies and was valued at around AUD $71 million ($55 million).

The contract for the applications services and transformation (AST) outsourcing program launched by Qantas is the largest single contract awarded to an Indian outsourcing company in Australia to date, claimed TCS.

“The Qantas engagement is a significant milestone for TCS’ airline business and is the result of our extensive investments in building domain expertise that has helped create innovative solutions for companies,” said S Ramadorai, CEO and managing director, TCS. “We believe technology has a strong role to play in enabling the travel and hospitality sector companies to retain customers and build new business models,” Ramadorai added.

According to TCS executive vice-president and head of global operations, N Chandrashekhar, “This is the largest in terms of committed spend bagged by an Indian IT company and TCS expects the contract to be accretive to earnings in our fourth quarter.” TCS will service the company from its recently set up innovation lab for travel and hospitality, for which the company would be recruiting around 220 personnel.

The company also expects total revenues of $500 million from its travel and hospitality business.

Satyam, on the other hand, maintained that the contract follows the recent Oracle e-Business suite contract announced in August between Qantas and the company for the implemented elements of Qantas’ eBusiness systems.

The transition of the IT support and service delivery of these applications to Satyam is already underway. Rama Raju, co-founder and CEO, Satyam, said: “We look forward to leveraging our global expertise towards achieving Qantas goals and objectives.”

“This partnership calls for Satyam to further enhance Qantas operational efficiency and with our experience across ADMS and the airline industry,” said Virender Aggarwal, senior vice-president and director, Satyam Asia Pacific and MEIA.

India / Melbourne September 2, 2009, 12:20 IST

Australian airline Qantas has hailed the troubled outsourcing partner Mahindra Satyam stating that it maintained its level of service even during the tumultuous period.

In a report published in ‘The Australian’, Qantas corporate services and technology executive manager David Hall said despite the fraud saga, Satyam continues to service the Flying Kangaroo. He described Satyam’s performance throughout the tumultuous period as “impressive”.

“We’ve been very impressed with what they’ve done…maintaining that level of support through that period,” he said.

“Organisationally they’ve had some difficult times but we have not seen a degradation of service at all, either locally or offshore. They have maintained service levels and I think that’s a credit to the organisation.” he added.