India is the growth engine and innovation hub for Capgemini Engineering’: Chandra Reddy of Capgemini

Capgemini Engineering, with 52,000 experts, is the engineering and research and development (R&D) unit of French tech major Capgemini Group. Capgemini Engineering in India plays a crucial role for the Group bringing high-end capabilities at scale as the country is a strong base for digital talent. In an interview, Chandra Reddy, head of Engineering and R&D – India, Capgemini, talks about the role of the India team, go-to-market strategy, and focus areas. Edited excerpts:

Where does Capgemini Engineering fit within Capgemini’s global operations?

Capgemini Engineering combines deep industry domain knowledge and expertise across engineering and R&D to design, develop and deliver tomorrow’s products and services. We have a presence in all major engineering hubs worldwide with a well-established portfolio of offerings. Our goal is to be the leader in the intelligent industry. As every product, system or service becomes smart and connected, it is becoming crucial for our client’s engineering organisations to master both cutting edge digital and software capabilities. The combination of our industry expertise and unique skills in tech, software, and connectivity is our key differentiator in intelligent industry. We have around 52,000 engineers and scientists in the global engineering team.

What is the role of Capgemini Engineering in India and what are the factors driving its growth?

Capgemini Engineering in India plays a crucial role for the group bringing high-end capabilities at scale. With representation of industry domains and being a strong base for digital and software capabilities, India is the growth engine and innovation hub for Capgemini Engineering. We address the engineering needs of industries across sectors like automotive, aeronautics, space, naval and defence, energy, life sciences, telecom, electronics, software and many more. We are spread across eight cities in India, leveraging talent from all parts of the country and delivering solutions and services to our global clients from India. We are strategic partners to our clients, and over the years, we have built long term relationships with them that span over a decade.  

At Capgemini Engineering, we address the diversity of engineering skills at scale and drive innovation for our clients from India. With the expertise and capabilities of Capgemini in India, we drive digital transformation and build operations at scale for our clients.  

India today has become the go-to country for engineering services for the global customer base. This has fuelled growth for the captive and domestic engineering market with a flood of opportunities to engage. We at Capgemini Engineering are firmly positioned to address this emerging business need in India.

What are some of the areas Capgemini Engineering will be focusing on in 2022 and beyond?

At Capgemini, we have launched three intelligent industry offerings portfolio to enable data-driven business transformation, support automotive manufacturers, and allow the wider industry to progress on its roadmap. Some of our key focus areas are: (a) Digital Engineering and Manufacturing which enable our clients’ business through adoption of key digital technologies such as connectivity, industrial IoT, cloud, analytics and artificial intelligence, AR/VR from design to manufacturing to operations and support; (b) Software Product Engineering which enables our clients to capture new markets and business models by development of disruptive software products and services leveraging cloud, micro-services, serverless architectures – engineering for best-in-class SaaS and cloud native platforms; and (c) Research and Innovation where our six customised research and innovation programs assist clients with high-intensity R&D.

What is your current go-to-market strategy to drive growth?

Our go-to-market is very industry focussed and through our industry offerings, we address specific needs of the clients. To enable our client’s transformation to intelligent industry, our offerings leverage the power of digital technologies to make products, operations, and services intelligent. The software offerings address the challenges of softwarisation while bringing in strong core engineering and industry domain expertise. We have a big focus on sustainability. Companies around the world are investing heavily in reducing their environmental impacts and seeking to be more resource efficient. Capgemini has a bold ambition to help its clients limit CO2 emission and contribute to their sustainability agenda. For Capgemini Engineering, sustainability is at the core of all the services we deliver and have integrated the sustainability dimension in all our offerings.

How has the acquisition of Altran complemented your capabilities?

With the integration of Altran, the world leader in engineering and R&D services, we now have full capabilities in both industrial and digital technologies – to design, develop, and deliver tomorrow’s products and services. As India is a centre of innovation for the Group, it will play a key role in shaping, building and delivering our intelligent industry services. The potential is vast. Capgemini Engineering’s capabilities, coupled with those embedded across the larger Capgemini Group, enable us to meet end-to-end the transformation needs of industrial and tech companies. This has significantly opened a large playing field and created several new business opportunities.