Spend-IT: ITC’s tech expenses shoot up as it bets big on digital tech

Indian conglomerate ITC, which has a diversified presence across industries such as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), hotels, software, packaging, paperboards, specialty papers and agribusiness besides its mainstay cigarettes, changed gears in terms of its tech spend last year as it embraces digitalisation.

Kolkata-headquartered ITC has 13 businesses in five segments and exports its products in 90 countries. In the context of the company’s IT spending, the firm is betting big on digitalisation across business functions. 

The company has been leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools to sharpen social listening skills to be able to customise products for its consumers and to bring in process efficiency in manufacturing. In 2021, for example, the company launched ‘ITC Sixth Sense’, a sensing engine that listens to social conversations, and gathers insights to understand consumption trends.

The company is also using big data analytics and algorithms to strengthen its distribution footprint, including in the areas of farmer engagement.

ITC saw its tech budget rise by more than a fifth for the year ended March 2023, the fastest pace in the last five years, data compiled by TechCircle shows.

The company's increase of digital transformation projects over the last 2-3 years has not only helped bring process efficiency but has also helped in cost optimisation.

Further, cyber security is an area, the company is heavily investing in. ITC said that it has used cyber security solutions to safeguard confidentiality, integrity and availability of business information and ensure greater IT controls and security of its IT Infrastructure.

The company’s IT team continued to leverage digital and automation tools to ensure focused IT control assessment for various areas of automation including robotics and IT applications across businesses, according to the firm.

Besides, ITC has invested in cloud infrastructure, robotic process automation, information technology-operational technology (IT-OT) integration and protection of sensitive personal data and information over the last 3-4 years. 

IT spending by Indian enterprises is projected to total $108.5 billion in 2023, while global tech spending is projected to reach $4.6 trillion in 2023, an increase of 5.5% from 2022, according to a report published on 20 July by research firm Gartner.

The report further noted that despite exercising caution, Indian chief information officers (CIOs) and chief technology officers (CTOs) will continue to invest in improving employee productivity and customer experience (CX), leading to a 14.6% annual growth in enterprise software spending.

Spend-IT is a running series where Techcircle scans through tech spending and budgets of companies in India