IT industry has struggled as clients cut spends, but seeing more activity in digital: Wipro Chairman

BENGALURU: Wipro chairman Rishad Premji said the IT services industry has struggled as customers across the world have cut their budgets for technology during the first quarter due to the pandemic-induced slowdown.

He said the “good news” for the company and the industry as a whole is that customers are looking to spend money in digital transformation.

During the lockdown in India and other countries, companies such as Wipro, Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech and others saw organisations across markets either delayed their ongoing technology projects or cancelled many proposed deals.


“The reality is we all work with many large enterprises across the world as an industry and those customers are struggling; they are going through challenges in terms of their own demand. We are not living in a vacuum. The industry has struggled a little bit in Q1 and seems to be stabilizing.

Our customers have significantly cut spend, they are much more thoughtful,” said Premji at the 47th National Management Convention organised by All India Management Association.

At the same time the lockdown prompted these companies to pivot to a new model wherein more than 90% of their employees were delivering services remotely and new deals were also finalised virtually.

Premji said customers have started accepting the new model and conversations about new projects are happening virtually.

The Wipro chairman said the lockdown has fundamentally changed the ability to access talent, allowing companies to access talent from smaller cities, use a crowdsourcing model.

But, the industry would not come back to its earlier form and shape, added Premji.

“We want more people to come back some of the time, everybody comes back for 3-4 days a week. It is credibly important that people come back. Culture grows, spreads and (is being) understood in an environment where people get to connect face to face. The water cooler conversation and watercooler gossip is an important thing for an organisation to grow,” said Premji.