HCL bags 5-yr deal from US beverages co

NEW DELHI: HCL Technologies on Tuesday bagged a five-year IT applications support and infrastructure management deal from US-based beverages firm Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS). While the IT firm didn���t disclose the deal size, HCL America president Shami Khorana said the DPS deal marked the fourth largest outsourcing contract won by HCL in the US this year. The Indian IT firm had earlier bagged a $350-million contract from The Reader���s Digest Association, a $100-million deal from Xerox and recently, a deal with MTV Networks.

Apart from applications support and maintenance, HCL will provide services, such as end-user computing, integrated service desk, network management and managed print services to DPS. As part of the deal, the Texas-headquartered firm will also become HCL���s anchor service desk customer at its Raleigh delivery facility in the US.

HCL Technologies said it won the deal, while competing against top multinational IT firms, such as IBM, and no other Indian IT firm was in the fray. DPS is an existing client of HCL Tech. The $5.7-billion Dr Pepper Snapple Group produces and markets carbonated soft drinks, juices, ready-to-drink teas, mixers and other premium beverages across the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Its brands include Dr Pepper, Canada Dry, Schweppes and Hawaiian Punch. The consumer packaged goods and retail vertical contributes about 6.5-7% to HCL���s revenues. ���This will be a large growth vertical for us going forward,��� Mr Khorana said. Companies in the segment are not only looking to cut IT costs but also want to transform their IT infrastructure, he added.