The Hindu, India: Cognizant’s President Says the Company is Accelerating its Shift to Digital by Helping Clients Become Technology-Enabled Across Their Businesses

“Our investments over several years have positioned us well to enable clients to transform their business models, their operating models, and their technology models in tandem to deliver digital at scale,” says Rajeev Mehta. “We’re expanding our solutions portfolio, deepening and broadening our digital skills under the guidance of chief digital officers in each of our industry and regional business units and enhancing our digital engagements with clients.” Excerpts:

“The real challenge is closing the technology/STEM-worker skills gap in many of the markets we serve in order to help our clients transition from “doing digital” to “being digital”.

Given the shift to digital, there is increased need for co-location and co-innovation. We are focused on our clients’ needs, helping them make the shift toward digital enterprises. Our resourcing, employee mobility and financial model all underpin our strategy,” says Rajeev Mehta. Excerpts:

In the U.S., for example, we are hiring more, expanding the number of our U.S. based delivery centers and driving innovative training programs with colleges to help train the next generation of technology workers. Access to the best global talent continues to be the key to increasing the competitiveness of these and other countries. The real concern is around the technology/STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) worker skills gap there.

We hired 4,000 U.S. citizens and residents in 2016 alone. In 2017 and beyond, we expect to significantly ramp up our U.S.-based workforce by hiring experienced professionals in the open market and by making more use of university, veteran, and related programs.

We are shifting our workforce largely in response to clients’ increasing need for co-innovation and co-location. As part of our shift, we continue to expand our U.S. delivery centers. A good example is our Tampa delivery center, where we employ over 1,000 technology and business professionals.

They provide business process services, application services and testing for financial services and healthcare clients. At our center, we’re employing a broad skill mix that includes long-time local residents as well as veterans and recruits from local colleges. At similar delivery centers around the country, we’ve expanded our retraining programs and are working with local institutions to implement special curriculums that will help us meet growing client needs.

Today, we have over 20 U.S. delivery centers and we continue to expand this footprint. We are executing the shift to digital at scale by helping our clients simultaneously optimize their costs as they invest in the future. And we are shifting our workforce rapidly in the U.S. with more U.S. jobs and U.S. delivery centers.

Change and adaptation are the inevitable hallmarks of evolution. Cognizant’s is a story of reinvention, of sensing opportunities and preparing for client needs ahead of time. The pursuit now is accelerating our shift to digital by helping clients become technology-enabled across their businesses. In doing so, it is imperative that our workforce is appropriately aligned to deliver sustained, high-quality growth.”

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