Software export major Infosys plans to hire a few
thousand people with arts and other non-engineering degrees to work on new
digital applications, which are more than just delivering technology services.
Technology companies such as Infosys are
witnessing an increasing number of digital contracts where the solutions are
often created with clients, unlike the traditional deals where the
specifications were drawn by the clients and outsourced. In these new deals, the
user experience is key to solving the
business problems of clients and the skills needed for this are as many arts as they are science.
“People with liberal arts, who are creative
thinkers, tend to put themselves in the shoes of the consumers and tend to
think out-of-the-box,” said a person at Infosys. “That is what the industry is
looking for.”
Infosys’ hiring plan highlights a change in the
way Indian IT companies have built their business — recruiting thousands of
engineers to write computer codes and maintaining infrastructure for their
customers. With the shift towards digital, where the applications need to be
built for smartphones and provide the same experience as any consumer app, such
as Facebook, they require people with skills in areas such as design and data
analytics.
Infosys has already started hiring people with
these skills. In the US, where it hired more than 7,000 people in the past year
and a half, 20-30% had a liberal art and
non-engineering background said the
person. It will be taking more such staff in the US and India, too, the person
said, without giving a time frame.
In an interview, Satish HC, head of global
services, data and analytics at Infosys, told ET that the company was “making
investments” to bring more people with liberal arts, design and other nontech
specialisations.
“...to reimagine (solutions), you need design
skills. We are making some of those investments as a company in our workforce.
You also need people from different backgrounds with design skills, people with
liberal arts and everybody cannot be with engineering or MBA background,” said
Satish. “It is starting small but will grow over a period of time.”
Infosys’ digital technology revenue is 31% and
that is an indication of the number of such people it would need, said Satish,
without giving a specific hiring number
for people with such skills.
In fact, the first acquisition made by Salil
Parekh after he took over as chief executive at Infosys earlier this year, was
WongDoody Holding Company, a US-based digital creative and consumer insights
agency. The Los Angeles-based advertising solutions company has Amazon Studios,
Tinder and ESPN among its clients. In September last year, Infosys acquired
Brilliant Basics, a London-based digital
innovation and customer experience studio.
Analysts said Infosys’ approach was in line
with the shifts in the industry.
“When you are doing more business services, you
have to cater to varied industries. That necessitates the need for diverse
skill sets. It also shows the changing model of business,” said Sanchit Vir
Gogia, chief executive of Greyhound Research.
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