IoT is fast gaining importance in the west, and unlike how Indian IT giants were somehow left behind in past half-a-decade of digital revolution, they don’t want a replication of that. As a result, HCL is now announcing a strategic partnership with bigger rival IBM, to co-develop IoT solution in India.
As a part of this partnership, the two companies will jointly develop an incubation centre in Noida, wherein the companies will extensively research on developing IoT tech for industrial and manufacturing, and smart facilities verticals.
For IBM, it has been aggressively pushing itself into the IoT segment, riding on the success and robustness of its Watson Analytics framework — which has garnered critical acclaim from enterprise tech experts. The US IT giant also announced a separate division for IoT that would be led by former CEO of Thomas Cook Group in the UK Harriet Green.
Sukamal Banerjee, Executive VP of Engineering and R&D Services at HCL said in a statement,
The trend is evolving towards cooperative…. We have to get used to the fact that companies may be competing in some parts of the business but that doesn’t stop you from working together in other parts of the business.
Financials regarding the amount invested by each company and the manpower involved in the deal remain undisclosed.
However, unlike how companies like the Google-owned Nest and similar ones in the west are working towards developing IoT products for general customers, HCL’s partnership will be solely focused towards industrial use. No smart homes, at least from HCL as of now.
