Accenture lower revenue growth guidance for FY24, and other news

Accenture lowers revenue growth guidance for FY24

Global technology services company Accenture has cut its revenue forecast for FY24 and projected growth in the range of 1%-3% from its earlier guidance of 2%-5%.

This lowered revenue growth guidance comes amid the environment of economic uncertainty where clients are lowering their spending on technology. This will have a bearing on the Indian IT services companies as Accenture is considered a bellwether for the industry.

According to a Reuters report, Accenture has been grappling with sluggish demand for its IT and consulting services as high-interest rates slam the brakes on an industry that benefited from breakneck growth during the pandemic.

This has led the company to lay off employees, with Accenture set to book $450 million in severance-related costs this fiscal year after recording $1.1 billion the previous year when it said it would cut around 19,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its workforce.

"We saw another turn of the dial on constraining spending by our clients, including spending on our services, particularly in parts of EMEA and North America," CEO Julie Sweet told analysts in an earnings call.

TCS bags multi-million dollar contract from Denmark MNC

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a multimillion-dollar strategic partnership with Denmark-headquartered architecture, engineering, and consultancy company, Ramboll. Over the next seven years, TCS will modernise and streamline Ramboll’s IT operating model to drive business growth and optimise the IT cost base.

TCS will also deliver services to manage Ramboll’s cloud and data centres, application development and maintenance, cyber security, and digital workplace. This will set a digital foundation for Ramboll’s business growth, help to reduce its climate footprint, and increase scalability, a statement said.

Operating across 35 countries, Ramboll offers sustainable solutions to enterprises. Rapid growth in the past few years, including numerous mergers and acquisitions, has resulted in a complex IT architecture and operations structure with unsustainable costs and little room for large-scale transformations.

TCS will help reduce costs and realise economies of scale within Ramboll’s IT estate, which will be achieved by streamlining and consolidating the IT architecture and operations structure.

Capgemini opens office in GIFT City

Global technology company Capgemini has opened a new office in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), Gandhinagar. The centre is dedicated to developing cutting-edge software applications for various industries, including life sciences, hospitality, consumer products, and retail. Capgemini actively collaborates with local universities and institutes to nurture talent and drive innovation in the region.

As part of its expansion plan, Capgemini aims to create more employment opportunities, particularly for women and underprivileged individuals. Capgemini in India has nearly 175,000 employees across 13 locations.

HCLTech gets top ranking for Gen AI expertise from AWS

HCLTech has been recognised with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Generative AI Competency Partner status for its expertise in building Gen AI applications on AWS and delivering transformative outcomes to enterprises.

With AWS’s advanced Gen AI portfolio, including Amazon CodeWhisperer, Amazon Bedrock, Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Q, HCLTech has developed innovative Gen AI solutions spanning various industries and enterprise functions, emphasising responsible and ethical AI practices, such as prioritising privacy, protecting intellectual property rights and maintaining factual accuracy.

The AWS Competency Programme assists clients in connecting with AWS partners who possess extensive knowledge and technical expertise in using AWS technologies and best practices to adopt Gen AI.

Kyndryl, Cloudflare expand partnership

IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl and cloud company, Cloudflare, have expanded their partnership to enable enterprises to migrate and manage networks for multi-cloud connectivity and network security.

The partnership combines Kyndryl’s consulting services and expertise across enterprise networking, security, and resiliency, with Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud that offers security, performance, and cloud flexibility.

Kyndryl and Cloudflare first partnered in May 2023 to modernise enterprise infrastructure with end-to-end services, bringing managed WAN-as-a-Service and Cloudflare Zero Trust to the entire corporate network.

Now, the two companies are focused on further innovation across all technology stacks to design, build, manage, and modernise customers’ vital systems.