Tech has become the lifeline to survive: HCL CEO Top Searches Tech has become the lifeline to survive: HCL CEO Shilpa Phadnis / TNN / Apr 26, 2021, 09:17 IST FacebookTwitterLinkedinEMail BENGALURU: In 2020-21, HCL signed 58 new large deals with a total contract value (TCV) of $7.3 billion, an 18% increase over the previous year. In an interview with TOI, HCL CEO and president C Vijayakumar spoke about the demand outlook. Excerpts: HCL has guided for double-digit growth this year. What are the drivers of demand? The themes of growth remain the same. Customers are looking at two-three broad areas – how can they optimise costs, make their cost more variable, and that’s one set of operating model transformation they are doing. The second set of initiatives are around digital, whether it is modernising their applications, cloud migration, security, reimagining the supply chain, and enhancing customer experience. Some sectors are focused on digitisation and modernisation, and some are a little more focused on how they manage the here-and-now and reduce their cost structures. Both resulted in good bookings for us – $3.1 billion in Q4 and over $7 billion in the last financial year – and with higher net new deals. Our demand pipeline is our highest ever as we speak.