Unisys India is a microcosm of Unisys worldwide: Ravikumar Sreedharan, MD, Unisys India

In an interaction with Dataquest, Ravikumar Sreedharan, Managing Director, Unisys India and Head Global Delivery Network, reveals how important Indian market is to the company's global plans and the scale of innovations taking shape at Unisys India. Excerpts

What role is Unisys India playing in the overall development of Unisys globally? 

Unisys India is a microcosm of Unisys worldwide. We have a broad suite of services and technology solutions that are being developed and delivered out of India for clients globally. Unisys India is a strategic global delivery center to our global operations and we have multiple state-of-the-art facilities in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Keeping in sync with the constantly evolving ecosystem, Unisys India is strengthening its vertical and horizontal offerings to provide enhanced value to our clients. We have multiple Centers of Excellence (CoE) in the areas of cargo, airlines, virtualization, and security, among others.

Our India team is deeply involved in developing the innovative solutions we provide to the aviation industry such as cargo logistics, passenger management and reservations systems, and airport operations. Within India, our solutions have powered Indian airports as well: Unisys was the master systems integrator for the launch of the new Terminal 2 at Delhi international airport in time for the Commonwealth Games requiring coordination across 320 vendors. We have also played an active role in the modernization of the Mumbai International Airport through our solutions and systems.

The size of our team has doubled in the last seven years. Today, we have more than 4,700 employees in India – almost 1 in 4 Unisys employees globally works out of India.

How are you approaching India as a market and what is the market opportunity for Unisys technology products in India?

India is a strategic partner to our global operations and we have always viewed this market in an opportunistic manner in our key focus areas which are Public Sector (law enforcement and biometrics and credentialing), Financial Services, Transportation (airports, airlines, and cargo); and Security. In the last decade, Unisys India has grown significantly in terms of productivity, delivery capabilities, and headcount. Our focus is to continue driving this momentum by enhancing our global delivery capabilities, driving cost efficiencies, and attracting and retaining top talent to ensure that Unisys India continues to play a key role in driving our growth globally.

In terms of market opportunity for Unisys’ technology products, we are looking at how we are going to position our portfolio of solutions given today’s evolving technology landscape. However, we will continue to play to our strengths as we have in the last decade:

In Aviation for example, we have partnered with Air India for the last 30 years and provided them cargo and passengers solutions as well as Unisys’ ClearPath Dorado servers.

What are the innovations happening at Unisys India?

Innovation is at the core of everything we do at Unisys India. Unisys’ largest engineering lab is based in India and Unisys India is actively involved in the development, design, and architecture of all our core products. Further, 20 percent of all patents at the company level come from India. We have centers of excellence based in India that specialize in transportation, security, virtualization, mobility, services management platform, and database management.

We also partner with academia to nurture innovation among engineering students across India. One such initiative is Unisys’ Cloud 20/20, one of India’s largest annual technical project contests. The primary aim of the contest is to spark innovative thinking among engineering students around the latest disruptive technologies, and to help them develop real world solutions for some of our most pressing business and societal challenges.

How do you see global leadership roles moving to India?

Being a global company, our leadership is spread worldwide. In the recent months, a number of leaders in India have taken up senior global roles in various areas which is very exciting.

What are the focus verticals in India for Unisys?

Globally Unisys is focused on three sectors- government, commercial (such as transportation and life sciences), and financial services. We are deepening our go-to-market vertical capabilities in those industries where we can add distinctive value. To do this we are concentrating on leading-edge technologies - cloud, application services, analytics - and prioritizing both R&D and consulting services. We are also globalizing our service delivery so we can scale in the most efficient way possible