In conversation with Srikanth Chakkilam, CEO and Non-Executive Director, Cigniti Technologies Ltd

5G-enabled industries have the potential to drive and define the next decade of innovation, believes Srikanth Chakkilam, CEO and Non-Executive Director, Cigniti Technologies Ltd

Can you share your insights on how 5G technology will be essential in the post-pandemic world? 

As software continues to be the critical component of every business, connectivity to the digital superhighway is imminent. 5G technology makes this possible. It has the potential that we have already experienced that can significantly re-shape human life, not just business. AI-led robotic surgeries which are video streamed, annotated and guided are today possible with 5G enabled ecosystems. There cannot be a better use case than the above to signify how 5G is impacting the human generation in this pandemic period and beyond. The pandemic has reshaped our daily lives, as well as the way business activities, are being conducted.

For example, pandemic restrictions forced many factories and industrial plants to close, disrupting production lines and supply chains. Covid-19 accelerated the demand for connectivity with consumers and professionals today are relying on high-quality and high-speed internet performance more than ever. 5G-enabled industries have the potential to help drive sustainable economic growth and define the next decade of innovation. Remote-controlled machines that communicate over 5G have suddenly became vital – they allowed human operators to steer drones, cranes and other industrial equipment with greater precision, speed and efficiency without having to be on site.

The world is going to need these capabilities as it comes out of the coronavirus-induced economic hole and rebuilds a stronger economy. In fact, 5G has the potential to be the glue to enable and incorporate all new types of services with cloud platforms, artificial intelligence, edge networking, and smart platforms. As the global infrastructure is still playing catch-up on how to adapt and incorporate the technology, the promise of 5G easily stands to be the next seismic movement in the evolution of digital transformation. 

For Q3FY22, Cigniti Technologies reported net sales of Rs 325.46 crore, which grew by 45.36 per cent from Q3FY21. What factors contributed to help you outperform? 

At Cigniti, we understand the importance of assuring digital experience for our customers. We primarily cater to mission-critical domains such as ISV (Independent Software Vendor), BFSI, travel & hospitality, healthcare & life sciences, and retail & e-commerce. ‘Digital-First’ has always been our strategic focus which demands better speed to market, higher customer-centricity, and higher speed to value. We continue to engage deeply with our customers who are re-imagining their digital journeys and are surely agreeing to the fact that digital assurance is the bedrock of their digital transformation journeys. 

Every vertical today is digitally disrupted and that puts Cigniti in a sweet spot to become a strategic partner of choice for all our leading customers in ensuring their digital ambitions are met through our full cycle, IP and AI-led digital assurance, quality engineering and automation services that span multiple technologies and business touch-points. Over 50 of our large clients use our next generation AI led quality engineering and automation platform - BlueSwan™, capable of serving clients across domains - to achieve growth through IP led software services. Our focus on operational excellence has resulted in reduction of cost and expansion of margins for many global organizations.

As a company, we continue to deliver consistent performance with good growth and a healthy order book position. We are optimistic that the sectors of BFSI, travel and hospitality, health care and life sciences, and software-driven business segments will improve tremendously this year and enable us to gain more traction on the sectoral contribution. 

Cigniti Technologies has incorporated 5G assurance into their overall 'Digital Assurance' strategy. Can you explain the same? 

According to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc., worldwide, IT spending is projected to total USD 4.5 trillion in 2022, an increase of 5.5 per cent from 2021. As you transform into a competitive digital service provider, software and automation are key enablers to increase customer satisfaction and streamline operations. Evolving your operations and assurance to differentiate through service quality is crucial to leading in the cloud and 5G era. The 5G network adoption will be a crucial enabler for digital transformation that goes beyond the potential of providing a competitive advantage.

It stands to become a directive for all enterprises to stay competitive in this digital transformation race, or better put, this digital transformation marathon. And hence, the absolute imperative for an evolved Digital Assurance strategy will take hold. Digital Assurance involves many moving parts – platforms, technology, data, processes – all of which must be considered and validated in coordination with one another. Digital Assurance is extremely crucial for any digital transformation program’s success. Cigniti holds a unique position to leverage its deep-rooted expertise in helping enterprises accelerate digital transformation initiatives through world-class digital assurance and engineering services.

Cigniti has incorporated 5G assurance into the company’s overall Digital Assurance strategy, and as part of this, has established a capability that provides 5G automated testing, monitoring, measurements, and analytics. We are deeply engaged in focused 5G assurance use cases that can be the true business value generator for our clients. Our vision is to also invest in a 5G centric digital experience centre that can become the epicentre of all our 5G enabled use cases for our customers across the world. We are working on this. 

At the moment, what are your top 3 strategic priorities?

Our top 3 strategic priorities may be bracketed as below: 

• Deeply engage within the top 75 accounts, most of them being fortune 2000 companies and work with a cross-section of CXOs across the board, increase our wallet share amongst them by purposefully orchestrating their digital re-imagination and transformation journeys through a confluence of full-cycle digital assurance and automation services which promise impactful business outcomes.
• Building a strong differentiation through investment in proprietary AI-powered testing Platform such as BlueSwan™; investing in domain competency groups; and building a breed of high-quality digital talent that is passionate, customer-centric and better-than-peer group incompetence. Reskilling and upskilling our talent pool to cater to new-age digital enterprises. 
• Inorganic growth has been a concrete pillar and contributor to our growth and will remain so a priority going forward. 

What is your earnings outlook for the upcoming quarter?

The company’s consolidated revenue from operations for the quarter Q3FY22 stood at Rs 325.46 crore as against Rs 223.9 crore in Q3FY21, up by 45.4 per cent. The strong growth registered in volumes, revenue and profit in the quarter has already set the course for a good year for the company. For the upcoming quarter, we expect business growth volume to improve and overall business performance to pick up. We will continue to work on expanding our customer base and leveraging our global network to provide the best experience to our clients.