Capco and Designit to 'align' under Wipro Consulting
Following an extended campaign of acquisitions, professional service firm Wipro has combined a number of its assets to create a new advisory wing. Wipro Consulting will be made up of acquired firms Capco and Designit, alongside Wipro’s pre-existing consulting and domain practices.
Wipro is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. With a headcount close to 232,000, and annual global revenues of more than £9 billion, the company is one of the world’s largest IT professional services entities, and has undertaken a sustained merger and acquisition drive to emphasise that position in recent years.
In 2021, this saw financial services advisory Capco join Wipro, as part of a £1.2 billion deal. The move – just four years after Capco had returned to independence – added more than 5,000 business and technology consultants to Wipro’s financial services practice at the time. Now, an organisational reshuffle will see the former Capco staff play a leading role in the creation of Wipro Consulting.
Alongside Capco, Designit will also slot into the new organisation, even as they remain separate companies. Capco, for instance, will continue to operate independently under the leadership of its CEO, Lance Levy.
Designit is a strategic design and innovation services, of some 700 employees. Its services include product design, service design, and experience design, which it offers from 17 offices; in Aarhus, Barcelona, Bengaluru, Berlin, Stockholm, Sydney, Lima, London, Madrid, Medellín, Munich, Oslo, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and New York City. The firm has been part of Wipro since its acquisition in 2015, and now it will align with Capco and Wipro’s former domain and consulting wings, under a single banner.
The newly launched Wipro Consulting will be led by Capco CEO Lance Levy; Global Head of Wipro Domain and Consulting, Philippe Dintrans; and Designit CEO, Nicolas Parmaksizian.
Commenting on the changes, Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte stated, “Our transformation journey over the past three years has yielded outstanding growth – so much that we have outgrown the two-line model we set at the beginning. We are now doubling down on our strategic bets to take our growth to its next phase.”
The move is reflective of Wipro’s changing emphasis, since the arrival of Delaporte as CEO at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Joining from the Indian branch of competitor Capgemini, his ‘One Wipro’ focus is hoped to better coordinate and leverage the firm’s range of acquisitions, and deliver value for its clients’ business and technology transformation needs. As such, Wipro’s revenues have accelerated from £6.6 billion to £9.1 billion.
Wider changes
The launch of Wipro Consulting is expected to be finalised at the beginning of April, alongside a host of other consolidations, intended to align the firm’s offering with evolving business needs – and capitalise on emerging opportunities in high-growth market segments. This will include the launch of Wipro FullStride Cloud, bringing together its suite of cloud capabilities; Wipro Enterprise Futuring, involving its insights and data properties; and Wipro Engineering Edge, aiming to enhance Wipro’s position as an engineering services providers.
In the cloud space, Wipro is bringing together its entire suite of cloud capabilities under a fully integrated, full stack offering dubbed Wipro FullStride Cloud and headed by Jo Debecker. Meanwhile, Wipro Engineering Edge, which was launched last year, will become a standalone business unit under the leadership of Harmeet Chauhan, with an intended continued expansion of capabilities in areas such as 5G, artificial intelligence and IoT.
Delaporte added, “Our new model will accelerate speed-to-market, streamline decision making, and allow us to channel investments more effectively and efficiently. Deepening our alignment with clients will allow us to adopt a more customised and specialised approach to their needs, unlocking new growth opportunities.”
