I was checking on the Products basket that HCL bought from IBM and intend to reinvent them etc. Some thoughts - It is not easy to change the basic building block for particular product/platform…we cannot suddenly buy a Product from Legacy technology and reinvent itself in Digital avatar. If at all, then it will be a big project in itself, equivalent to building the product/platform from scratch…
- Does HCL intend to use the existing client base for these products and mine them over next couple years which it takes to rebuild new upgrades of Legacy products into Digital?
- Will those clients wait for this time period?
- A small example - Lotus Notes…with Microsoft Teams (earlier Outlook)…Lotus was a lost game…reinventing and competing with such giants may take several years, if at all they can do that…Clients will certainly not wait if they have a gem of a product from the likes of Microsoft at reasonable costs…
- Lotus was even used for Change management purpose (and not just communication)…now we have likes of JIRA and other SaaS products that work in fields of Team & Change management…unless HCL product basket from IBM or indigenous has such SaaS hits…the reinventing may not result in value we may expect…
- Cyber security products - This again is a very specific field with specialist companies…not sure how IBM basket product fares here…
Overall, with initial checks, I see the Product turnaround to take several years (small ups and downs here and there would be there) but complete overhaul or the intention with which HCL took such a big step to buy IBM basket …the vision maybe very long term and execution as well…
Fortunately/Unfortunately for HCL…the IT world took a sharp & swift Digital turn at right very moment of this acquisition that the disruptions around may render these products and also reinventing capabilities a challenge…It also gives insights into the capabilities of top leadership to anticipate such changes and make acquisitions likevise…I maybe wrong if these products have strong Digital capabilities and I am unable to see them…
Disc: Tracking position initiated last Week. Not a buy/sell recommendation. Above views purely to understand the business and I can be completely wrong in my assessments/knowledge.