Tech Mahindra is venturing into Metaverse practice, a foray for which the IT firm plans to build a team of 1,000 engineers in a year, including 500-600 in Hyderabad.
In the initial phase, it will leverage opportunities presented by Metaverse through various use cases, including DealerVerse car dealership, Middlemist NFT marketplace, Meta Bank – a virtual bank and gaming centre. It will offer immersive digital and professional experience services around design, content as well as low code plug and play Non-Fungible Tokens and Blockchain platforms, the company said on Monday.
Speaking at the launch of TechMVerse, MD and CEO CP Gurnani said the company was keen on foray, given the huge opportunity, instead of waiting for things to mature and then acquiring firms. Tech Mahindra said to transform customer experience and deliver real business outcomes it will leverage its network and infrastructure capabilities along with foundational technological capabilities, including pervasive AI, Blockchain, 5G, AR, VR and quantum computing to build B2B use cases across sectors.
On hiring plans, he said seven different competencies with each having a different flavour are required for the projects. “Approximately 50% will be existing (Tech Mahindra employees) and 50% may have to be hired from outside. You still need to train them in delivering a Metaverse project. Of the four labs in Dallas, London, Hyderabad and Pune that will contribute to various facets of the project, the facility here will host 500-600 people in immediate future and hopefully become much bigger in future, he added.
Metaverse is a fast-evolving digital environment where individuals can interact with each other in a 3D virtual space. Tech Mahindra is also collaborating with Mahindra & Mahindra to offer exclusive digital collectibles, which will be listed, minted, and offered for sale through its NFT marketplace platform, the release said.
Hybrid model to stay
To queries on continuation of work from home mode, Mr.Gurnani said “I don’t think we are changing our philosophy from work anywhere. But what we have realised is certain projects can only be delivered if we interact more.”
“We think it will be hybrid working model... [hence] not going to legislate,” he said, adding the company has offices in several tier-II cities, including Warangal, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneshwar, Nagpur and Coimbatore. However, it appears employees are enthusiastic to return to office. “I will have to start proper transport, canteen facilities from April 1,” he said.
