Demand for digital talent at its peak now

Indian IT industry is facing the challenge of high attrition for the last one year. While large IT firms are reporting close to 20 per cent or more than that kind of voluntary attrition rates, the scenario for mid-tier and small firms are not much better. Increased global IT spend is enabling more projects for Indian IT firms, but supply side issues are creating challenges in the delivery process. To overcome this issue, companies are aggressively hiring freshers to right size the employee pyramid. In this context, many mid-tier IT firms are also operating as subcontractors and providing training assistance to big IT firms for quick onboarding of new hires. Pune-based DataTech Labs is a specialized skill training provider along with IT solutions providers that help many marquee names to hire skilled talent for deploying in complex projects. In a conversation with Bizz Buzz, Dr Amit Andre, CEO of DataTech Labs, said that the company provides around 3,000-5,000 skilled technology resources to large IT firms and other clients per quarter. He also said that demand for digital talent remained very high amid robust demand environment

Demand is certainly going to the there and India is the most prominent geography on which global companies are relying on. We need to capitalize it and serve it genuinely. Though there are a lot of potential, there are also a lot of risk in the global market. That is a challenge for companies like us. Because gaining the trust outside India is a challenge. As far as attrition is concerned, we don't see it stabilizing in the near-term. The demand remains very high, pushing up the wage costs to unsustainable levels in some cases. We have to see how it plays out in the future

Increased global IT spend is enabling more projects for Indian IT firms, but supply side issues are creating challenges in the delivery process. To overcome this issue, companies are aggressively hiring freshers to right size the employee pyramid. In this context, many mid-tier IT firms are also operating as subcontractors and providing training assistance to big IT firms for quick onboarding of new hires. Pune-based DataTech Labs is a specialized skill training provider along with IT solutions providers that help many marquee names to hire skilled talent for deploying in complex projects

Due to high employee attrition, the IT industry has seen bulk hiring of fresh engineering graduates. In this perspective, how many such engineers DataTech Labs can reskill and provide to the IT firms? Is the strategy different for engineers with certain years of experience (laterals)?

For laterals, the strategy is completely different. As far as freshers are concerned, we have trained around 35,000 freshers and deployed around 22,000 freshers. These engineers have been trained in different skill sets. Learning a technology or a concept is not difficult at all these days as there are any avenues to learn. But the major challenge is whatever you have learnt, where to apply, how to apply and what to apply. And that is what we try to cultivate in freshers. For laterals, we have a pre-assessment engine, which is AI (artificial intelligence)-based. With this engine, we assess their existing state of knowledge, and based on that, we give them some pre-learning material in the form of exercises. The best part is this whole journey is based on our AI-based learning platform, which is known as Knowledge-as-a-Service (KaaS). This platform is open to the participants throughout their lives and we keep on updating that.

Can you throw some light on your operating model? Is it whether DataTech train engineers who come to you from IT firms or you hire engineers and provide them to IT firms, effectively functioning as a sub-contractor?

There are various models that are followed by multiple organisations. First model is that organisations hire, give it to us for training and they go back after the training. That is one model which is a classic model. The second model is that every quarter, these organisations inform us that they require a certain number of people with skillsets in specific technologies. Then, we plan to recruit required number of people along with the clients and once the client gives the go ahead, we recruit and put them into training, certifications and other such upskilling programmes. Then, the client takes the final interview and make them billable. The best part is client only pays only for the billable resources after this training. As far as deployment is concerned, there are two models. Clients can take people on their roles or we work with as a subcontractor.

Which model does contribute more to the company's revenue? Is subcontracting the bigger part because of the contemporary talent demand? Also, we want to understand your company's level of engagement with technology startups?

Subcontracting contributes more to our revenues as of now. As far as startups are concerned, we are into consulting and mentoring the startups. We are also helping them deliver their services in time. But for us, the bigger part is from big system integrators (IT firms).

What kinds of technology talents are in high demand?

Demand for digital skills is at its peak. Skills in AI, data, cloud engineering, and many more are in high demand. There are also demands for adjacent skills. Apart from India, we are also operating in Dubai (UAE) and London. This year, we are planning to start operations in the US.

How many resources do you provide in a quarter to the IT firms?

In a quarter, we provide around 3,000-5,000 resources to IT firms. Our expertise is in skill development and we vouch for those resources.

Offshoring has increased in the last two years owing to the pandemic. This has led to rise in talent demand. How do you see demand for technology talent in the next three to five years?

Demand is certainly going to the there and India is the most prominent geography on which global companies are relying on. We need to capitalize it and serve it genuinely. Though there are a lot of potential, there are also a lot of risk in the global market. That is a challenge for companies like us. Because gaining the trust outside India is a challenge.

As far as attrition is concerned, we don't see it stabilizing in the near-term. The demand remains very high, pushing up the wage costs to unsustainable levels in some cases. We have to see how it plays out in the future.

Apart from operating space, what are the other areas DataTech Labs currently working on?

We have a cloud engineering team which work on Microsoft and AWS cloud servers. We have our own AI-based CRM and ERP. We don't sell these products, but as customized solutions.

How big is the team now? What are your hiring plans going ahead?

We have about 170 people on roll and around 220 resources on contract or freelancers in India. We hope to grow very fast in coming years. In last two years, we have grown from five to 200 people and by the end of May, we will have another 200 people on roll.