Looking to double operations by 2026 in India, Jaepy Kurian, Head of Delivery for India and Arun Paul, Head of Asia Pacific Human Resources, brief on the company’s journey and the plans ahead.
1993 marked an important year in the history of computing. That was when Mosaic, the first graphical web browser was released. The power of computing began to be realised and operations were beginning to digitalise. To service this rising demand, Orion Innovation was set up in Edison, New Jersey. “Our growth can be divided into four phases,” said Kurian and continued, “the first was when the company was established in 1993. The second phase was when the current CEO Raj Patil took over and that is when we started to venture offshore. The third phase is marked by expansion in Europe and in our current fourth phase, we are equally spread across the globe. We have close to 6400 employees who are equally spread across Americas, Europe and APAC.”
Digitalisation as a horizontal across verticals
With growing presence, Orion Innovation’s services extends across a wide range of sectors including accounting, fintech, sports, telecom, media and entertainment, life sciences and education. “We have presence across the globe in all these sectors. Last month we were chosen as the digital transformation partner for Liverpool FC,” said Kurian. Orion Innovation also acquired Sryas Inc in the last year and this further strengthens the company’s telecom portfolio. In the field of education, they have provided the whole digital platform for the ICSE board and several universities. The company boasts of two of the top three high tech firms and three of the top five network device manufacturers as its client.
India is a fast growing and promising market in terms of digital transformation. The rate of change is happening at a lightning pace and it offers great opportunity. “India is now a hub for technology and innovation. Most of our clients are moving their global innovation and research facilities to India. This shows the skill level in the country. Coupling this with good policy, compliance and government support, we are very bullish on our growth ahead,” said Kurian confidently.
Education, practice and on-job implementation
Orion Innovation operates out of six offices in India, located in Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai and Pune. “The country produces outstanding engineers in large numbers. We also train our employees inhouse to keep them on top of the trend,” highlighted Paul. The company follows a three-pronged approach to foster skilling and reskilling. One is on knowledge gaining, next is on training using the knowledge and third is to translate it into operations. “For education, we have tied-up with the best online platforms like LinkedIn, Udemy, etc. Our associates can upskill themselves anywhere, anytime and in any relevant technology. The next stage is to practice. One typical way is through hackathons, to put the knowledge to use. The third is to translate this knowledge to actual work,” detailed Paul. With strong emphasis on learning and development, every employee has a curated 100-hour mandatory learning and they are encouraged to complete it. “This has ensured that our attrition rate is always in single digit,” proudly pointed Kurian.
Talent acquisition will be revolutionised
The talk of the town in the tech circle is AI. While on one hand it helps to enhance productivity, fear of job loss is also high. To counter the apprehensions, Paul emphasised the importance of providing education to everyone in the organisation, regardless of their role, about the fundamentals of AI. This approach aims to enhance understanding and foster appreciation on the capabilities and limitations of AI. “GenAI definitely enhances productivity and we must equip ourselves to work in tandem with it. Today several businesses are rapidly expanding due to this technology and at the same time, new companies are formed based on it,” highlighted Paul. Thanks to AI, the entire recruiting process has become much swifter and simpler. “AI helps to manage our recruiting operations and talent landscape much efficiently with faster, accurate and effective results. The biggest shift will be AI-based interviewing. This will save the time of our technical interviewers who can put in those 10-12 hours into much productive work. In another 6 to 18 months, we will witness massive revolution in talent acquisition,” said Paul confidently.
Digital transformation of Liverpool FC
With change being the only constant, today transformation is rapid across sectors. Sports is one such. While player analytics is picking up steam in India, the scenario is much more developed in other parts of the world. The experience of viewing a sport has become totally digitalised and Orion Innovation stands as a strong player. With more than 8 products that aid with various aspects including player registration, performance, ticketing, test for integrity, drug, etc. their portfolio is called stadium as a service. “We have the capability to handle all the digital aspects involved in stadium management. Today, viewing scenario is very different. Face scanners allow in audiences and they can instantly get information on which of their friends are there, when and where to meet them, available food options, best shots of oneself clicked at the stadium,… More such innovations are coming in and we are at the forefront of them,” said Kurian excitedly.
With over 20 years’ experience in this portfolio, they offer the service to 15 major leagues and clubs in cricket, baseball, basketball, tennis, football, rugby,… Recently Orion Innovation has been announced as the digital transformation partner for Liverpool FC. “Who would have thought that Liverpool would have a chief technology officer and chief information officer? But they do. With this partnership, we will be able to collaborate as well co-develop new use cases for further improvement of that club,” explained Paul.
With industries rapidly embracing digital transformation, the company depends more on organic growth but is also open to leverage expertise in newer areas through mergers and acquisition. 90 per cent of the company’s revenue is from digital transformation while about 10 per cent is from products. With a buoyant economy and growing demand, Orion Innovation is looking to double its India operations by 2026.
