3i Infotech Limited has unveiled its first Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Oracle applications development in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu with the aim to address the huge skill shortage faced within the industry. Named ‘NuRe Park Tirunelveli’, it is the first of the Hub & Spoke network to be launched across India and globally. The impetus is to expand this in Tier-3 cities across the world, with the potential of creating employment opportunities on par with those available in Tier-1 cities and building a strong talent pool across emerging technologies. 3i Infotech plans to further expand its operations not only in India but rest of the world with this model in place.
NuRe Park Tirunelveli will house the Oracle CoE across cloud, cybersecurity, Application, Automation and Analytics. As part of obtaining benchmarking industry certifications, the engineering graduates will go through specialized Oracle certification from Oracle University and real time industry experience. Among the industry-first initiatives by a technology company in India, this launch comes at the back of the company’s earlier announcement on its plan to setup multiple CoEs in the coming year.
With the emergence of the ‘New-Normal’ and the hybrid, work-from-anywhere work culture post the pandemic, talent is no longer restricted to metros and Tier-1 cities. Hence, opening of these world-class global CoEs will help in building the talent ecosystem in Tier-3 cities, without the need for these local talent to relocate. It would give them equal exposure on working on global clients, best-of-breed technologies and upskilling themselves like their counterparts in metros. The company has also initiated an employee engagement program for hybrid workforce and have a women talent recognition program to foster a diverse work culture.
3i Infotech has developed employability ecosystem integrating hiring & training partners, colleges & skill providers, government depts. and IT infra providers. Through their CoE internship & CoE talent incubator program, the company aims to bring in industry-ready and right-skilled talent at scale through a closer collaboration between academia and corporate organisations.
Tirunelveli city has several engineering institutions and has established itself as a hub for high-tech education in South India, making it an optimal location for setting up the campus. This initiative is built on 3i Infotech’s business ethos of ‘innovate, incubate, invent’ and its goal of skilling and providing job opportunities across the urban-rural boundaries. This facility is setup at Tiliconveli Tech Park in Tirunelveli in partnership with Mikro Grafeio Services Pvt Ltd, 3i Infotech’s infra partner, which is a leading workspace & workforce solution company, to manage its talent acquisition by hiring and training fresh graduates from Engineering/Arts & Science colleges in and around Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, and Kanyakumari districts. 3i Infotech will be a client to similar companies.
Thompson Gnanam, Managing Director & Global CEO, 3i Infotech said, “This is a major milestone in 3i Infotech’s journey of becoming a $1 billion organisation by 2030. These CoEs represent excellence in technology, people, and processes. We want to build an ecosystem within these Tier-3 cities that are on par, if not better than those available in the Tier-1 cities and provide the local talent with all the facilities, know-how and opportunities for them to excel and be industry-ready. It will provide an environment that is truly global – fostering innovation and creativity. In this endeavour, we are excited to launch our first Tirunelveli campus connect incubator, which will serve as a pioneering centre and a model for CoE Hub & Spoke. In the long term, we will look to replicate this Tirunelveli model in US, Europe, and the rest of the world.”
“With this CoE, the local talent from the region will get a hands-on experience on working for our global clientele, skilling them for job readiness – acting as a bridge from campus to corporate transformation”, he further added.
The upcoming NuRe Park CoEs will focus on multiple domains and technologies. For instance, 3i Infotech has a CoE and lab setup in collaboration with a leading research park in India focussed on 5G and cognitive computing. It is also investing in insurance CoE to offer end-to-end solution on cloud platform and will also build CoEs for Credit Union, Mortgage and Capital Markets.