Tech Mahindra unveils TechMVerse to drive commerce in Metaverse - All you need to know

IT major Tech Mahindra on Monday announced the launch of TechMVerse, its Metaverse practice, to deliver interactive and immersive experiences in the Metaverse for its customers.

The company will train a workforce of 1,000 engineers in the first year and the operations of TechMVerse will be through four hubs -- Dallas, London, Pune and Hyderabad initially.

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"At Tech Mahindra, we have always been at the forefront of 5G and our entry into the Metaverse is yet another milestone in our journey of catalysing future readiness and disrupting and transforming customer experiences," Tech Mahindra MD and CEO C P Gurnani said.

"The fundamental layers of metaverse are very well integrated within Tech Mahindra and its competencies. From infrastructure to experience, from spatial computing to now commerce, Tech Mahindra's platform, the TechMverse would enable a seamless integration between our known expertise in 5G with our skills in AI, AR/VR and blockchain," Gurnani added.

"We would be training a workforce of 1,000 engineers in the first year. It's a seven layer project and requires seven different competencies and depending on the skills required, my assumption is that approximately 50 per cent will be the existing workforce and the other 50 per cent may have to be hired from outside. But you still need to get them trained into delivering a Metaverse project", Gurnani told reporters here.

"We are right now doing two projects (in Metaverse space) in India and seven simulations globally. Hopefully, we will have a decent share... Or reasonably a high market share. We have global aspirations and would like to have global market share," he said reacting to a query.

He further said the company will serve this offering to its over 1,200 clients globally adding "this was an opportunity for us to lead the way".

Reacting to another query, Gurnani said: "Almost two years, we have delivered projects from 'work anywhere'. So, I don't think we are changing our philosophy from 'work anywhere'. But what we have realised is that certain projects can only be delivered if we interact more.

"Our number of workplaces have increased and we think it will be a hybrid working model. We are not going to legislate...We are not going to say you have to come to office. Right now, people are more enthusiastic about coming than I would have thought".

Asked about the increasing attrition rate in IT firms, Gurnani said it is going to be a challenge for the next six months.

"When the business grows and overall the technology shift is also very rapid so by the time academia, internal training, external training, re-skilling all come to a balance, yes, there will be an attrition because everybody is trying to fulfill the projects and that's why we went to so many Tier-II cities", he said.

With an aim to transform customer experience and deliver real business outcomes, Tech Mahindra will leverage its world-leading network and infrastructure capabilities along with its foundational technological capabilities, including pervasive Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, 5G, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Quantum Computing to build B2B use cases across sectors, a release from Tech Mahindra said.

In its initial phase, Tech Mahindra will leverage the opportunities presented by the Metaverse through various use cases including DealerVerse -- metaverse-based car dealership, Middlemist -- NFT marketplace, Meta Bank which is 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 (NFT) and blockchain platforms, while also aligning the metaverse strategy with Tech Mahindra's digital and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals, the release said.

Further, the company has also collaborated with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. To offer exclusive digital collectibles, starting with a series based on one of the most iconic brands from the latter's stable, it said.

These collectibles will be listed, minted, and offered for sale through Tech Mahindra's industry-leading NFT Marketplace platform.

Metaverse is a fast-evolving digital environment where individuals can interact with each other in a 3D virtual space, the release added.