'Auto, Telecom & Healthcare Sectors to Drive Future Metaverse Experiences' In 2022, Tech Mahindra launched TechMVerse to deliver immersive experiences. Rajesh Dhuddu, Global Head, Blockchain & Metaverse, Tech Mahindra opens up to Entrepreneur India to share the progress
By Priya Kapoor
This story appears in the March 2023 issue of Entrepreneur India. Subscribe »
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
It's been a year since the roll out of TechMVerse. Tell us how it's been like.
'TechMVerse' was launched with the aim of catalyzing future readiness and transforming customer experiences. We have indeed brought to fruition the concept of conceptualization and implementation of next-generation use cases that focus on the convergence of physical and digital. We made a significant impact in the last year through several strategic deal wins, analyst recognitions, thought leadership, and the introduction of innovative frameworks for our customers.
We developed 50+ solutions across industries, including Dealerverse (a metaverse based car dealership), Next Generation Meeting Platform, Occupational Training in VR, Meta bank ( a virtual bank), Employee Trainings, Retail store formats for Telecom, QSR customers, and Auto cus tomers, Meta Village, Digital Twin of Power Plant, Smart City, Army Training, Service Centers for Global OEMs, provided Child Safety monitoring and material for Global Metaverse providers, and Metaverse device optimization for Metaverse equipment providers, among others.
We use a 'Web-and-Mobilefirst' approach to optimize Infrastructure elements (5G, Edge, Hardware), integrate Spatial computing (3D Engines, AR / VR, GIS) to create monetization opportunities, and usher in the creator economy to redefine experiences in social, gaming, retail, manufacturing, and other areas
What's the sector/industry allocation of your projects?
As metaverse applications are industry-agnostic, our deals are well spread out and cover almost all industry verticals. Some of the leading sectors where we have significant deal wins include high-tech, telecommunications, automotive, and banking. At Tech Mahindra, we intend to crosssell our metaverse services to our 1200+ customers because we believe there is a strong business value-add that we can provide to them.
How much business potential does metaverse holds. Do you see high margins in this domain?
In terms of margins, metaverse is still in its early stages of maturity when compared to other mature technologies such as AI/ML, IOT, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Cloud. Brands are still attempting to understand the use cases and applicability in their respective industries. While we are pursuing several large deals, brands in the industry may prefer to take a more cautious approach by testing the technology with a proof of concept (PoC) and then scaling to production grade implementations. As a result, margins should not be a primary focus area at this stage. However, given the enormous business potential, the margins will be higher than legacy technologies and more in line with the upper end of the spectrum of niche technologies in the immediate and near future.
How many people are involved in your metaverse projects. Are you looking to expand the team?
We currently have approximately 1500 resources working on various core and allied services in metaverse. These include projects centered on Meta Environments, Avataras-a-Service, NFTs, Digital Twins, Meta Commerce, Device Optimization & Testing, Content Moderation, CSAM, and Technical Support. We continue to scale the team size on an ongoing basis to meet the growing demand from our customers.
Which sectors will drive the growth of metaverse and what are some use cases in those sectors?
We belive future metaverse experiences will be driven by the automotive, telecommunications, healthcare, and manufacturing industries, and we have seen numerous examples emerge from our discussions with our customers and industry use cases in development. Use cases in the telecom space include product virtual stores, device drive testing, and 5G beam formation, that will help brands generate significant ROI for their spend. In the healthcare space, gene sequencing and remote collaboration to perform complex surgeries will become more common after sufficient tests on their efficacy are conducted. Spatial Computing, GIS Mapping, and Digital Twinning will be critical use cases in aerospace, manufacturing, and other related industries.
