TCS edge for retail major

Mumbai: Tata Consultany Services (TCS) on Monday said it had bagged a five-year deal from Marks & Spencer to help the British retail giant to become a "digital first" business.

The development comes just two days after the country's largest IT services firm won its largest contract - a $2-billion deal from US insurance group Transamerica.

In a statement, TCS on Monday said it had expanded its partnership with Marks and Spencer (M&S).

As part of the five-year plan, TCS will be the principal technology partner for M&S to help it shift to a new operating model so that it can align itself with rapid technological innovation to meet fast changing business priorities.

TCS did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

"Our long standing partnership with M&S has helped to build a strong contextual knowledge of their business. TCS will help the customer to adopt a digital-first mindset to win new customers and create growth at accelerated pace," TCS chief executive and managing director Rajesh Gopinathan said.

M&S chief executive Steve Row said the retailer and TCS will join forces to make its business "faster, simpler and more focused on achieving a seamless customer experience".

In a statement on January 9, M&S had said that core supplier services would be transferred directly to TCS and the day- to-day relationship and project management of specialist suppliers will move under the control of TCS.

The deal wins for TCS come after a stable third quarter, which saw digital revenues growing almost 40 per cent over the year-ago period. Digital now accounts for over 22 per cent of TCS's revenues.

While the retail sector had earlier seen muted growth, an optimistic Gopinathan disclosed that the vertical was set to see double-digit growth.

Gopinathan pointed out that the retail sector, which had bottomed out last quarter, grew 6.4 per cent in constant currency terms during the October-December period.

TATA Consultancy Services ( TCS )