Tata Consultancy Services acquires Airline Financial Support Services via @tatacompanies

	Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of the world's largest global software services and IT consulting organisations has announced a significant development in the business process outsourcing (BPO) segment with its acquisition of Airline Financial Support Services (I) Pvt. Ltd. (AFS). A business process outsourcing outfit, AFS caters to the requirements of the airline and hospitality industry. Commenting on the acquisition, S Ramadorai, CEO, TCS, said,” We see considerable value being added from AFS, which is a financially sound venture. The BPO business is an opportunity that is driven by the support requirements of the customers and its cost equation with regard to back office software. TCS has been traditionally offering services in the BPO segment, especially to domestic clients. However, the challenge is to leverage the domain expertise and experience garnered over three decades in the business to deliver quality to customers consistently. The acquisition of AFS is a significant step in our presence in the BPO segment." "AFS started as a pure play captive arm to provide the core, critical and complex services in airline revenue accounting for Swissair. Over the years, the company has grown in its business, added new customers and now provides allied airline back office processing services as well. With TCS, we want to clearly exploit our synergies, especially in the areas of global market positioning, joint strategic business development, quality excellence and superior product delivery. This should catapult AFS as the leading provider of end-to-end process outsourcing solutions,” added Burjor Randeria, president and CEO, AFS. With the acquisition of AFS, TCS is geared to take advantage of its global presence by marketing services to the international airlines and hospitality industry. In fact, AFS, which would be an integral part of TCS, will be the BPO Centre of Excellence in TCS' offerings for the airline and hospitality industry. TCS has been present in the BPO segment since its inception in 1968. It has been traditionally providing BPO services to domestic clients and overseas customers in the areas of design outsourcing, data centre management and operations, technical helpdesks and transaction processing for select clients in target domains. About AFS AFS, formed in 1992, was set up as a joint venture of Swissair (holding 75.1 per cent) and Tata Sons (holding 24.9 per cent) as a captive BPO arm of the airlines, to perform revenue accounting services. Today, a dynamic and experienced team of over 400 dedicated professionals are passionately committed to the art of serving customers across geographical boundaries, defying distance, space and time. AFS offers a range of services extending from airline revenue accounting services, traffic accounting and cargo revenue accounting to passenger interline billing, navigation support, Level 1 h/w support and frequent flyer programme administration. AFS is poised to offer its services not just to the airlines, but also cater to the broad spectrum of the hospitality industry. Some of its other customers include Swiss, Tyrolean Airlines, Sabena, Austrian Airlines, Lauda Air, Malmoe Aviation, Loyalty Gate and Unit Pool, among others. With a strong focus on quality, based on its internally developed Total Quality Leadership model and a passion for its customers, AFS has retained its position as one of the leading providers of BPO solutions for the airlines industry. About TCS Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a division of Tata Sons, is one of the world's largest global software and services consulting organisation. With over 22,000 professionals, more than 100 branches across 32 countries, alliances with world-leaders in IT, cutting edge research and development and world class infrastructure, TCS offers products and services in eBusiness, application development and maintenance, architecture and technology consulting, engineering services, eSecurity, large projects, quality consulting, infrastructure development and management across verticals such as banking, financial services, insurance, retail and distribution, telecom, manufacturing, transportation, life sciences and healthcare, government and utilities. The company has over 1,000 global clients including eight of the US Fortune10 companies, namely, General Motors, Ford Motors, General Electric, Citigroup, ChevronTexaco, IBM, Verizon Communications and AIG. 15 of TCS' development centres have been assessed at SEI-CMM Level 5. TCS had a 2001-02 turnover of Rs4187 crore (US$880 million).