Tata Consultancy Services was awarded the "Best Buy Category Partner of the Year" for 2000 in Information Systems, at a glittering ceremony held here yesterday. According to the Best Buy management team this is in recognition of the passion, vision and operational excellence that TCS brings to the world class partnership.

Giving away the award, Mr. Dale Anderson, Vice President (IS), Best Buy remarked, "TCS has been a significant partner to Best Buy in the last year and I feel proud to give this award to TCS on behalf of Best Buy." Receiving the award, Mr. Arup Gupta, GM (USA) said: "This is particularly significant for TCS as we have won this award for the way in which we grew the relationship from ground zero, ten months ago to this stage, where Best Buy is recognizing us as their crucial partner." Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mark Gordon, CIO, Best Buy referred to the TCS-Best Buy relationshp. "It is heartening to note that Best Buy and TCS have come a long way in this relationship," he said.

Also present at the ceremony were Mr. Rajesh Nambiar, RM, Minneapolis, Mr. Rathna Kumar, BRM, and Mr. G. Ramanathan, Offshore Relationship Manager for Best Buy.

Significantly, TCS has won this award within one year of its relationship with Best Buy. Best Buy works with nearly 1400 vendors across different categories like Electronics, Appliances, Distribution, Information systems, etc. out of which only 31 companies were selected to receive this prestigious award. In Information Systems, from over a hundred vendors, the winners were TCS, CISCO and CMGI. Winners in other categories included Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and SONY.

Best Buy is a US and Global Fortune 500 company and is one of the largest volume specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances in the United States. TCS provides long-term solutions for some of Best Buy's Information Technology applications.