TCS launches strategic business unit for financial services products
May 28, 2007

Tata Consultancy Services has announced the formation of a new strategic business unit (SBU) called TCS Financial Solutions to further consolidate and position its comprehensive suite of financial products as a single, market-facing business unit.

TCS Financial Solutions will function as a 'products company' within the TCS family and will drive growth in the financial products business. Using an integrated business model, the SBU will also leverage the development and system integration competencies of TCS for customer engagements.

TCS Financial Solutions will have a separate management team headed by NG Subramaniam as president. The SBU will have sales, support, product management offices in New York (North America and Caribbean), London and Zurich (Europe), Beijing (Greater China), Sydney (South East Asia and Australia), Sao Paolo (Latin America), and Bangalore (India, Middle-East and Africa).

Product offerings from TCS Financial Solutions will be positioned under an umbrella brand called TCS BANCS. This service oriented architecture (SOA) integrated product family consists of functional modules for anti-money laundering, channel services, customer relationship management, core banking, corporate actions, enterprise application integration, global custody, insurance, lending and borrowing, online trading, payments, private banking and wealth management.

TCS' financial products business has been accelerating rapidly in the past few years. In the 2005-06 financial year revenues grew by about 50 per cent to $102 million, while during the recent financial year 2006-07 the financial products business grew 66 per cent from $102 million to $170 million. TCS Financial Solutions has a customer base of 214 financial institutions across 80 countries. In 2006-07, there were over 50 new customer wins, while 35 new installations of TCS products went live globally.

"Tata Consultancy Services is wise to form TCS Financial Solutions to manage its growing collection of financial services software assets. There is a different skill set required to manage packaged software (such as managing release cycles, engaging in license agreements, and thinking about the industry solutions globally) versus an IT services business which engages in IT outsourcing, consulting engagements, and is often more oriented to a single customer's needs," said Bart Narter, senior analyst, Celent, a leading financial services analyst firm.

"TCS BANCS (formerly FNS BANCS) has two huge wins with State Bank of India and Bank of China, two of the most transactional-intensive banks in the world. TCS Financial Solutions still remains part of TCS and benefits from having a global organisation that has deep and broad experience in implementing and customising these solutions," Narter added.

N Chandrasekaran, EVP and head, global sales and operations, said, "Our business applications in the financial services domain continue to gain tremendous traction in the market and TCS Financial Solutions, backed by the Global Network Delivery Model of TCS, will drive this growth and leverage the immense opportunities that exist across markets around the world."

NG Subramaniam, president, TCS Financial Solutions added: "This is a strategic initiative from TCS that further demonstrates our commitment to this business and articulates the maturity achieved in the various facets of a product business like product management, support and professional services. We will continue to differentiate ourselves by bringing certainty of implementation leveraging our strong domain capabilities, thereby maximising efficiencies and minimising risks for each of our customers."