CM: What can you tell us about your business consulting offerings? How is your approach to this type of work taking shape? Kant: We're doing very well in this area. We had been doing this as part of TCS and now we have what we call our Global Consulting Practice, or GCP. This is an outgrowth of TCS's mainstream work. We have about 500 people who are part of that practice, and we should reach 1,000 people by the end of 2006.
CM: Does this practice operate in any way independent of TCS?
Kant: No. The GCP is a unit within TCS, and you really don't want to disconnect the two. Customers will tell us that they want to see these together. They like the integration. They like to know that the execution will not be disconnected.
CM: For the GCP to thrive as a business consulting organization, doesn't it require a different culture than TCS?Kant: Well, TCS's culture is that of a fast-growing firm. And consulting firms in general dislike bureaucracy and this is something — at the rate that we are growing – that the TCS culture does not have. We also no have subpractices in our GCP that are formally branded. And these help clients better understand the services now. Business consulting and IT governance and process consulting are all now formally branded. CM: Last September, TCS won a deal with Dutch bank ABN AMRO. What makes this engagement so significant?
Kant: If you look at this deal, it really validates our model of global delivery, which is not just about India. We are supporting this contract from Budapest, Luxembourg, and Brazil. Again, this is how global delivery is intended to work.
CM: TCS has also begun to add some important health care clients. What can you tell us about these types of clients?Kant: We are working in the area of the electronic health care systems, and this is some of what we are doing with NHS in the United Kingdom, where we have been completing implementation work as part of a consortium. Basically, we're helping the health authorities come up with policies and approaches that will allow them to achieve an integrated system. CM: What can you tell us about the relationships that Tata has with higher learning institutions? What purpose do these serve?
Kant: These relationships serve several purposes for us. One of the purposes is innovation. Part of the research we are doing looks at the types of technologies that are emerging and which ones are practical. Certainly, having our name associated with this type of work is important. One area in which we are now working with Stanford University is data privacy. We are working with the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) at MIT, and with Georgia Tech in the area of testing. Some of the people who are doing research within these relationships are also taking sabbaticals and working at some of our R&D centers in India, so it's a relationship that is broadening for both of the parties.
Editor's Note: TCS America has R&D relationships with the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the University of California–Riverside (both since 2000); Carnegie Mellon (since 2002); MIT and Georgia Tech (both since 2004); and Stanford (started 2006).CM: Given the history of the Tata Group companies, how does consulting fit in?
Kant: If you look at the market cap of the Tata companies, it's significant. The Tata companies have always been recognized for starting ventures in new industries. In roughly 1903, they started the first steel mill in India. In 1932, they started the first airline — Tata Airlines — which later became Air India. They also started the first private electric utility company. So, there was clearly a tradition, and as part of that tradition, TCS was formed in 1968 in the area of information technology.
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