TCS sets eyes on retail segment in Asia-Pacific

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has recently acquired Sydney-based Financial Network Services, is gearing up to tap the huge business potential in retail sector including virtual retail in the Asia-Pacific region.

"The retail market as a whole in the Asia-Pacific region is growing at between 25-30 per cent. This is one of the fastest growing segments for us," Girija P Pande, head and regional director, Asia Pacific,TCS said.

In addition to retailers like Wolworth in Australia and Watsons in Hong Kong, TCS has worked with Chinese retail giants including Yolo, an electronic retailer with 150 stores across China, by providing them supply chain management systems.

The company has also recently worked with virtual retailers which sell products through television. It has undertaken a supply chain network for Eastern Home Shopping Network, a popular virtual retailer in Taipei, Taiwan with eight million customers.

Pande said following the India -Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, the number of Indian companies listed in the Singapore stock exchange is set to increase. At present only two Indian companies are listed here.

TCS, which has undertaken re-engineering work for stock exchanges in Korea, the Phillipp ines, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong has now bid for the Shanghai Stock Exchange for creating a trading platform.

Stating that TCS continues to remain open to acquisitions, Pande said, the biggest challenge for Indian IT companies in the Asia Pacific region is now to develop non-English software since a huge population is non-English speaking. The company has already set up a regional recruitment desk in Singapore and has hired around 450 local staff.

(The writer is in Singapore on an invitation by the Singapore government)