Remain optimistic about future despite uncertainty due to virus: TCS CEO

India's largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Tuesday said it is actively engaging with customers to overcome the current crisis in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and that it remains "positive and optimistic about the future" despite the "uncertainty in the next few weeks and months".

In a blogpost, TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan highlighted that the company's priority has been to safeguard the health and well-being of its associates while continuing to support critical IT backbones globally.

He added that TCS has taken proactive measures such as travel restrictions, cancellation of events and large internal meetings, safe working environments and processes that have helped minimise the impact.

It also launched a programme to ensure business continuity using its "Secure Borderless Work Spaces" infrastructure which allows TCS associates working from home, both onshore and offshore, ensure business continuity with support from minimal associates working from offices, Gopinathan said.

"Today, TCS and other technology partners are actively partnering our customers overcome this crisis. We are helping rapid roll-out of COVID-19 tracking systems, supporting fragile supply chain systems across industries, ensuring critical payroll processes so that workers get paid in time... We will face more uncertainty in the next few weeks and months and our resolve and patience will be tested," he said.

Gopinathan noted that short-term impacts notwithstanding, in the long run, technology providers such as TCS will be more relevant than ever to organisations globally.

"As enterprises build more adaptive and agile organisations to survive uncertainty, technology will play an ever-increasing role. As enterprises focus on their core tasks and competencies, they will rely on experts like TCS to make new technology work rapidly for them using the contextual knowledge TCS possesses of their businesses, systems and processes," he said.

Gopinathan said research and innovation has always been a strength for TCS. "Once again, during the COVID-19 crisis, we are leveraging the TCS R&D infrastructure to run multiple threads looking for opportunities to support the governments, both India and abroad," he added.

He said some of these include examples such as COVID-19 patient tracker, creating a quick and light platform for clinical trials systems to rapidly collate effectiveness data in collaboration with pharma and medical institutions, drug molecule discovery using our patented technology and frameworks, exploring promising ideas for affordable and effective ventilators, and kits.