TCS, Satyam bag Qantas contract

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Satyam Computer Services today signed a seven-year contract worth $145 million with leading Australian airlines Qantas Airways.

TCS said the expected value of the contract "" to provide a range of IT application, transformation and maintenance services to Qantas "" was around AUD $120 Million ($90 million).

Satyam maintained the agreement covers application development and maintenance services for over 150 applications across a portfolio of technologies and was valued at around AUD $71 million ($55 million).

The contract for the applications services and transformation (AST) outsourcing program launched by Qantas is the largest single contract awarded to an Indian outsourcing company in Australia to date, claimed TCS.

"The Qantas engagement is a significant milestone for TCS' airline business and is the result of our extensive investments in building domain expertise that has helped create innovative solutions for companies," said S Ramadorai, CEO and managing director, TCS. "We believe technology has a strong role to play in enabling the travel and hospitality sector companies to retain customers and build new business models," Ramadorai added.

According to TCS executive vice-president and head of global operations, N Chandrashekhar, "This is the largest in terms of committed spend bagged by an Indian IT company and TCS expects the contract to be accretive to earnings in our fourth quarter." TCS will service the company from its recently set up innovation lab for travel and hospitality, for which the company would be recruiting around 220 personnel.

The company also expects total revenues of $500 million from its travel and hospitality business.

Satyam, on the other hand, maintained that the contract follows the recent Oracle e-Business suite contract announced in August between Qantas and the company for the implemented elements of Qantas' eBusiness systems.

The transition of the IT support and service delivery of these applications to Satyam is already underway. Rama Raju, co-founder and CEO, Satyam, said: "We look forward to leveraging our global expertise towards achieving Qantas goals and objectives."

"This partnership calls for Satyam to further enhance Qantas operational efficiency and with our experience across ADMS and the airline industry," said Virender Aggarwal, senior vice-president and director, Satyam Asia Pacific and MEIA.