Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is looking to a point in the not-too-distant future where it sits at the top table of IT services alongside IBM, Accenture and Capgemini.

Part of the Tata Group, one of India’s largest companies, whose other interests span tea, cars, steel and telecoms, TCS has set itself the revenue target of reaching $10 billion by 2010. If that seems over-ambitious for a company with revenues likely to hit $3.8 billion this year, then doubters should note that it has actually doubled revenues every two years since 1998.

To get there, the Mumbai-headquartered company needs to become a ‘full-service’ provider – and that is already showing in its revenue mix. Around 54% of its business is derived from the traditional area of application development and maintenance, but its Enterprise Solutions group, where two key focuses are on implementing and enhancing ERP packages and helping companies embrace service-oriented architecture, now generates 12% of revenues. Other core areas include business intelligence at 9% of revenues, infrastructure services rising fast to 6% and business process outsourcing (BPO), where activities have gone from almost zero to 6% of revenues.

Servicing those activities is a well-oiled recruitment machine that last year grew TCS’s workforce by 20,000 to 83,500. The majority of work is on North American client accounts, but the UK is the second largest base (and its most profitable), accounting for 20% of revenues. Key clients include Boots, Somerfield and Virgin Atlantic.

The Tata brand plays heavily to TCS’s advantage.  The company’s staff attrition rate, currently at 10.8%, is by far the lowest of any Indian IT services company – a factor of TCS being perceived among potential recruits as part of a pillar of Indian commerce.

In terms of customers, TCS has focused its attentions on three key verticals: banking, financial services and insurance (where it derives 44% of revenues), telecoms (17%) and manufacturing (15%). And although it boasts 754 active clients, some are more critical to its success than others.

Its top 10 customers generate 28% of its revenues, with its largest client alone, General Electric, writing cheques this year for over $200 million.

TCS’s jump in BPO activity points to an evolution of its India-centric global sourcing model. Its hard-fought deal, signed April 2006, to take on the Pearl Group’s closed-book life and pensions operations, under a new TCS subsidiary, Diligenta, involved the acquisition of 950 UK employees and the occupation of Pearl’s headquarters near Peterborough.

That is just one of the platforms fuelling a turbo-charged growth rate that is currently running at 47%. Even if its pace slows to 40% as it grows TCS will crash through that $10 billion target.

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Overview

Out of India - Who's best placed to exploit the world's biggest pool of low-cost, highly skilled IT service labour.

From East To West

Profiles of the top Indian IT service providers:

• Tata Consultancy Services
• Infosys
• Wipro
• Satyam
• HCL
• Patni

From West To East

The Western IT services companies making best use of Indian resources:

• IBM
• Cognizant
• Accenture
• HP Services
• EDS
• Capgemini