TCS Australia chops 15 staff

Citing a slow down in financial services, IT outsourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services has chopped 15 SAP specialists from its Australian financial services division.

"Because of the situation in the global financial industry, we have had to make some adjustments in the financial solutions area of our business," a TCS spokesperson said in a statement today. They confirmed the number of staff to go was 15.

TCS boosted its financial services capabilities in SAP systems in 2006 when it acquired Sydney-based firm Financial Network Services, for around $26 million, now called TCS Financial Solutions.

Attempting to allay concerns about the business, TCS claims that it had hired 100 staff in the past 12 months, which brought the total to 265, now 250.

"Our Australian operation continues to perform very well in our core IT business areas," the spokesperson said. "This change in no way impacts any of our current customers in Australia and we will continue to recruit skilled professionals here according to the needs of the business."

Tata's local clients include the Commonwealth Bank and airline Qantas, which in 2006 awarded TCS a seven-year deal worth $120 million. CommBank late last year awarded TCL, HCL and IBM spots on the bank's panel of application development providers for work worth almost $200 million a year previously held by EDS.

Tata's SAP-focused financial services division, however, lost out to Accenture for the SAP work involved in the CommBank's $580 million core banking refresh it announced in April this year.

The retrenchments should not come as a surprise, with India's three major outsourcing companies — Infosys, TCS and Wipro — in July reporting sluggish growth for the year. TCS' profit was up just two per cent to US$296 million — lower than the 55 per cent rise for the same period in 2007.