TCS gears Shenzhen facility for more China business

SINGAPORE--Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is readying a new delivery center in Shenzhen, China, as it eyes more opportunities in the domestic market, according to a senior company executive.

The facility will be the fifth in the country after Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tianjin, said Girija Pande, chairman of TCS Asia-Pacific, in a phone interview Wednesday with ZDNet Asia.

TCS also has an office in Shenzhen, which it established in 2008.

The delivery center, expected to be open in August, has a capacity of 250, adding new hires to the current 1,100 employees in China, said Pande. It will initially serve Hong Kong businesses looking to outsource to Shenzhen but will also become a base to cater to local businesses, he noted, adding that large Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE have operations in Shenzhen.

Business from China's domestic market, according to Pande, has been growing slowly but steadily. The Indian IT services giant's approach to China had been to focus on demand from multinational corporations and regional players expanding to the country. But it is now finding a niche, particularly in the domestic financial sector.

TCS' financial offerings such as core banking systems have been well-received, especially since Chinese banks are going through a period of transformation, he said. Earlier this week, its core banking system implementation in China's Hua Xia Bank won the Asian Banker's Best Core Banking IT Implementation award.

It also scored another Asian Banker award for the development of a trading platform for the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, a subsidiary of the People's Bank of China. The system aims to support the trading requirements of some 350 financial institutions in China.

Moving forward, the company is optimistic its investments in China will bear fruit, said Pande. "We've made lots of investments. Now, we need to grow the business and…we've decided financial solutions is a good area where we're strong, so we will [focus on] that."

TCS is also looking to bring its global expertise in the energy and utility, aviation and automotive industries to China, he added.

But for now, the company does not have plans to enter the tier 2, 3 and 4 cities in China, he said.