The Hindu Business Line : TCS plans 3rd centre in China; to hire 4,000 more

Bangalore Sept. 7 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) plans to set up its third development centre in China by the end of current financial year to support its growing clientele in the local market and also the global customers in that country.

TCS expects to scale up its headcount by five-folds to around 5,000 from the present 1,000 by 2010, said the Chief Operating Officer, Mr N. Chandrasekaran, on the sidelines of the Nasscom Quality Summit in Bangalore on Friday.

The company currently operates two development centres in Beijing and HangZhou and serves close to 20 global clients from China.

Commenting on the market potential, Mr Chandrasekaran said: “China is a fantastic market and the company is seeing good momentum in that country”. Further, TCS would continue to scale up its delivery centres in Mexico and in Eastern Europe. “We may look at opening a second centre in Hungary,” he said.

Stating that the impact of the US sub-prime crisis on TCS has been negligible, Mr Chandrasekaran said the outsourcing demand continues to be strong with several deals in the pipeline. “However, we are keeping a close watch on the US economy,” he added.

Offshore revenue

Meanwhile, TCS is aiming to improve its operational efficiencies to offset the impact of currency fluctuation and wage inflation on its margins. It is planning to increase its offshore revenues by around 400 basis points from 41 per cent to about 45 per cent over the next four to eight quarters by moving more work offshore, he said.

Ruling out any pricing pressure in the short-term, Mr Chandrasekaran said the company has managed to get an increase in pricing from both existing and new customers.