TCS eyes Indonesia deals

IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is hopeful of bagging mega deals in Indonesia, banking on that country's drive to implent IT to improve efficiencies across all sectors.

The Tata group company is also bidding for the Indonesian finance ministry's project, slated to be one of the largest in that country, for setting up a data centre and provide IT services.

"At present, TCS has got three major contracts in the country. It is also looking at expanding its presence by bidding for other projects and is in discussion with several firms in the nation," industry sources told Business Standard here today.

There are several projects in the pipeline and a couple of them could be closed any time, they said. When contacted, TCS officials declined to comment on the issue.

The ministry is rolling out its IT initiatives, including online initiatives and setting up of one of the largest data centres in the country. The ministry intends to implement the project in stages, starting this year. It is expected to be completed in the next five years.

The project enables all government agencies receiving and using budgetary funds from the government to be linked online, thus improving transparency and efficiency. However, the size of the contract could not be ascertained.

TCS is also bidding for this project, which also includes a maintenance contract. There are many other companies also in the fray, with a majority of them of being foreign companies.

Indonesia is a potential market for an Indian company as many of the firms - both government and private firms - are looking at implementing IT to improve operating efficiencies.

TCS operates in Indonesia through its subsidiary C G Moghe. The company had earlier won contract with the country's state bank BNI, Bank Danamon and PT Telkom.

The company had recently announced a capex of Rs 1,000 crore for the current financial year. The outlay includes investment on both technology and infrastructure.

The company had recently announced a capex of Rs 1,000 crore for the current financial year. The outlay includes investment on both technology and infrastructure.

TCS plans to expand at current locations and is also looking at Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Indore and Visakhapatnam.

TCS employs more than 60,000 people today and will be adding more than 30,000 this year. Taking attrition into account, this will amount to net addition of around 25,000 employees.