Tata Consultancy Services launches business unit for SMEs

In order to tap the fast-growing small- and medium-businesses (SMB) segment, Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest software exporter, on Wednesday said it is launching a dedicated strategic business unit (SBU), which would offer IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) to customers.

The business is expected to be worth Rs 2,000 crore in the next four years.

S Ramadorai, chief executive officer, TCS, said: "Indian SMBs spent about $8 billion in IT in 2007, up 27 per cent from the previous year. It is a huge opportunity which we want to tap."

Against software-as-a-service (SaaS) model already in existence, TCS has included hardware and networking, to address the entire IT need. Clients would be charged on actual usage and won't need to invest in IT Infrastructure. TCS said already 10 clients have been signed on and sees "several hundred" more joining in the first full year of rollout.

"The power of the model is in standardisation and not customisation. Hence only those services which can be standardised for a number of clients like payroll, e-mail, accounting would be provided," N Chandrasekaran, chief operating officer, said.

TCS has identified seven layers, from basic hardware to technical consulting and BPO services, which it plans to include in its offerings, The SBU would be headed by V Ramaswamy.