TCS expands partnership with Britain's JLR in $1-billion deal

Indian IT major Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Britain's Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have expanded their partnership, valued at more than 800 million pounds ($1 billion) over five years, the two Tata Group companies said on Wednesday.

As part of the partnership, India's top IT services exporter would deliver a range of services to the vehicle manufacturer spanning application development and maintenance to cloud migration, cybersecurity and data services.

JLR and TCS are longstanding partners, collaborating on various fronts since 2012.

Over the last few months, top IT services companies in India have secured a handful of multi-million and billion-dollar deals and contract renewals amid worries of client spending cuts in the key United States and European markets.

TCS had in June signed a $1.1-billion contract with British pension scheme Nest.

Rivals Infosys signed three deals between June and August, while HCL Technologies secured a $2.1 billion deal with US telecom major Verizon last month.

"TCS will leverage its contextual knowledge, deep domain expertise, proprietary platforms, vast partner ecosystem and future-ready talent pool to help JLR enhance its digital capacity; transform, simplify, and manage its Digital estate; and build a new, future-ready digital core that will support its business transformation," said the IT firm. 

"We are pleased to be selected by JLR as their strategic partner to help manage and transform their Digital estate and build a new, future-ready digital core that will support their Reimagine strategy and electrification plans. This is a truly bi-modal partnership where the efficiencies from leaner operations will help fund the new digital core, while our contextual knowledge and expertise will de-risk and accelerate that transformation,” said Anupam Singhal, Business Group Head - Manufacturing, TCS. 

Nigel Blenkinsop, Executive Director, Enterprise Performance & Quality, JLR said: “Building world class partnerships and maximising the benefits of being part of the Tata Group is a key part of our Reimagine strategy. Consistent with this, we are pleased to expand our long-term relationship with TCS to accelerate our digital transformation. Their breadth of capabilities and deep understanding of our business will further enhance our ability to transform and simplify our Digital estate at pace, ensuring we can deliver a modern luxury experience for our clients.”

On Wednesday, TCS' scrip on BSE closed nearly flat at Rs 3,428.65.

With inputs from Reuters