Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is an Indian multinational technology company specializing in information technology services and consulting. Headquartered in Mumbai, it is a part of the Tata Group and operates in 150 locations across 46 countries. It is the second-largest Indian company by market capitalization. As of 2024, TCS is ranked seventh on the Fortune India 500 list. In September 2021, TCS recorded a market capitalization of US$200 billion, making it the first Indian IT company to achieve this valuation. In 2012, it was the world's second-largest user of U.S. H-1B visas. In 2024, parent company Tata Sons owned 71.74% of TCS, and close to 80% of Tata Sons' dividend income came from TCS.

History

1968–2000

Tata Consultancy Services Limited, originally known as Tata Computer Systems, was established in 1968 by Tata Sons Limited. The company's initial contracts involved providing punched card services to its sister company TISCO (now Tata Steel), developing an Inter-Branch Reconciliation System for the Central Bank of India, and offering bureau services to the Unit Trust of India. In 1975, TCS implemented an electronic depository and trading system named SECOM for Swiss company SIS SegaInterSettle. It also developed System X for the Canadian Depository System and automated the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. TCS also partnered with the Swiss firm TKS Teknosoft, which it later acquired. In 1980, TCS established India's first dedicated software research and development center, the Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC), located in Pune. The following year, it created India's first client-dedicated offshore development centre, established for Tandem. Anticipating the Y2K bug and the introduction of the unified European currency (Euro), Tata Consultancy Services developed a factory model for Y2K conversion. The company also created software tools to automate the conversion process and facilitate implementation by third-party developers and clients. In late 1999, TCS introduced Decision Support System (DSS) solutions to the domestic market. In 1999, the company also registered its first tagline, "Beyond the Obvious."

2001–2019

In 2001, TCS entered the bioinformatics segment, and three years later, launched India's first bioinformatics product. In 2003, TCS became the first Indian IT company to record $1 billion in revenue. On 25 August 2004, TCS became a publicly listed company after its initial public offering. In July 2005, Tata Infotech, which was until then a different IT subsidiary of Tata Sons, merged with TCS in a stock swap deal. Later that year, TCS changed its tagline from "Beyond the Obvious" to "Experience Certainty". In 2006, TCS developed an ERP system for the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. By 2008, its e-business operations were generating over US$500 million in annual revenue. In 2011, TCS entered the small and medium enterprises market with cloud-based solutions. On the final trading day of 2011, it surpassed RIL to achieve the highest market capitalization of any India-based company. In the 2011–12 fiscal year, TCS achieved annual revenues exceeding US$10 billion for the first time. In May 2013, TCS was awarded a six-year contract valued at over inr 11000000000 to provide services to the Indian Department of Posts. In 2013, the company moved from 13th to 10th place in the League of top 10 global IT services companies. In July 2014, it became the first Indian company to exceed inr 5000000000000 in market capitalization. In January 2015, TCS became India's most profitable company, ending Reliance Industries Limited's 23-year streak. In January 2017, TCS announced a partnership with Aurus, a payments technology company, to deliver payment solutions for retailers through TCS OmniStore, a pioneering unified store commerce platform. The same year, TCS China entered into a joint venture with the Chinese government. In March 2018, Tata Sons sold TCS shares worth $1.25 billion in a bulk transaction. In 2019, TCS received four Stevies at the American Business Awards.

2020–present

On 8 October 2020, TCS surpassed Accenture in market capitalization, becoming the world's most valuable IT company with a market capitalization of over $144 billion. On 25 January 2021, TCS briefly reclaimed the title of the world's most valuable IT company from Accenture with a market cap of $170 billion. On the same day, TCS also became India's most valuable company, surpassing Reliance Industries. In May 2021, TCS, in collaboration with its consortium partner Neurotechnology, was selected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to provide biometric technology for the Aadhaar digital ID program. The Aadhaar program, which has a database of over 1.3 billion citizens, has been described by World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer as the "most sophisticated ID program in the world." In October 2021, N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, the COO of TCS, announced that its platforms and products business, including its SaaS-based platforms, is valued at approximately $3 billion. He noted that 95% of the deals won by TCS between October 2020 and October 2021 were for its cloud and SaaS platforms. In 2021, TCS underwent a millennial rebranding, and the company updated its tagline from "Experience Certainty" to "Building on Belief". In 2021, Tata Consultancy Services was also one of the largest job providers in India, hiring 43,000 new employees in the first half of the fiscal year 2021–22.

Acquisitions

Operations

As of September 2023, TCS had a total of 51 subsidiary companies in 55 countries. As of 2024, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) operates from over 50 countries and more than 500 offices globally. In India, TCS has multiple delivery centers in major cities, including Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad. It has significant operations in key markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Singapore.

TCS BPS

The TCS BPS (Business Process Services) division had revenues of US$1.44 billion in FY 2012–13, which was 12.5% of the total revenue of TCS. TCS BPS has more than 45,000 employees who serve over 225 million customers across 11 countries. The rate of attrition in the BPS division during the financial year 2012–13 was 19.5%. The firm has also opened a business process outsourcing facility in the Philippines.

Life sciences and healthcare

Since 2006, TCS has signed large contracts with American biopharmaceutical majors including Pfizer and Eli Lilly for providing clinical research-data management, biostatistics, and medical writing services. TCS also provides services to European biopharmaceutical corporations such as Roche and Novartis in the areas of clinical data management, biostatistics, clinical programming, pharmacovigilance, and RWE support towards global drug development efforts.

Tata Research Development and Design Centre

TCS established India's first software research centre, the Tata Research Development and Design Centre, in Pune, in 1981. TRDDC undertakes research in software engineering, process engineering, bioinformatics, and systems research. Researchers at TRDDC also developed MasterCraft (now a suite of digitization and optimization tools), a Model-driven Development software that can automatically create codes based on a model of a software, and rewrite the codes based on the users' needs. The research at TRDDC has also resulted in the development of Sujal, a low-cost water purifier, that can be manufactured using locally available resources. TCS deployed thousands of these filters in the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of 2004 as part of its relief activities. This product has been marketed in India as Tata Swach, a low-cost water purifier.

Innovation labs

In 2007, TCS launched its co-innovation network, a network of innovation labs, start-up alliances, university research departments, and venture capitalists. In addition, TCS has 19 innovation labs based in three countries. TCS' partners include Collabnet and Cassatt, and academic institutions such as IITs, Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon, and venture capitalists like Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins.

Employees

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the largest private-sector employers in India, and ranks as the fourth-largest employer among listed Indian companies, following Indian Railways, Indian Army, and India Post. As of 8 July 2022, TCS had over 600,000 employees. As of 31 March 2013, the number of non-Indian nationals employed by TCS was 21,282, representing 7.7% of the workforce. For the fiscal year 2012–13, TCS's employee costs amounted to US$4.38 billion, which constituted approximately 38% of the company's total revenue for that period. During the same fiscal year, TCS recruited 69,728 new staff members, with 59,276 based in India and 10,452 located elsewhere. The employee attrition rate for that period was 10.6%, and the average age of a TCS employee is 28 years. The employee utilization rate, excluding trainees, for the fiscal year 2012–13 was 82%. In 2008, TCS was the fifth-largest recipient of H-1B visas in the United States, following Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, and Satyam. In 2012, TCS and other Tata Group companies were the second-largest recipients of H-1B visas. Subramaniam Ramadorai, the former CEO of TCS, authored an autobiographical book titled The TCS Story...and Beyond about his experiences with the company.

List of CEOs

Sponsorships

TCS is the title sponsor for Toronto Waterfront Marathon, London Marathon, Amsterdam Marathon, Mumbai Marathon, Lidingöloppet, and New York City Marathon and one of the sponsors of City2Surf, Australian Running Festival, Berlin Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and Boston Marathon. In India, it is the title sponsor of World 10K held in Bangalore every year. TCS has been a sponsor of the Indian Premier League team Rajasthan Royals since 2009. It also provides the team with technology to help in the analysis of player performance, simulation, and use of RFID tags for tracking the players’ fitness levels and for security purposes in the stadiums. TCS conducts an annual IT quiz for high school students called TCS IT Wiz. TCS also currently sponsors Jaguar Racing in Formula E and Nakajima Racing in Super Formula.

Controversies

Class action lawsuit in the US

On 14 February 2006, the US law firm Lieff Cabraser filed a nationwide class action lawsuit against TCS concerning payments to employees on deputation. This lawsuit was filed on behalf of all non-US citizens employed by TCS in California from 14 February 2002 to 30 June 2005. The workers alleged that they were compelled to forfeit their federal and state tax refunds to their employer and that their Indian salaries were wrongfully deducted from their US pay. On 22 February 2013, TCS agreed to settle the class-action suit for $30 million. In July 2013, Judge Claudia Wilken of the US District Court, Northern District of California in Oakland, California, granted final approval for the settlement of the lawsuit.

Trade secret lawsuit

In a lawsuit filed in October 2014 in the US District Court in Madison, Epic Systems accused TCS and Tata America International Corp of "brazenly stealing the trade secrets, confidential information, documents, and data" belonging to Epic. This lawsuit was amended in January and December 2015. In April 2016, a US jury imposed a US$940 million fine on TCS and Tata America International Corp in the trade secret case, which was reduced to US$420 million in 2017. In 2020, an appeals court ruled that the US$280 million in punitive damages was "constitutionally excessive", but upheld the remaining portion of US$140 million in compensatory damages. The case concluded in November 2023, with TCS agreeing to pay US$125 million.

Sexual harassment allegations

In 2019, an employee filed a complaint with the Kancheepuram labour court, alleging that Tata Consultancy Services' internal complaints committee mishandled a sexual harassment case. Despite the case being approved, there has been no significant progress over the years, with the worker accusing the company of delaying investigations. The worker has also reported unexplained transfers and other forms of alleged workplace retribution, including in performance reviews.