TCS: Delivering globally and locally
Andrea McBride, Head of Information Systems at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ireland, outlines future plans to grow its digital and business operations in Letterkenny and build out a Global Delivery Centre serving customers in Ireland and internationally.
In November 2020, TCS acquired the assets and employees of Pramerica Systems Ireland, the software and business support subsidiary of US insurance company Prudential Financial. As part of the deal around 1,500 employees have transferred over to TCS.
McBride was one of the first eight employees that started with Pramerica in 2000 and prior to her current role was Vice President of Software Engineering in Pramerica Systems Ireland.
Explaining that the Letterkenny-based operation has always taken an entrepreneurial approach, McBride says: “We started with a project for three people and were told to go out and find work from the parent company in the US. The starting objective was to grow to 150 over two years by building relationships with Prudential operations in New Jersey.”
Over two decades on and the operation now has close to 1,500 employees. “Our approach was to recruit experienced leaders and to build teams around them. We looked world-wide, for example, taking in COBOL programmers from as far afield as South Africa. The company also worked closely with government agencies such as SOLAS, and its predecessor FÁS, and local universities to provide a supply of new graduates,” she explains.
TCS Ireland now design courses in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University, Letterkenny IT, Sligo IT and NUI Galway. The organisation also hires staff with experience internationally, usually from Fortune 500 companies, and this is reflected in the 35 different nationalities it employs in its Letterkenny operations. For example, TCS’s head of data science came from Fidelity in Boston 10 years ago.
“We have always tried to keep relevant to the business needs of customers and moving towards higher-end roles such as full stack development, automation testing, business analysis, project management, data analytics, cloud, cyber security and the full range of back-office services including legal, business support services and digital services,” states McBride.
“We have always had the philosophy of ‘own your own career’. We provide opportunities for people to move across disciplines and across business units.”
The Head of Information Systems says that the Letterkenny base has been an advantage in recruiting: “We have attended career fairs with surf boards and sand with the message ‘you can have a global career and live in the North West of Ireland’.”
The TCS acquisition is a big opportunity for the Letterkenny operation and McBride highlights the reduction in risk from relying on one client and emphasises the opportunity of moving to multiple clients across several industry segments.
IDA Ireland celebrate links as partners in a global digital economy
Earlier this year, TCS Ireland participated in a webinar event, hosted by IDA Ireland, titled ‘Ireland & India – Partners in a Global Digital Economy’. Chaired by Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland, the panel discussion involved some of the most prominent Indian businesses with operations in Ireland. An Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD made a special address to participants and attendees at the webinar, which acknowledged and celebrated the special relationship and great partnership between Ireland and India.
Speaking at the event, Deepak Chaudhari, Country Head for TCS in Ireland outlined the ambitions for TCS in Ireland and expressed his gratitude for the ongoing support the business has received from IDA Ireland.
To view complete webinar, visit: https://on.tcs.com/35u8W8W
“Our strategy is to keep the existing business going and build out from that, focusing on clients in Ireland, UK, EMEA and near shore USA,” she says. “We have already started working with some of TCS’s big Irish clients and other UK and European clients. The aim is to provide multiple Irish clients with a world class capability locally from Letterkenny and grow this to other UK and European customers. We have an excellent track record of delivering services across digital skills, infrastructure services, analytics, cyber security, dev ops, enterprise agile services etc. We have state-of-the-art facilities including an innovation lab and are further building business units focused on supporting Microsoft, together with a centre of excellence in cyber security and a centre of excellence in cloud services.
“It is particularly exciting for staff to be able to work in different industries and to work in vertical centres of expertise.
“We have already plugged into the global experience of TCS across its 10 core industry segments. On one project in particular, I was able to access the expertise in digital transformation from the TCS group in Chicago.”
Challenges and opportunities
McBride explains that the biggest challenge continues to be talent: “We have been working with the universities over the years and we offer a lot of internships, which helps attract the right talent. We also have frequent recruitment campaigns targeting the right skills sets. On the positive side we can offer good renumeration packages in an attractive part of the island and can compete effectively with the big cities. The biggest selling point now is the opportunity any recruit has with the TCS global network.
“They have the opportunity to work anywhere in the world. The company has also a great framework for competency training and upskilling. You can work in different industry segments and still remain in TCS.
“We also want to get the TCS brand better known in Ireland and we will be working on that in the coming period. TCS is really well known in the UK but not so well known in Ireland. The company’s sports-related sponsorship activities fit well with our approach of community engagement in the past, which focused on sport and education.”
Local engagement
McBride explains that the Letterkenny operations have always had community involvement as a core principle from the outset. “We have done a lot of sponsorship of sport in local schools and within the community. We have an annual volunteer day and over 90 per cent of staff took a day and volunteered in the local community, cleaning up parks, repairing football pitches etc. We also work closely with Business in the Community on various education initiatives. Additionally, we have supported the local theatre. TCS is keen to build on these activities and the focus on sport and education will continue.”
Future
Concluding, McBride explains that TCS Ireland has an ambition to grow its Letterkenny operation in the next five years. “We are well used to getting on a plane to New Jersey in order to build relationships,” she explains.
“We have always had a client, or partner mindset. Your client is really the key to your success. The opportunity to develop that consulting mindset further afield now that we are part of TCS is such an opportunity for the Letterkenny operation. I am excited with the potential of serving multiple Irish and other multinational customers from this centre here.”
W: www.TCS.com
