Tata #3: Creating an Industry from Scratch
Flashback to the
70’s. IBM didn’t dominate the mainframe market yet. A company called Burroughs
was also a contender. Burroughs had a joint venture with the Tatas to sell and
maintain Burroughs in India. It gave the fledgling TCS a toehold to the world
of computers and international projects, writes Shashank Shah in The Tata Group. Until the partnership ended in 1978.
Suddenly TCS, a
company of engineers only, had to find customers and clients. Faqir Kohli was
pulled in from Tata Power. Though reluctant to move to what seemed like a
career dead end company, he was persuaded by JRD Tata.
Kohli persuaded
Burroughs to sign the first outsourcing contract in Indian IT history. At a
time when TCS didn’t even have a single Burroughs machine! Importing one was
impossible in those days. So TCS acquired an ICL computer from LIC (whose trade
unions wouldn’t allow LIC to use it since they feared computers would wipe out
jobs):
“TCS
built an ingenious filter to transfer the system from ICL to a Burroughs
system.”
Porting software
across systems – it was a vital skill TCS had acquired.
As Burroughs
started to fade in the 80’s, international demand to port files from Burroughs
systems to IBM mainframes grew. TCS was perfectly placed for such an
opportunity.
In the mid-80’s,
C++ was a new programming language, a new way of programming. TCS took a risk
and sent its personnel overseas to learn the yet to be proven language. As C++
grew in popularity, TCS was ready to meet the demand for C++ programmers. The
ability to anticipate trends was useful yet again when the Y2K problem surfaced
– TCS was ready for that too.
“Often
described as the Henry Ford of IT services, Kohli-led TCS moved software
development from artisan-like activity to an industrial assembly line of a
software factory.”
By the time Kohli
retired in 1999, over two lakh programmers drove the IT revolution in India.
Initially, TCS
served as a body-shopping firm – they’d hire people in India who would then be
sent to the US to work as contractors. Over time, the company switched to the
on-site project management model. Here, TCS would be accountable to deliver the
entire project, working closely (on-site) with the client. The third model was
the offshore one. In this, most people working on the project stayed in India,
while a few went on-site to coordinate with the client. This last model is now
called the on-site-offshore model of software delivery.
Today, TCS has over 4,00,000 employees, annual revenue of over $20 billion, and a market value of over $100 billion. It has come a very long way.
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