TCS puts bums on seats at Warner Bros.

(By Anthony Miller – Friday,6th March 2009 8:00am). It was very clear listening to Hilary Catchpole, Service Delivery Manager at Warner Bros. Entertainment Europe (WBE) at yesterday’s analyst briefing that (a) they love TCS, and (b) the only projects getting done at WBE are those that either “put bums on seats” in their cinemas (i.e. revenue generation) or cut costs (e.g. support the roll-out of digital projection systems). TCS is WBE’s preferred global supplier for infrastructure and applications. Indeed, one of the biggest projects currently being rolled out at WBE is a business intelligence (BI) system based on Business Objects, now owned by SAP. Again, this is precisely in line with what we have been saying for ages; that BI – along with GRC (governance, risk & compliance) –are among the few initiatives still getting signed off in these ‘non-discretionary’ times.

On a different tack, I asked TCS Europe Retail head Shankar Narayanan – who was also presenting but, alas, ‘sans client’– who they were meeting in competition for new business in the UK. He said mainly Infosys and Wipro among the Indian SIs and IBM and Accenture among the rest. I was a bit surprised that he didn’t mention HCL, who seem to be making a strong play in Retail (and see Don’t call HCL an offshore player!) with their flagship win at DSG (‘Dixons’). But, no, HCL doesn’t seem to show up on TCS’ radar. TCS has its own feathers in its UK cap with Retail wins at Somerfields and M&S, so this sector is proving fertile ground for the Indian players.