At a local Analyst and Advisor Event in Frankfurt, Germany, TCS gave an update on its strategy and operations for the Central Europe (i.e. mostly German) region.

Being the largest of the Indian IT service providers in Germany, with estimated revenues of €130m in FY 2011, the company has progressed significantly in building out its localization strategy for the German market. TCS currently has over 700 employees in Germany, with nearly 30% of those being German natives.

The company goes to market with a highly focused target strategy, aiming to build (or build out) sustainable relationships with a select number of key clients in the large corporate or upper mid-market segments.

In order to best service their requirements, TCS has invested in establishing not only local sales and pre-sales teams, but in particular also project managers and business analysts.

The company has advanced from providing primarily ADM services to a higher-value and more balanced service spread. In particular, SAP services – resulting from TCS’ strong global relationship with SAP – show high growth for TCS in the German-speaking markets, with now a significant share of C&SI services provided in addition to AMS.

All these developments show TCS’ dedication to becoming a ‘localized’ IT service player in the German market.

Most impressive, however, is TCS’ commitment to clients, which was well illustrated in client presentations. Clients testified that, in the sales process, TCS proves an in-depth understanding of client requirements, as well as domain expertise, bringing the ‘right’ people to the table and having empowered local executives. Furthermore, in a client project, TCS offers a true partnership approach and its commitment is much valued, for example by not inflating project cost through subsequent change requests, but conducting a project with time and budget. Finally, clients attest TCS associates a true passion for the tasks at hand.

With these attributes, it is, in PAC’s view, no surprise that customer satisfaction is high and existing relationships are durable and evolving over time.

In PAC’s view, TCS has well progressed in Germany, however, in the light of its peers’ recent acquisitions (Infosys/Lodestone, Cognizant/C1) TCS is in danger of falling behind with regards to size, growth, and the ability to provide local consulting resources.

Post by Katharina Grimme