A new solution

BM talks with Glen Stafford of TCS Financial Solutions about the transforming power of technology.

BM. What products does TCS Financial Solutions actually market in the Middle East?
GS. We have three major categories of products. They are broken down into commercial banking, capital markets and insurance. Commercial banking includes core banking, payments, treasury, compliance, channel services and wealth management solutions. In the capital market space, we’re looking at private banking, securities trading and securities processing, corporate actions, lending and borrowing and market infrastructure. Finally within the insurance space, we cover life, property, worker’s compensation, extended warranty and reinsurance. So those are the main product groups and some subcategories of those.

BM, Could you tell us a little bit about your global network delivery model and integrated quality management system?
GS. Within TCS Financial Solutions, we’re able to leverage off the global network delivery model of TCS. That gives us the ability to deliver on large-scale system integration projects globally, and of course, that includes the implementation and integration of our own products as well. We believe that we’re uniquely positioned to do that because we’re able to access a large number of the TCS delivery centres around the world. That includes in the Middle East as well as greater China, India, of course, and then the Americas and Europe. So we have a very wide breadth and depth of expertise across those three main areas of product offerings that I mentioned. We hire, train and integrate thousands of employees a year into our organisation. TCS has up to 100,000 employees now. We’re able to handle these deliveries from 50 different centres around the world, and these centres all use the same sort of processes, which is our trademarked global network delivery model. Part of that delivery model is quality standards, and we have a very comprehensive set of quality standards, which include Six Sigma, CMMI and PCMM. And all of these assists in our quest for quality.

TCS entered the Middle East market in 1981. Currently, it serves customers operating in banking, financial services, insurance, retail, telecom and government sectors, from offices in Dubai and Saudi Arabia (Riyadh). More than 200 business and technology consultants partner with enterprises in this region to make them operationally efficient
We currently have 5 major implementations underway in the Middle East in addition to supporting our live clients across the region.

BM. How does the company assist clients in achieving innovation and maintaining a clear competitive advantage?
GS. I’ll answer this in two separate ways. Whatever it is we do, whether it’s new, whether it’s repeating a process or a delivery that we’ve done before, we want to make sure that we do it right the first time. So even if we’re looking at a piece of innovation, we want to make absolutely sure we get it right.

A partnership approach to innovation is critical and we partner with our customers in innovation. TCS Financial Services provides Customer value creation by jointly addressing key challenges and leveraging our TCS Co-innovation Network to deliver solutions that utilise latest technologies and practices and new and effective ways.

We partner with emerging and innovative technology providers to leverage the technology ecosystem around us in order to create measurable competitive advantage and business impact of IT enabled business drivers. We work closely with our clients to exploit disruptive trends in emerging technology spaces to create effective business opportunities.

Our co-innovation network includes alliance partners, academic and research institutions, customers, consultants, industry bodies and so on. Business Week recently reported that TCS works with 14 of the world’s 25 most innovative companies.

BM. Banks in the Middle East are embracing Core Banking transformation. What is fuelling this surge in demand and what business benefits are your clients experiencing?
GS. Markets in the Middle East are going through significant diversification and there are many opportunities for modern banking and financial service providers. The mass market and mass affluent segments in the Middle East will demand a different look and feel so banks must be able to offer the more sophisticated products and services as demanded by this new breed of customers.

More banks are looking to offer Islamic banking products and services and demands for these are increasing throughout the Middle East and overseas.

Core banking replacement programs are being considered across emerging and established markets and the Middle East is no exception. Core banking replacement must also maximise business re-engineering and transformation opportunities thus supporting Banks growth strategies and delivering lower TCO.

Clients that have implemented our core banking solution are reporting major benefits, including savings of more than 40 percent, faster time to market and improved speed of service.   

Multiplying value: the key factors

• Do it right – Drive ‘experience certainty’
• Do it fast – Drive productivity and agility
• Do it first – Sustain the ‘pioneering spirit
• Do it together – Leverage the ecosystem

About Glenn Stafford

Glenn Lee Stafford is Global Head of Product Management and Professional Services for TCS Financial Solutions, a strategic business unit of Tata Consultancy Services Limited. Stafford brings 25 years experience as an IT professional, specialising in IT services management, product development, product management and IT solutions design.