MUMBAI :After reporting lower-than-estimated numbers in the first quarter, IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is confident that long-term client relations will survive the pandemic. In an interview, N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer, TCS, says the company is mobilizing support for clients through automation, remote working solutions and cybersecurity. Edited excerpts:

The top verticalsbanking, financial services and retail and consumer packaged goodssuffered double-digit setbacks in Q1. How will TCS look at business continuity from hereon?

In Q1, everybody was concerned about the economic impact of the lockdown globally, and was thinking of deferring discretionary spends across verticals. Clients are conserving resources and we are giving them optimization levers. Half of retail is stressed out and facing bankruptcy, while UK clients are facing the double whammy of Brexit and covid-19. Verticals, such as travel and hospitality, and media and broadcasting, have been hurt by the cancellation of major events such as the Olympics.

Some clients have requested to not even bill them in their current situation and we are supporting them since we have long-term relations. We have reduced the workforce and brought in automation to support the clients. As part of the 37-odd deals that transitioned this quarter, we on-boarded little over 1,000 client employees in India, the US, etc.

You have announced a number of large deals in the past eight quarters, and had an above-average deal total contract value (TCV) of $6.9 billion. Are clients not renegotiating now?

We need to have this $5-6 billion TCV range to ensure that we keep growing. Each of these quarters have at least one or two large deals, which are long-term (5-7 years). We are pulling revenue from these deals and are not seeing major requirements to renegotiate or defer. Both new and renewal deals are happening. There is demand for cybersecurity, cloud and analytics solutions, as part of remote working and digital transformation initiatives, which are being bundled with secure borderless workspaces (SBWS).

Do you see any revenue opportunity from SBWS?

We dont know yet if this is going to be a sizeable business, but the core focus is to enable secure connectivity, engage with employees and monitor productivity. Clients have started realizing how well the SBWS solution works and increasingly want us to implement it. So, the whole process of prospecting, selling, contracting and on-boarding clients has progressed remotely through the quarter.

We have SBWS customers across banking, capital markets, communication, etc. A lot of it will be Artificial Intelligence- and algorithm-driven, and is also integrated as part of the Ignio platform offering.

Will TCS reassess the real estate footprint, now that the 25% employee presence plan is final?

We have not looked at real estate from that perspective. At the same time, we are staying invested in all our 118 development centres globally. We altered them so that people can come to these offices safely when required.

Earlier, we were limited by the fact that a particular customer could only be addressed from a development centre in maybe Hungary and Chennai. Which means that talent recruitment was restricted, but now we can link up talent from anywhere like Nagpur, Guwahati, etc. Such talent may have earlier missed the opportunity to work with this customer, but SBWS will allow them to do that. We will be able to increase the office presence to 5% this month.

TCS has taken a stand on the H-1B visa ban. How much will it impact business?

You have to work with the local law and still be meaningful to your customers. We have invested in the US, created development centres and have a strong workforce there. In the short term, if visas are not renewed, some people will come back and customers will be addressed through SBWS.

But in the long term, for transformational projects, there is a need for people to be able to work on-shore with the right talent mix, sourcing and delivery ecosystem.

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