India’s Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) is to launched its own brand software for custodian services for banks on the international market. Although India’s software exports were worth $1.75bn last year, and are targeted to reach $9.35bn by 2001, they are mostly in low-end software development for international clients. Only a handful of Indian companies have ventured onto the international market with their own branded software. Exports last year were worth only $2.3m, 70% of which came from NIIT’s 269 educational titles. The only other significant players are Ramco Systems which exports its Marshal ERP software and Infosys which has a product called Bancs 2000. However TCS has already completed a custodian services project for Standard Chartered Bank and implemented it in different branches around the world, and has also installed the software for other clients in West Asia and Europe. Executive vice president Phiroz Vandrewala was quoted as saying in the light of the experience gained from this the company has generalized the product for use by any bank anywhere in the world. At present the product is called New Custodian Service but Vandrewala said there are 60 new brand names being debated and a decision on renaming it will be taken by the end of the year. More than half of TCS’s revenues, currently about $25m a year, come from software developed for banks and financial services institutions. Its first venture into branded software began two months ago with its Quartz software which Vandrewala says is being used by Swiss banks for their wholesale banking operations.
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