Tata, Microsoft Form Chinese Outsourcing Joint Venture

Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft Corp. and three Chinese firms are forming a joint venture that will provide IT outsourcing services.

The company, which will begin operation in 2006, will be “one of the largest IT joint ventures in China,” the participants said in a statement. TCS, which has been operating in China since 2002, will be the majority shareholder; the Chinese participants and Microsoft will be minority shareholders. However, no specific investment amounts were announced. The joint venture will be located in Beijings Zhongguancun Software Park.

“This venture is ample demonstration of the credibility that TCS has established in a market like China within a short span of time. TCS is committed to this initiative and this venture will be integrated into our pioneering global delivery model,” said S. Ramadorai, CEO of TCS, in a statement.

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The joint venture will provide the same IT services that TCS provides to its customers globally, including application development and enterprise architecture consulting. The new firm will leverage TCS expertise in such industries as banking and financial services, manufacturing, and telecommunications, a spokesperson said in an e-mail exchange.

Although Microsoft is an investor, the spokesperson suggested that development projects will not be tied exclusively to Microsoft technologies. The joint ventures services “will reflect the suite of services that TCS currently offers worldwide, across all platforms and across technologies,” according to the spokesperson.

Tata and Microsoft were selected as strategic partners by the Sino-India Cooperative Office of the Peoples Republic of China. The Chinese partners are Beijing Zhongguancun Software Park Development Co. Ltd., Uniware Co. Ltd., and Tianjin Huayuan Software Park Construction and Development Co., Ltd.

The number of workers to be hired by the joint venture was not disclosed.

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