Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a seven year agreement to provide a full range of managed IT services to Somerfield, a leading UK-based small-format food retailer, building on an existing eight-year relationship between TCS and Somerfield.

Under this new agreement, TCS will take over the entire IT operations, asset management and planning for Somerfield and provide a fully managed IT infrastructure and applications service within Somerfield, aimed at meeting its current and future business demands. As part of the agreement, TCS will manage 3rd party hardware, software and services contracts with an estimated value of over $100 million over the duration of the agreement.

Phiroz Vandrevala, executive vice-president and global head, corporate affairs said: "This is the first full services contract win for any Indian company outside of India. It shows companies like TCS have emerged as global contenders for complete, end-to-end outsourcing engagements based on parameters like high quality of deliverables and innovative business models".

The Somerfield engagement illustrates TCS' commitment to UK's business and economy and highlights the important role it plays in helping UK enterprises become globally competitive. TCS continues to enhance its commitment to the UK knowledge workforce and while the project entails a reduction in employee numbers at Somerfield's Bristol office of around 115, TCS' UK operations also has numerous vacancies in UK, which it is seeking to fill.

TCS has around 3000 people working in some 50 locations in the UK, with a further 900 plus staff at its site in Peterborough. As the company's UK operations continue to grow, TCS has between 150-200 vacancies in the UK at any one time. "Our growing UK operations require increasing number of professionals. We hope to be able to offer many job opportunities," said A S Lakshminarayanan, country head, United Kingdom.