TCS to manage Virgin Atlantic's IT services until 2011

IT services and business solutions provider Tata Consultancy Services says it has renewed its managed services contract with one of the Sir Richard Branson-led long-haul carrier, Virgin Atlantic, which carried six million passengers in 2007. By entrusting the management of its IT infrastructure and applications management to TCS, Virgin Atlantic is in a position to focus on core business activities and flex with the future challenges of the international airline industry.

Under the renewed agreement, TCS will continue to manage Virgin Atlantic's global end-to-end IT systems including a 24x7 service desk, infrastructure and application support services. The company also manages Virgin Atlantic's relationships with other third party IT vendors to ensure a cohesive approach to the airline's IT ecosystem. TCS' service delivery for Virgin Atlantic is designed around IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices framework. TCS' rigorous metrics-based management model and airline innovation expertise will ensure increased responsiveness for Virgin Atlantic customers. 

''Today, airlines need to effectively exploit IT more than ever to be successful in a very competitive marketplace,'' commented Mike Cope, IT director, Virgin Atlantic. ''Thanks to our ongoing partnership with TCS we have the right partner to enable this.''

A S Lakshminarayanan, VP and country manager, UK and Ireland, TCS, added, ''Virgin Atlantic's IT infrastructure and services are worldwide and therefore require a partner with a similarly global reach. TCS has established a strong reputation for providing our clients with certainty of outcome in alignment with their strategic objectives and the renewal of our agreement with Virgin Atlantic is testament to our performance over the past three years.''

\The Travel and Transportation sector is emerging as a key vertical for TCS, generating 4.0% of the company's total $5.7 billion revenues in FY08. TCS launched a dedicated Travel & Hospitality Innovation Lab in 2007 to help airlines enhance customer experience and differentiate themselves in an era of increasing competition and new distribution models.