Only TCS bidding for UK personal accounts tender

Bangalore: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) seems to be the only company to bid for the modernization and outsourcing contract of UK government's pension body after other bidders withdrew from the race.

The initial round of bidding had witnessed four players - Logica UK, Great-Western Retirement Services Europe, ATP Group of Denmark and TCS, said two people familiar with the development. The actual value of the contract is not disclosed. Spokesperson for TCS said, "We are keen to continue working with the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA) to develop our proposed solution for the personal accounts scheme. This project will help millions of people save for their retirement and we are fully committed to it."

PADA believes to continue its discussions with TCS. Tim Jones, Chief Executive, PADA said, "TCS is an exceptionally strong bidder and we are making excellent progress but we need to conclude the procurement process appropriately and evaluated their proposals." People familiar with the situation said that PADA and TCS are yet to agree on the price of the contract.

PADA is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) accountable to Parliament and reporting, through a Board, to the Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was by UK legislation to introduce personal accounts scheme. The scheme is likely to be a trust-based occupation pension scheme, run by a trustee corporation. As per the scheme, which is likely to start in 2012, upto one million employers are expected to contribute to their employees' pensions for the first time. At the end of the second quarter of financial year 2010, UK accounted for 16.5 percent of TCS revenue and company had said that wins in public sector, energy, retail had helped to mute the continued weakness in that country.

For the Indian IT services industry, UK is the second largest market after the U.S. IT outsourcing contracts from the various department of the UK government has become one of the key focus areas for the Indian technology services companies.

According to industry observers, UK is seeking to bring down operational costs of its public sector systems by outsourcing non-core IT and back office projects. It is estimated that the country has identified a potential savings of around $10.6 billion with spending on IT by the UK government is estimated to be around $36 billion annually. Indian companies are trying to strengthen their presence in the UK with having development centres in regions such as Scotland, Northern Ireland among others.