Reliance, Bharti, talks for retail IT with PwC

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 07 December 2006, 18:30 IST
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Mumbai: The global consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is moving into custom-made software and IT implementation services to enter the burgeoning organized retail industry in India. PwC, is believed to be discussing future options with five leading retail houses in the country. Industry sources revealed that leading retail groups Reliance Retail, Bharti, might already be talking to PwC for the custom-made software applications. The plans are to sign long-term contracts for specialized IT service projects. The talks cannot be confirmed as the companies declined to comment on the issue. Even PwC refused to disclose the identity of its clients. As per industry analysts, PwC’s entry into the specialized retail services signified the emergence of a global retail culture in the country. India has now become one of the most exciting growth markets for retail and consumer companies globally, given its attractive demographics, economic growth and liberalised policies. Ambarish Dasgupta, executive director, PwC said, “We wanted to explore the opportunities in the booming retail scenario in India.” According to Dasgupta, the retail organizations are looking for varied technology solutions, including the management of customer interface in the stores like hypermarkets and supermarkets, pricing, linkage of inventory movement, accounting, store management from back-end to the entire front-end activities, supply chain management and absolute planning of continues stock movements to various store locations, promotions, asset tracking, transactional analysis, among others, as told to a business daily. PwC has a dedicated technology team specializing on different industry sectors. Organized retail sector is one of the new specialized services that the company has recently created. PwC has an IT division comprising about 1000 people in India. PwC at present holds an advisory services status for the retail industry. Their specialists over a period to time have understood the unique trends in the countries they operate in and have the ability to conjure the proper solutions for clients. “We offer customized solutions designed to meet the requirements of client’s changing business landscape, addressing a wide range of industry-based strategic and operational issues. The dedicated industry experts help clients extract value from their multinational operations, develop a competitive advantage across the value chain and ensure all corporate stakeholder expectations are recognized,” said a senior executive from PwC India.

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