Tesco HSC emerges as 'hub of innovation'

Bangalore: At the time of recession, when other retail companies were focusing on cutting costs, slashing headcount and coping with weakening demand, software engineers at Tesco Hindustan Centre (HSC) were generating innovative solutions that helped Tesco to generate millions of dollars through efficiencies in supply chain and other functions.

With a solution that was architected by the Indian engineers in Bangalore, the retailer could save around $300 million annually by making its stock replenishment system more efficient. Currently, this solution is piloted by Tesco in the UK. Even, 'Tesco in a Box,' a custom-built application, which integrates the entire retail operation was developed in Tesco HSC.

Speaking at the Tesco HSC Innovation Summit, Sandeep Dhar, CEO of Tesco HSC says, "Despite the problems, many companies plan to keep India as their main hub for offshore work, and the growth shows no signs of sputtering. Tesco's strategy is entirely based around India. We've started to see the cost benefits of migrating roles from the UK to India, and we are now also seeing a lot of innovation around our IT and business processes coming from the Indian operation." Besides, helping its parent company with innovative solutions, Tesco HSC also played an instrumental role in helping country markets such as Czech Republic migrate to Euro currency within a short span of time.

Also, in the current situation, when most of the companies believe that freshers are not that much qualified to fit into the company's growth strategy, Tesco plans to double the freshers' strength in India by 2010 end. Currently, between 10 and 15 percent of Tesco's IT staffs in India are freshers. Dhar says, "We should hire more retailing technologists to improve the retail sphere in India." Currently, the company has in total 270,000 people in UK and around 4,000 people in India. "We are having a continuous hiring process, and by 2010-end, we will have slightly above 4,000 people. That's what our prediction for this year is," explains Dhar.

Seeing a huge opportunity for the future growth of retail technology in India, Dhar says, "We are likely to open our first wholesale cash and carry outlet in India by the end of December this year."

However, India projects a healthy market for Tesco, what accentuates challenges for the company is the insight for customer orientation. Thus, reflecting the customer-centric approach, Tesco is coming up with a technology solution to support the non-English speaking customers. He adds, "Customer friendliness in India has to go to next level. It's the mindset which needs to change. Also, there is a shortage of technologists in the country who can understand retailing properly."