TCS to accelerate digital transformation at Kingfisher

Information technology (IT) services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with London-headquartered retailing conglomerate Kingfisher.

As part of the agreement, the Mumbai-based IT company said it will provide Kingfisher -- one of the leading home improvement companies in the UK and Europe region -- consolidated application management and infrastructure support services to accelerate its transformation to a digital-first organisation and drive efficiencies.

“ With the combinatorial power of our Business 4.0 framework and deep contextual knowledge, we will help Kingfisher innovate faster, deliver superior customer experience, and drive growth,” Shekar Krishnan, the Retail Head at TCS UK, said in a statement.

Read: The SaaS-ification of enterprises and how Big IT can ride the wave

Kingfisher has been working with TCS for strategic application services since 2012, leveraging the IT service firm’s technology and business solutions to enhance customer and colleague experience as well as to drive growth and modernization across various lines of business.

Under the extended partnership, TCS explained, it will use its machine first delivery model (MFDM) to harness the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence and improve agility, speed to market, and operational resilience for Kingfisher.

The MFDM model is powered by ignio, a closed-loop, autonomous enterprise software which will organize data across the value chain and augment human teams, ultimately enabling best in class business systems operations and providing exponential business value to Kingfisher, TCS added in the statement.

Currently, Kingfisher operates over 1300 stores under multiple brands, including B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt and Screwfix.

TCS’ expanded partnership with Kingfisher comes less than two months after the IT services major expanded its agreement with Swedish grocery retail chain Coop Sweden to develop a new digital core as part of the company’s business transformation initiatives. It has also partnered with fashion retail chain Maurices to help optimize more than 200 existing applications and software components and accelerate their transformational journey.