Espresso: TCS' $6 billion quarter, Visa's crypto tryst
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TCS clocks $6 billion in first quarter
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest IT services company, posted revenue of $6.2 billion in the first quarter ended June 2021. It grew 2.7 percent over the previous quarter, and by 21.6 percent over the same period last year.
The company’s headcount also crossed the 500,000 mark, reporting 509,058 employees at the end of June. It reported an operating margin of 25.5 percent in the same period, as wage hikes, and employee benefits brought down the margins by 133 basis points over the previous quarter.
“In a personally challenging quarter to many, TCSers demonstrated phenomenal character in helping each other, being meaningful to the communities—and delivered on our commitments to clients,” said Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO of TCS.
Union Bank's data analytics experience
Government-owned Union Bank of India (UBI), which took Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank under its fold, said it leveraged extensive data analytics to garner business worth Rs 192 crore from potential leads.
“The bank strives to maximise the processing efficiency through centralised processing centres, and complete digitisation of all retail products by 2021-22,” stated UBI in its latest annual report. Its digital transactions grew over 79 percent in 2020-21, compared to 74.4 percent a year ago.
UBI reported consolidated revenue of Rs 83,210 crore in 2020-21.
Neuland Laboratories’ digital strides
Neuland Laboratories, a leading manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), has digitised processes in inbound procurement and outbound logistics, the company said in its latest annual report.
It is taking the lead in digitalising its supply chain management having achieved success in automating price discovery, getting offers awards, tracking shipments and invoice printing.
Neuland launched a supplier portal (Procure2Pay) and an e-logistic platform (GOComet). The company cited benefits of digitisation like real-time visibility, timely deliveries, and cost optimisation. Further, automation measures have been taken on quality control, and its quality assurance management system.
Headquartered in Hyderabad, Neuland clocked revenue of Rs 953 crore in 2020-21.
Spending surge with crypto-linked cards
Financial services company Visa said its customers spent more than $1 billion on its crypto-linked Visa cards in the first half of 2021.
Visa will partner with 50 leading crypto platforms for card programmes that make it easy to convert and spend digital currency at 70 million merchants worldwide.
“These programs don’t require coffee shops, dry cleaners, or grocery stores to directly accept cryptocurrencies at the checkout,” The customers can simply “tap and go” without the complexity of new acceptance points or cryptographic keys, the company said.
Geojit reports spike in digital engagements
Kochi-headquartered Geojit Financial Services said that 80 percent of its new client onboarding and 82 percent of the daily share trading volumes of its clientele in 2020-21 happened digitally.
With increasing digital engagement following the onset of the pandemic, expectations from investment services firms have undergone a drastic change, Geojit said in its latest annual report. “The service delivery model of the future will see financial advisors remaining central to client relationships, well supported with strong digital capabilities.”
On its part, Geojit claims to have moved quickly to an omni-channel service and advice delivery model, and has been further accelerating its digitisation efforts. “Our digital asset offerings are helping us differentiate our propositions and attract a potentially high-value client segment,” the company added.
Blue Star moves to intelligent factories
Mumbai-based electronics company Blue Star says it continues to invest in areas such as robotic process automation (RPA), bots, analytics and cybersecurity to improve customer experience, improve collaboration both internally and externally, optimise productivity, and enhance information security.
Its factory at Kala Amb in Himachal Pradesh is now an ‘intelligent factory’, and the company is deploying IoT applications in other factories for efficiency improvements and cost-saving initiatives.
Edited by Kunal Talgeri