Somerfield IT handed to India's TCS

Supermarket chain Somerfield has outsourced its IT function to Indian services company TCS in a £30m deal.

The move, which will see a mix of onsite and offshore outsourcing, is intended to reduce costs for the UK grocery chain and improve service levels, according to Mike Bell, IT director at Somerfield. It will result in a number of job losses.

Bell told silicon.com this is a major advancement in an eight-year-old relationship with TCS and will mark the culmination of an overhaul of Somerfield's IT department.

"Over the last two years we've reshaped IT quite significantly and at the beginning of this year we were down to about 200 people," said Bell.

"We're going to keep 25 people working for Somerfield and these will be people who manage the contract."

Bell said there will be around 75 people still onsite, 50 of whom will be from TCS.

"I've kept the business-facing expertise," he said, adding the use of TCS for all other functions outside of development, strategy and project management – such as helpdesk – will see improved quality of service, drawing from TCS' experience and large knowledge base.

The target for when the transfer will be completed is 17 March and Bell is confident he will see fairly immediate benefits.