TCS in talks with other software majors to market its automation software

India’s largest software exporter TCS has begun working with external organisations to market its automation software Ignio.

When asked if TCS is willing to engage other services companies such as Infosys and Wipro to sell Ignio, Harrick Vin, Vice-President, TCS and Global Head, Digitate, told BusinessLine that the company is already in the process of doing so, although none of the partnerships have fructified yet.

“We already have 10 partners on board which includes Unisys, which has relationships with the US government. So far TCS does not work with the US government. Unisys will help us get that. We are also starting to engage with other large systems integrator like TCS to sell Ignio,” Vin said.

Growing revenues

After TCS launched Ignio, the company said that the division has crossed $31 million in revenues last year, making it one of the fastest growing companies in the segment, growing at 100 per cent year-on year since going live in 2015. About 86 percent of these revenues came from licensing while rest came from services.

The company has over 50 clients using Ignio, with an average contract value of about $550,000 per year.

“We want to become the fastest growing products company to reach $100 million in revenue, Vin added without giving any timelines. “Many of the customers we work with have never been TCS customers. Also, while most of them started on a small scale are taking Ignio to multiple departments within the enterprise.”

Ignio already has over 550 people working for it, including 300 scientists and researchers. Digitate has already filed for over 75 patents. The company said it will continue to invest in the brand and continue to hire.

“We are EBITDA positive. So we don’t have any issues of cash,” Vin said. “We will continue to invest in R&D as well as people.”

Digitate

Digitate is a unit within TCS which houses Ignio. TCS has consciously tried to disassociate itself from Digitate to ensure that Digitate is viewed as a products company and not a services unit within TCS.

“While we (Digitate) have no plans to be an independent company, we have a separate brand identity which we’d like to preserve. Ignio is only our first product. We are working on several other products that’ll come out over a period of time,” Vin said.

In terms of revenue, Ignio is still a small fraction of TCS’ overall digital revenues. But it presents a much bigger opportunity for the tech firm.

According to Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and MD, Tata Consultancy Services, at the time of inception of Ignio, five years ago, the company estimated its potential revenues at $2 billion. That was an estimate when the software was being built only for enterprise infrastructure services delivery. Since then it has expanded its scope to applications and business processes, increasing the overall growth opportunity for Ignio.

“Rapid breakthroughs in digital technologies — such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and automation — are reshaping businesses and fostering creative disruptions. The revenue and customer growth for ignio has been over 100% y-o-y. The success and growth of ignio reaffirms TCS’ Business 4.0 strategy, helping customers leverage technology to innovate and gain a competitive advantage,” said, Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and MD, Tata Consultancy Services.

Ignio competes with a host of automation companies such as BluePrism, AutomationAnywhere and IBM Watson.

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