TCS, Malaysia's Felda Prodata Systems in IT alliance

Indian information technology leader Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) today announced the signing of a collaboration agreement with Felda Prodata Systems Sdn Bhd of Malaysia to offer IT services to the Malaysian market.

Both organisations will jointly identify opportunities as part of their "go-to-market" efforts to provide IT services and participate in tenders from government agencies, TCS said in a filing with the stock exchanges.

In the process, Felda also hopes to ride into the global market with TCS.

"The collaboration is the first between the two organisations to pool their expertise. This is expected to positively affect the IT industry, both in the Malaysian and regional markets," the filing said.

Under the agreement, TCS and Prodata will "jointly take forward their key IT initiatives in a timely, efficient and effective manner to service customers. They will also jointly develop and market IT solutions and services to local companies, Malaysian government-linked companies (GLCs) and global companies within Malaysia.

"The full potential of this relationship is to combine the global experiences of Tata Consultancy Services with the in-country knowledge and capabilities of Prodata for the benefit of Malaysian customers," said Vish Iyer, president, TCS Asia Pacific. "We believe the two organisations have complementary capabilities and we are very excited at the power of combining these to create a full-service portfolio leveraging a larger pool of local talent."