TCS pips Accenture to take over Best Buy’s India GCC ops | India Business News

Analysts estimate the five year deal size at Rs 2,000-cr, to deepen TCS-Best Buy ties

Bengaluru: Indian IT firms are stepping up their global capability centre (GCC) playbook. TCS pulled ahead of Accenture in the final leg of the race to take over the India GCC operations of US consumer electronics retailer Best Buy, people familiar with the matter told TOI.Best Buy floated a request for proposal (RFP) for a technology services engagement, and TCS won the mandate based on competitive pricing, aggressive service-level agreements (SLAs) and productivity benefits, sources said. Wipro is learnt to have been part of the initial shortlist.Best Buy’s India GCC, based in Bengaluru, has around 600 employees. The five-year deal, covering the GCC operations and broader technology services offering including data, analytics and AI, is estimated to be worth around Rs 2,000 crore, sources said. Emails sent to TCS, Accenture, Wipro and Best Buy did not elicit a response till press time.The deal would deepen TCS’s longstanding relationship with Best Buy, spanning technology services, and digital transformation. Phil Fersht, CEO of US-based IT advisory HFS Research, estimated the existing TCS relationship with Best Buy at $75-$100 million in annual revenue, while stressing that there is no publicly disclosed contract value.Best Buy set up a 70,000-sft technology centre in Bengaluru in 2024 to accelerate its digital transformation. The centre was envisaged as an innovation hub spanning digital strategy, product management, design, engineering, infrastructure and operations.“It’s our intention to really make the Best Buy India hub the heart of innovation around how we’re going to use mobile and AI platforms. We’re going to be building and ramping up teams very actively in those areas,” Brian Tilzer, then chief digital, analytics and technology officer at Best Buy, had told TOI in 2024.The India centre has become more strategic as Best Buy steps up investments in AI and digital commerce. The retailer reported revenue of $41.7 billion in fiscal 2026, compared with $41.5 billion a year earlier, while comparable sales rose 0.5%. Computing and mobile phones drove growth, partly offset by declines in home theatre and appliances.Best Buy’s annual report identified AI as a key digital priority for fiscal 2027. The company is expanding the use of AI platforms across its digital experience and working with technology platform providers to build a more seamless agentic shopping journey, enabling customers to discover and buy products directly from its catalogue.Other priorities include greater customer personalisation, higher adoption and engagement with the Best Buy app, and improving digital conversion in major appliances and home theatre.The technology push comes amid a leadership transition. Best Buy’s board has selected Jason Bonfig, chief customer, product and fulfilment officer, to succeed Corie Barry as CEO. Barry will step down from the CEO role and board on October 31, at the end of the third quarter, while Bonfig will join the board.For Indian IT firms, the Best Buy deal highlights the changing GCC opportunity, with companies increasingly moving beyond traditional application and infrastructure services to take responsibility for larger parts of clients’ technology estates and innovation agendas.Fersht said the bigger story is how work is being divided among major technology providers as Best Buy shifts more of its technology estate towards AI-enabled operations. “TCS appears to have built a substantial position in the account, while Accenture remains strategically relevant, particularly around transformation and generative AI,” he said.