Tata Consultancy Services expands longstanding relationship with new three-year partnership, to deepen Follett's strategy of market leadership across North American colleges and universities
PRESS RELEASE
WESTCHESTER, ILLINOIS | MUMBAI, July 30, 2024: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a global leader in IT services, consulting, and business solutions, has signed a three-year contract to strengthen information technology infrastructure and cybersecurity services for Follett Higher Education, North America’s leading college store operator. By deploying trademark platforms and solutions, such as TCS CognixTM and Cloud Exponence, TCS will create an enhanced IT infrastructure that better supports Follett’s innovative academic and retail experiences for colleges and universities across the US and Canada.
Follett operates more than 1,000 college stores across North America and is committed to supporting the academic journey by offering students the course materials, technology, supplies, and school-branded merchandise they need to succeed. To support this mission, Follett tapped TCS to enhance its existing IT infrastructure. This contract marks a significant expansion of the decade-long partnership between the two companies.
TCS will strengthen Follett’s technology operations by adopting its signature Machine First™ delivery approach, coupled with its proprietary accelerators like TCS Cognix™, an AI-driven human-machine collaboration suite that provides pre-built, cloud-based modules leveraging AI, machine learning, and intelligent automation. Together, they will automate manual processes and provide an efficient enterprise infrastructure (EIT) management platform with built-in security and regulatory compliances that will predict, prescribe, and remediate performance issues that can impact business operations.
TCS will also use Cloud Exponence, its comprehensive platform that delivers smart managed services in hybrid cloud environments. This will provide a holistic view of Follett’s operations across multiple cloud platforms and make it easier to deliver consistent IT services, optimize usage, and manage costs. With TCS as an extension of Follett, the joint team will leverage the industry-leading ITIL 4 standards and implement best practices for IT service management.
Prasad Keshava, Vice President of Enterprise Infrastructure for Follett Higher Education, said “At Follett, we believe every interaction a student has with us contributes to their potential for success. That’s why our partnership with TCS is crucial, along with a well-structured governance and accountability matrix. Working as a united team, we are eager to build a best-in-class technology backbone so we can make every touchpoint with our customer seamless, scalable, and fit for purpose, well into the future.”
To navigate the increasingly complex threat landscape, Follett will also partner with TCS to enhance cybersecurity and embed added security by design into its operations. TCS will safeguard Follett’s digital estate by managing their Security Operations Center and provide email, network, identity, and access management security services, along with tools to enhance their Governance, Risk and Compliance processes. To improve proactive defense against current and emerging threats, TCS will help Follett gain end-to-end visibility across its entire cybersecurity landscape through the former’s security-as-a-service platform.
Ashish Khurana, Vice President and Head, Retail Americas Business, TCS, said, "Whether it’s at a campus bookstore or online, we are committed to partnering with Follett to delight and support students on their academic journeys. We are excited to deepen our longstanding relationship with Follett. TCS will combine its contextual knowledge with technology to create frictionless experiences in students’ interactions with Follett.”
TCS partners with the top 10 global retailers and many others around the world to build profitable and sustainable businesses and offer immersive, unified, and hyper-personalized omnichannel experiences for their customers. TCS’ deep industry expertise, backed by decades of experience and relevant partnerships in retail, spans across store operations, merchandising, supply chain, marketing, pricing strategies, and business model reinvention. TCS’ extensive portfolio of retail platforms and offerings includes TCS OmniStore™, an AI-powered, unified composable commerce platform, and TCS Optumera™, an AI-powered strategic intelligence platform that enables retailers to make optimized merchandising decisions across the value chain. To learn more, visit: https://www.tcs.com/what-we-do/industries/retail
About Follett
Follett Higher Education is a leading educational service provider and omnichannel retailer providing students, faculty and staff, parents, and fans the course materials, learning tools and retail services needed to successfully support the academic, athletic, and collegiate journey. Follett Higher Education supports over 6 million students through its 1,000+ physical and eCommerce collegiate retail stores across North America.
ABOUT TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for over 56 years. Its consulting-led, cognitive powered, portfolio of business, technology and engineering services and solutions is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile™ delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development.
A part of the Tata group, India's largest multinational business group, TCS has over 601,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 55 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $29 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, and is listed on the BSE and the NSE in India. TCS' proactive stance on climate change and award-winning work with communities across the world have earned it a place in leading sustainability indices such as the MSCI Global Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Emerging Index. For more information, visit www.tcs.com
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