Saudi Arabia, GE & TCS 2nd Anniversary Of Riyadh All-Women Center

1,000 highly skilled Saudi women professionals work with global clients including Saudi Aramco, GE, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Saudi Ministry of Economy and Planning.
Staffed with 85% local women professionals, the center highlights commitment to drive job creation for Saudi nationals.
Women professionals given 610,000 cumulative hours of intensive training in various business disciplines.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; March 15, 2016: Tata Consultancy Services, (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) along with its partners Saudi Aramco and GE (NYSE: GE), today celebrated the 2^nd year anniversary of its Riyadh All-Women Center for Business Process and IT Services and the milestone of hiring 1,000 highly skilled employees.

The second anniversary of the All-Women Business Process Services and IT Center in Riyadh marks significant progress made with this unique initiative, which was established with the goal of supporting the Kingdom’s socio-economic development strategy by creating a new business model promoting job creation for Saudi women and strengthening economic diversification.

HE Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Health and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saudi Aramco, HE Dr Mufrej Al-Haqbani, Minister of Labor, HE Abdullatif Al Othman, Governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Shane Fitzsimons, Senior Vice President, GE Global Operations, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, CEO & MD, TCS and over 100 dignitaries from Saudi Arabia government entities and business executives attended the second anniversary ceremony in Riyadh. The event was also attended by female leaders from different sectors in Saudi Arabia, including members of the Shura Council and counsellors of various ministries, leaders of Saudi universities, and the executive heads of local and international companies.

At the ceremony HE Khalid A. Al-Falih said, “In line with the Kingdom’s economic diversification and job creation objectives, the Riyadh All-Women employee Center is spurring the growth of a viable but under-represented employment sector in our society. The Center is providing an expanding and impressive customer list with vital business process and IT services to help boost customers’ productivity, efficiency and cost management, and in the process is bringing jobs from other parts of the world to the Kingdom and adding real value to our economy.”

HE Al-Falih continued, “Saudi Aramco is proud of its role in proactively supporting the Center, alongside our partners TCS and GE. Delivering on our shared vision, the Center has now reached almost 1,000 female employees by its second year anniversary. This is a huge achievement for the Center’s partners, clients and, most importantly, its highly talented and qualified workforce. I encourage other companies and government agencies to both take advantage of the remarkable success achieved by the Center and develop opportunities replicating similar business centers in all regions of our Kingdom. This will provide a welcome and needed boost to our labor market and economy.”

The All-Women employee Center was established by TCS, Saudi Aramco and GE in 2013, with TCS and GE owning 76% and 24% equity in the venture. The Centre’s initial clients were Saudi Aramco and GE as ‘anchor clients’, but the Center has extended its capabilities and client list to also include Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and the Saudi Ministry of Economy and Planning.

The center has achieved the milestone of hiring 1,000 highly skilled women, 85% local nationals, providing long-term career opportunities. Among the staff are Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degree holders, demonstrating the high professional standards being set by Saudi women at the center, led by an experienced Saudi leader, Dr Amal Fatani.

N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, TCS, said, “Hiring ~1000 highly skilled women is a testimony to our long term commitment to the Saudi Arabia and to further achieve job creation goals of the Kingdom. The endeavour of this Centre is to tap into this local talent pool and help develop women leaders of tomorrow. This is in line with the Kingdom’s objective of improving employability of students during their graduation; with a focus on specialization in professional areas.”

Neeraj Srivastava, Regional Director, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, TCS, added: “We have had many successes, not just in terms of exponential growth but also the progress made with respect to the value added to our customers through process improvements & efficiencies built. We will continue to bring the might of TCS into the Kingdom and enable careers and successes for our employees and customers.”

All-Women Business Process and IT Services Center supports GE Global Operations in delivering over 20 key business operations, such as Finance and Accounting, Human Resource Outsourcing, Supply Chain Management, Information Technology and Enterprize Data Management, for more than 50 GE locations world-wide. The GE geographic footprint served by the Center includes the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, the USA and India.

John Rice, Vice Chairman, GE, said, “We are very proud of the great accomplishments and progress made at the Center over the last two years. The talented Saudi women who make up the Center have built it from a start-up into a world-class business process services organization that competes on a global level and supports GE activities in over 50 countries. We value the partnership with Saudi Aramco and TCS to realize new possibilities and translate great talent into meaningful outcomes for the Kingdom and customers across the globe.”

Shane Fitzsimons, Senior Vice President, GE Global Operations, said, “It has been an amazing two years of progress and we are delighted that the Center has exceeded our ambitious expectations. A close partnership between TCS, Aramco and GE; the amazing talent in Saudi Arabia; and our focus on delivery, quality and process improvement continues to add value for all customers. We have established a great foundation and can now leverage that to support the growth of the shared services industry across the Kingdom.”

The pioneering initiative by three global business leaders – TCS, Saudi Aramco and GE - is underpinned by extensive talent development programs for employees. To date, more than 610,000 cumulative hours of intensive training sessions have been conducted in various disciplines. In addition, both TCS and GE have established partnerships with Saudi academic institutions to incorporate relevant content into their curricula including Business Administration and Information Technology.

The Center is now an integral part of the TCS Global Network Delivery Model (GNDM^TM), which has locations in over 10 countries including China, Philippines, India, Hungary, United Kingdom, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico and the United States.

In 2012 GE committed US $1 billion investment in Saudi Arabia and this joint initiative with Saudi Aramco and TCS demonstrates delivery in support of the Kingdom’s economic growth and diversification. The center in Saudi Arabia is one of five GE Global Operations Centers in the world; the other four are located in Cincinnati, Ohio; Pudong, China; Monterrey, Mexico and Budapest, Hungary.

About Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco is a world leader in integrated energy and chemicals. We are driven by the core belief that energy is opportunity. From producing approximately one in every eight barrels of the world's crude oil supply to developing new energy technologies, our global team is dedicated to creating positive impact in all that we do. We focus on making our resources more sustainable and more useful. This promotes long-term economic growth and prosperity around the world. www.saudiaramco.com

About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model™, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 324,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $15.5 billion for year ended March 31, 2015 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.

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