Out of India- Missoula company TCS America part of a foreign giant

The first sign that something curious
is going on at the Palmer Street
offices of TCS America is right inside
the front door.

By MICHAEL MOORE of the
Missoulian

On a wall plaque that lists those who
work inside are names with a
distinctly Indian flavor, and not in the
American Indian sense.

Mind you, nothing about TCS
America sounds remotely Indian until
you take apart the TCS acronym –
Tata Consultancy Services.

The name Tata draws the knowing
glance from those who understand
business as a global enterprise. The Tata family is to India what the Rockefellers and Carnegies are
to America.

There’s almost no part of the Indian economy that isn’t serviced in some way by one of the Tatas’ 80
companies. The companies make steel, cars, tea and coffee. They own hotels, run power plants,
provide telecommunication services. This year, Tata companies will have about $10 billion in revenue.

"The saying in India is that almost everyone in India touches a Tata product every day," said Karthik
Krishnaswami, a Tata official who recently visited Missoula.

So why Missoula? The answer is insurance and a small Missoula company named Apollo Innovative
Systems.

Apollo was a division of another company, Combined Benefits Insurance Co., which itself grew out of
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana. At first, Combined did workers compensation work, but
eventually diversified and developed proprietary software to service insurance companies. In essence,
Apollo was sort of a backshop for insurance companies, handling the high-tech end of the business.

"We were really looking to develop our software, make it Internet capable and take it to another level,"
said John Riley, who was with Combined and is now a vice president with TCS America.

Riley hoped to partner with a major company, and at the top end of his list was TCS America.

"They were really the best group to partner with, to give us the opportunity to really expand what we
do," Riley said. "What happened was they decided it made sense for them to buy Apollo. We were in
a fairly narrow market niche, and it really takes a lot of capital to invest in software expansion. It just
seemed to work out the best for both sides."

Apollo has now been folded into Tata Consultancy Services, a part of the Tata empire, but a global
company in its own right. TCS has more than 18,000 employees worldwide, 91 offices in 50 countries
and will have about $1 billion in revenue this year.

Krishnaswami said about 70 percent of TCS’s business is done in North America, with the United
Kingdom and Europe grabbing about 15 percent. Basically, the company provides information
technology to a wide variety of business sectors, including insurance, health care, telecom,
manufacturing, retail and government.

While the company’s earnings have historically hinged on providing services to companies, TCS is
looking to provide more products. For TCS America, and specifically for those in the Missoula office,
that means working on software products that might automate insurance billing, claims and
regulatory compliance.

"We really have been about services, so we’re working toward a better balance of products and
services," Riley said.

Riley and Krishnaswami expect the Missoula end of the business to grow quickly.

"We have about 30 people here now, but the goal is to have about 100 people in Missoula," Riley
said. "We’ll be looking for people with expertise in insurance and software mostly. These are very
good jobs for Missoula."

TCS America’s move into Montana is something of an irony in a state that spends so much time
talking about attracting business.

"We talk all the time about how we can take our businesses here global," Riley said. "What’s
happened here is that there was a company in India looking to take its business more global and one
of the places they ended up looking at was Montana. We put together quite an operation here in
Missoula and it drew the interest of a very impressive company. They came here with no incentive, no
tax breaks. They just saw this as a good place to do business. That’s a real credit to Missoula."

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