India's TCS targets SMEs for $1bn revenue

The IT services company aims to drastically increase its small business clients in 12 months

India's Tata Consultancy Services has said it expects to generate $1bn (£619m) in revenue over the next five years from its small to medium enterprise clients.

TCS is one of the biggest suppliers of IT services to the UK, seeing £765m in revenue from the region in 2010.

According to Reuters, chief executive officer N. Chandrasekaran told journalists in a conference call that TCS aims to increase the number of its SME clients from 130 to 1,000 over the next 12 months.

Its first attempt to expand its foothold into the market has seen it launch an on-demand business solutions product using scalable cloud technology. iOn has been developed specifically for SMBs and hopes to pique their interest by presenting an all-in-one solution that will see them able to get rid of their own IT assets.

iOn will include solutions that range from HR and finance to inventory and ERP services, and is pre-configured with hardware, network and software bundled together.

"Our endeavor has been to ensure the latest technology solutions are available to SMBs along with the advantage of a pay-per-use business model that frees up capital to re-invest in their core business," said Chandrasekaran.