After a successful roll out in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, iON was formally unveiled in West Bengal at a well attended function in Kolkata on May 18, 2011.

Mr. Venguswamy Ramaswamy(Swamy), Global Head iON, welcomed Dr. Suranjan Das, Vice Chancellor, University of Kolkata to preside over the function as the Chief Guest. Mr.Swamy then provided an in-depth overview of the thinking behind iON, highlighting the solution and its key features.

He emphasized the importance of West Bengal to iON's growth strategy given that the state has more than 314,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which provide employment to two million people. Interestingly, iON's very first customer, Oxford Book Store is from West Bengal.

With 43 recognised SME clusters and 17 new clusters having been proposed recently, there is a huge opportunity to grow in West Bengal. With a network of 11 cloud service partners across the East (6 of them in West Bengal), iON expects 25-30 per cent of its customers to come from this region.

The prestigious AIEEE online exam, the first of its kind for CBSE, was successfully conducted by TCS on 1st May 2011 across 20 cities in 35 centres.

TCS's professional approach in conducting the exam smoothly with zero defects has earned it high commendation. "We would like to acknowledge TCS for their exemplary professionalism in taking this first ever AIEEE Online examination to its successful end...", said Dr Antriksh Johri, Joint Secretary, CBSE.

The online mode of conducting exams helps to bring in higher transparency, efficiency and speeds up the exam to result time from the current level of several months to 2-3 days. With the success of the AIEEE exam, TCS expects have set a very good standard for the future of examinations across the education sector in India.

iON has won the coveted Tata Innovista 2011 award in the Promising Innovation category. This award is given for the most successfully implemented innovations that have started reaping benefits during the year. There were more than 3200 entries submitted across the Tata Group for Tata Innovista, with 85 entries making it to the final round.

In his presentation titled 'iON Platform - The world's first integrated IT-as-a-Service for SMBs', Mr. Venguswamy Ramaswamy (Swamy), Global Head iON, described how iON is the only platform in the world to provide technology in an integrated fashion for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). He also detailed how iON was designed to redefine the Technology Consumption Model of SMBs after a comprehensive study of the business challenges faced by them. In this model, using the very latest in scalable cloud computing technology, iON removes the need for SMBs to invest in IT assets and retain scarce IT talent. Through a pay-per-use business model, iON helps SMBs leverage world-class technology at an affordable cost. iON helps SMBs consume "IT-on-Tap" thereby addressing their current challenges in IT adoption.

Appreciated by analysts, validated by customers and acknowledged by media, iON's scalable business model enables SMBs to effectively contribute to India's GDP. The judges at Tata Innovista were impressed to note that SMBs are able to reap profits by adopting iON solutions and appreciated its economic, social and green impact on business. Today, more than 200 SMBs across India are leveraging the iON solution and have reduced their total cost of technology ownership by 35-40%. iON is expected to yield $1 billion in revenues over next 5 years for TCS.

Launches integrated, pay-per-use, cloud-based business solutions:

• First of its kind, pre-configured solution that covers the entire spectrum of business processes for SMBs
• Next-Generation Service Delivery Model using Cloud Computing
• Pan India coverage with 85 Cloud service partners
• Over 135 customers for iON

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions firm announced the launch of iON - the first-of-its-kind fully integrated information technology solution for Small and Medium Business (SMB).

iON provides best-in-class, on-demand business solutions using the very latest in scalable cloud computing technology. It has been developed to deliver IT in the third generation service model to SMBs. Using a pay-per-use business model, iON helps SMBs leverage world-class technology solutions as a key business differentiator. It removes the need for SMBs to invest in IT assets or retain scarce IT talent.

iON addresses the entire spectrum of an SMB's technology needs, which range from business solutions like HR, finance, inventory, sophisticated domain-based ERP solutions to basic applications like email, document management and website services. iON is pre-configured with hardware, network and software bundled together and backed by business, technical and consulting services.

"iON will enhance India's global competitiveness by giving 35 million Indian SMBs access to world-class, simple-to-use and scalable technology tools. SMBs can use the power of iON to build their business advantage and compete on the global stage," said N Chandrasekaran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, TCS, and Chief Architect, iON.

"Our endeavor has been to ensure that the SMBs can grow smarter and faster by having the latest technology solutions along with the advantage of a pay-per-use business model that frees up capital to re-invest in their core business. Though premiered in India, iON's cloud-based services and pay-as-you-use business model is also uniquely suited to SMBs in other developed and emerging markets," Chandrasekaran added.

"For the first time, SMBs can experience certainty in their operations by leveraging iON's comprehensive on-demand solutions that are embedded with world-class business processes. The solutions assist SMBs to meet all compliance and statutory requirements, which are integral to business continuity and sustained growth", said V Ramaswamy, Global Head, iON. "Our third generation service model allows SMBs to capture growth through seamless technology deployment and ongoing enhancement and support.

iON has already garnered over 135 SMB customers. These SMB customers are experiencing the benefits of increased efficiencies, faster go-to-market, predictability of technology, talent-on-call and an expanded customer base as a result of iON's end-to-end integrated suite of cloud-based business solutions.

To provide SMB customers with seamless service, iON has created an eco-system of 85 Cloud service partners across India. iON's industry solutions are currently available for manufacturing, textiles, education, retail, quick-service restaurants, wellness and professional services.

Tatanagar (Jamshedpur), the city named after the legendary Jamsetji Nasarwanji Tata, opened a steel plant there in 1911, and it rapidly grew in importance. Other industries include a vehicle assembly plant, and factories manufacturing agricultural implements, enameled ironware, and locomotive engine parts.

The TCS SMB Cloud Conclave--a customer awareness program--was successfully conducted in Jamshedpur on 7th January 2011 by TCS in collaboration with its CSP SparX Technologies Ltd. The Cloud Conclave was spread across two sessions, Education in the morning and Manufacturing in the evening.

Jaspal Singh, CEO, SparX, started the program by welcoming Venguswamy Ramaswamy, the Global Head of TCS SMB Solutions, and talked about the objectives of the program.

In his keynote in both the sessions, Swamy provided an in-depth overview of TCS SMB solutions and its key features. 20 plus principals from various leading educational institutions and more than 30 CEOs of manufacturing companies attended the respective sessions. Swamy presented various case studies to for the benefit of the audience. They were also given an in-depth hands on solution demonstration via webex by the TCS iON demo team.

TCS SMB Cloud Conclave, a customer awareness program, was organized in three places in the month of December. Starting with Mumbai, then in Bangalore with Binary Systems, and finally it was held at Gurgaon in association with Quantm Systems. The Conclave comprised a formal welcome address, keynote session, hands on solution demonstration, followed by breakfast in Gurgaon and dinner in Mumbai and Bangalore.

The keynote speakers in the Conclave were Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head of the TCS SMB Business at Mumbai, Shantanu Varma, Zonal Head (South) at Bangalore, and Anil Sethi, VP Sales of TCS SMB, at Gurgaon. They provided an in-depth overview of TCS SMB solutions and its key features.

Participants comprised majorly of CEOs. They had various queries that were causing various technology issues to their organizations, institutions and were expecting TCS SMB to provide solution which will help them save money, time and efforts. Keynote speakers presented various case studies to encounter those questions from the audience. Overall, 100 plus delegates attended this two hour sessions at the three cities.

The TCS SMB CSP Enablement program was successfully conducted in Bangalore from 11 to 12 November 2010. The program started with the CSP CEO breakfast session. Around 20 CSP CEOs attended this two hour session. After that, 40 sales representatives from these CSPs joined in.

Anil Sethi, Sales Head of TCS SMB Solutions started the program by welcoming Venguswamy Ramaswamy, the Global Head of TCS SMB Solutions, and talked about the objectives of enablement program and various channel initiatives being undertaken by TCS.

In his presentation, Swamy provided an in-depth overview of TCS SMB solutions and offerings. He talked about how the CSP enablement program offers benefits that will support CSPs in any business situation to deliver value to their customers. He also touched upon various important areas such as leveraging TCS brand, identifying marketing opportunities, and overview on IT-as-a-Service.

CSPs from Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Erode etc attended the two day enablement program. Some of the key CSPs who attended the program included Frontier Business Systems, Value Point, Binary Systems, New Wave Computing, Future Businesstech (all from Bangalore), NEcX (Hyderabad), and Nortech Infonet (Kochi).

TCS SMB CSP Enablement Program is designed for the Cloud Service Partners (CSPs) who are looking to add TCS SMB Cloud Services products to their vertical or specific solution offerings; and offer these solutions to Small and Medium Businesses (SMB).