BENGALURU: Indian IT firms are stepping up their global capability centre (GCC) playbook. TCS pulled ahead of Accenture in the final leg of the race to take over the India GCC operations of US consumer electronics retailer Best Buy, people familiar with the matter told TOI.Best Buy floated a request for proposal (RFP) for a technology services engagement, and TCS won the mandate based on competitive pricing and aggressive service-level agreements (SLAs) and productivity benefits, sources said. Wipro is learnt to have been part of the initial shortlist.Best Buy’s India GCC, based in Bengaluru, has around 600 employees. The five-year deal, covering the GCC operations and broader technology services offering, including data, analytics and AI, is estimated to be worth around Rs 2,000 crore, people in the know said. Emails sent to TCS, Accenture, Wipro and Best Buy did not elicit a response till press time.The deal would deepen TCS’s longstanding relationship with Best Buy, spanning technology services and digital transformation. Phil Fersht, CEO of HFS Research, estimated the existing TCS relationship with Best Buy at $75-$100 million in annual revenue, while stressing that there is no publicly disclosed contract value.Best Buy set up a 70,000-sft technology centre in Bengaluru in 2024 to accelerate its digital transformation. The centre was envisaged as an innovation hub spanning digital strategy, product management, design, engineering, infrastructure and operations.“It’s our intention to really make the Best Buy India hub the heart of innovation around how we’re going to use mobile and AI platforms. We’re going to be building and ramping up teams very actively in those areas,” Brian Tilzer, then chief digital, analytics and technology officer at Best Buy, had told TOI in 2024.The India centre has become more strategic as Best Buy steps up investments in AI and digital commerce. The retailer reported revenue of $41.7 billion in FY2026, compared with $41.5 billion a year earlier, while comparable sales rose 0.5%. Computing and mobile phones drove growth, partly offset by declines in home theatre and appliances.
