We’re well used to seeing headline revenue growth at Mumbai-headquartered offshore services firm TCS outstrip that of Banaglore based archrival, Infosys. Indeed, that has been the story quarter after quarter for the past three years. But it’s not that often that TCS beats Infosys on operating margin. The last time was in mid-2011, and such was the case again in Q2 (to 30th Sept. ‘12).
So to the numbers, which showed TCS’ revenues grow by 13% yoy to $2.85bn, 4.6% higher than the prior quarter. Revenue growth for Infosys, by way of comparison, was just 2.9% yoy, and 2.6% qoq (see Infosys lowers guidance – and changes CFO). TCS’ operating margin, at 26.8%, exceeded that of Infosys by 50bps.
And coincidentally – but for quite different reasons I would suspect – TCS is also changing CFO. S Mahalingam (‘Maha’) retires next February after more than 40 years with the company, the last ten as CFO.
Almost whichever way you look at it, TCS is showing peers that ‘biggest is best’. And, judging from yet another landmark win in UK government (see TCS ousting Capita at CRB changes everything), you might be excused for wondering whether ‘things can only get better’!