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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/offshoring/0,3800003026,39122576,00.htm

Tesco IT jobs going to Bangalore
90 techies will be offered "alternative" roles…

By Andy McCue

Published: Monday 26 July 2004

UK supermarket giant Tesco is to outsource 90 IT jobs to India as part of a move to offshore business support and processing functions.

In total around 420 business support roles – most of them temporary processing positions - will be moved to Tesco's own service centre in Bangalore.

A Tesco spokesman told silicon.com that 90 of those 420 jobs affected are IT positions at the supermarket's Welwyn Garden City offices. But he said they will be offered alternative roles.

"We are giving people the opportunity to stay with the company and we are doing everything we can to accommodate them but they will have to be flexible," he said.

Tesco owns its own offshore facility in Bangalore and the spokesman said quality of service will not be affected.

"These are people who all work for Tesco and the expectations are the same," he said.

Martyn Hart, chairman of the UK's National Outsourcing Association, said in a statement in response to the news that it indicates the retail sector is now getting on board the offshoring bandwagon and taking the right approach in how to handle such a sensitive issue.

"This move could signal that retail is beginning to catch up with sectors, such as the financial services industry, which have long been harnessing opportunities in offshoring locations to reduce overheads," he said. "To compete effectively in a global market, retailers, increasingly, have to look at ways to streamline overheads - offshoring back-end processes is one way they can effectively do this."