Close to 70% of Tescos worldwide IT is done out of India

Why was Tesco HSC (Hindustan Service Center) created?



Tesco HSC does all classical services in terms of application support,
application development, infrastructure management, and IT helpdesk. Close to

70% of Tescos worldwide IT is done out of India. We support the UK and thirteen

other countries. The latest addition is the US where Tesco retail is known as

Fresh and Easy.

What technological innovations have been carried out at Tesco HSC?



We work on the premise that the technologies we put in shops and warehouses

should work, otherwise there is a lot of productivity loss. One of the

innovations that have been implemented at Tescos outlets sometime ago included

intelligent measuring of queue length.

Some of the large stores have around eighty checkout counters, and there is

no point in keeping all of them open all the time. People dont mind standing in

the queue if there is only one person in front. Also, there is no need of zero

queue length. For this, thermal sensors installed in the stores read the heat

generated by customers; and using a series of algorithms, a team calculates how

many of them are likely to hit the billing counter and at what time.

Sridhar Rathnam, director, HSC IT Services, Tesco HSC

As the statistics emerge, an alert is sent to the store manager allowing them

to open or close counters as necessary.

What are some of the new activities at Tesco HSC?



We have set up an RFID Lab at our center, and we are testing efficacy of

this technology for large stores. We have also set up a retail test lab that

will be used as a base for testing and certifying the entire retail software

that goes to Tesco stores. This lab also simulates a readymade store environment

for all HSC people to appreciate the stores environment, the various equipment

that run and the different formats that Tesco operate. This will also be used to

simulate support issues, and has the ability to completely support the retail

applications from HSC.

What is the mechanism to get customer feedback and incorporate them in the

solution set?



Tesco uses customer question time (CQT) meetings to help identify and respond to
customers changing needs. These meetings are organized in Tesco stores to

enable staff and senior managers to hear the views of customers. Inputs from

these focus groups, together with 46,000 customer interviews in-store, drive

customer and community plans.

Sudesh Prasad



sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in