经济学人下载:塔塔在美国 从孟买到美国中西部

Business
商业报道

TCS in America
塔塔在美国

From Mumbai to the Midwest
从孟买到美国中西部

Far from home, Tata Consultancy Services strives to move upmarket
塔塔咨询服务公司力争向高端市场转型

DRIVE up the leafy Leadership Trail in Milford, Ohio and you reach what appears from the outside to be a luxury ski lodge.
行驶在俄亥俄州米尔福德的领导路上，林木繁茂，而后到了一处外观奢华，看似是滑雪场的地方。

Inside, large windows with forest views are a constant reminder of the surrounding American heartland.
透着森林景象的窗景无时不刻的提醒来客您正置身于美国核心腹地。

This is Tata Consultancy Services' new American facility,
这是塔塔咨询服务中心的新式美版设施，

a stark contrast to TCS's colonial-era headquarters overlooking sweltering cricket pitches in Mumbai.
与以往看似闷热的板球场的不同，塔塔自殖民时期以来在孟买设立的总部有了明显变化。

Bought in 2008, the Ohio facility is a symbol of TCS's efforts to polish its brand and move to higher-margin services.
此处为塔塔在俄亥俄州的分部，购置于2008年，正是该公司擦亮招牌向高利润服务业进军的标志。

One reason for choosing Milford, a satellite of Cincinnati, was the proximity of Midwestern clients:
塔塔选址在辛辛那提的卫星城米尔福德的原因之一，是其距离中西部客户的地理优势：

ten Fortune 500 companies are based in Cincinnati alone.
财富500强企业中就有10家驻扎在辛辛那提。

Another is cost: it is one of the cheapest among America's main cities and has plenty of land on its fringes.
其二是成本问题：这是美国消费最低的大城市之一，且外围地区有很多闲置土地。

A third reason for choosing Ohio is the presence of decent universities nearby.
选址的原因之三是因为附近的高等学府。

TCS set up shop in Milford not only to be closer to clients but to begin in earnest to hire American graduates.
塔塔设分部在此不仅是为了接近消费者，也是渴求招募到美国的毕业生。

Most of TCS's new coders in Ohio are fresh from the nearby universities of Kentucky, Cincinnati, Purdue, Ohio State and others.
在俄亥俄州，塔塔新进的编程人员大多都来自于附近的肯塔基大学、辛辛那提大学、印第安纳州立大学和俄亥俄州立大学等等。

They are cheaper than Ivy League graduates and TCS offers them interesting work with a booming company.
他们的薪水要求相较于常春藤略低，而塔塔也以日益壮大的企业背景下为他们提供感兴趣的工作。

The facility has 450 employees now, nearly all American, thanks to the difficulty of getting visas for Indians, and the plan is to increase their number to 1,000.
由于印度来此的签证困难，该分部现有 450名员工几乎都是美国人，而公司也计划将人员扩招到1000。

They are a fraction of TCS's 215,000-strong workforce but represent the bridgehead of its ambitions to go beyond being merely an outsourced back-office and coding shop and take on such consultancy giants as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Accenture on their home turf.
这只占塔塔21万5千名员工的一部分，但显示出公司争取的不只做外包后勤或解码服务，而是在客场迎战一些本土的咨询业务巨头，如IBM,惠普或是埃森哲。

Having pleased clients with its work for them so far, TCS should have a decent chance at getting them to buy fancier and pricier services.
塔塔一直以来都能满足客户需要，但仍需要恰当的实际让客户购买更吸引人也更昂贵的业务。

David Johns, chief information officer at Owens Corning, a building-materials maker, is full of praise for TCS;
建筑材料生产商欧文斯科宁的信息主管，大卫·约翰对塔塔评价很高，

his company has doubled its overall spending with the firm in recent years.
他的公司对近年已投入双倍的钱。

Citigroup sold its India-based business-process unit to TCS, guaranteed it $275m annually in business for several years, and then proceeded to spend more than that.
花旗集团将其在印度的业务板块出售给塔塔，并保证近几年间每年付款27亿5千万美元，之后会投入的更多。

However, Jagdish Rao, a technology chief at Citigroup, says most of the consulting work TCS has done so far has been on systems TCS had built or implemented itself.
然而，花旗集团的技术主管加迪什·饶指出，塔塔的大部分咨询业务构架于自身建立或推行的制度之上。

Tom Rodenhauser of Kennedy Information, which studies the consulting industry, agrees that it has yet to make a breakthrough in high-end work.
肯尼迪信息公司研究咨询业的汤姆·罗德霍萨认同这一观点，指出塔塔有待于在高端市场中寻求突破。

Although TCS is “printing money” with its outsourcing business, he “can't say with a straight face they're doing great at consulting—they're giving away what other companies charge for”, as a way of selling their legacy outsourcing services.
尽管塔塔在外包产业中堪称“印钞机”，他“不能确定的说咨询业务也是他们的强项-这句完全不知道怎么翻囧”

Amar Naga, the boss of the Milford facility, admits that consulting proper is so far just 2.6% of TCS's revenue.
米勒福德分部的老板艾玛·纳迦承认咨询业务的业绩仅占公司总收入的2.6%。

But it is growing more than twice as fast as the company's overall revenues, themselves still increasing at around 25% a year.
但其增长速度是总收入的两倍。

Such eye-catching growth, combined with its reputation for high-quality work, suggests clients can be convinced that TCS's consultancy work is worth paying for.
如此引人注目的增长速度，连同其高质量业务的名声，意味着客户可以相信塔塔的咨询业务是值得花钱购买的。

For the American rivals it is planning to take on, TCS may so far be no more than a blip on the edge of their radar screens.
就其即将面临的美国竞争对手而言，塔塔不过是他们雷达侦测屏边缘的一个小点。

But as it pushes up into high-value consulting, several of them—such as IBM and HP—are trying to capture more work by moving downstream into TCS's traditional outsourcing territory.
然而，塔塔正向高价值咨询界推进，诸如IBM和HP这几个对手已经顺势通过介入塔塔传统外包领域来争取更多的业务。

When they meet in the middle it could be quite a fight.
一旦狭路相逢，大战在所难免。