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Wipro to offer IT services for US retail firm

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE: NYSE listed Best Buy Co. Inc. has chosen Wipro Technologies for

outsourcing IT services. Best Buy Co. is a leader in retailing of electronics,

PCs, entertainment software and appliances. Incidentally, TCS is also one of

Best Buy's preferred IT providers in India.

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To kick start this alliance, Wipro will develop for Best Buy an `Electronic

Subscription Capture' which will be an account management application used for

selling services and subscription plans, and also for providing strategic

tracking of Internet, Direct TV, Broadcast TV, digital services and cell phone

service plans. This will help Best Buy to give its customers a one stop shopping

experience with interactive features.

Best Buy's IS leader and director Rao Vellanki said, "Outsourcing IT

services from India is economic and beneficial in terms of quality. We get what

is called `blended rates', which significantly lower the costs of the project.

We spend about $200 million on IT and the labor costs alone take up a large

portion of the pie. By outsourcing the projects we are able to get better

solutions for lesser cost and this will help us invest more in technology."

As part of the alliance, Wipro will support in implementing a corporate wide

Enterprise Application Integration and provide expertise to enhance and

implement the framework for internal customers.

Wipro Technologies Chief Executive for Enterprise Solutions, Laxman K Badiga,

said, "We are looking at a long term relationship and it’s too nascent a

stage to identify the value proposition of the partnership. However, it

leverages our strength in the retail solutions market and will help us gain some

expertise in the operational aspect of it. Although we have stated that Wipro is

setting up an off shore development center for Best Buy, it’s more of a center

of excellence and there’s no investment involved in this alliance. It is

merely a strengthening of the partnership and will continue as a vendor-service

provider relationship."

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