Business Editors

TATA Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia's largest global software solutions and consulting services company, announced today that it has moved into the fast growing business process outsourcing (BPO) market and has landed another major customer, Household Int.

According to Gartner Dataquest, the global BPO market will grow to $543 billion by 2004, with the U.S. market accounting for about 50 percent.

TCS America will provide BPO services to Household through a joint venture with the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), known as Intelenet. TCS America/Intelenet will provide Household with services, including online information, customer relationship management (CRM) and call center support, back office data processing and administrative accounting.

"The tremendous upside potential, particularly in the U.S., and our unmatched expertise in IT, eBusiness and software solutions makes BPO a perfect fit within our overall growth strategy," said Arup Gupta, president, TCS America. "We're fortunate to have established a high-quality entry point to this potentially lucrative sector with Household, one of the most respected financial services companies."

"Household was looking for a global IT partner that would enable us to leverage our collection practices and policies and also provide us with excellent operations staff," said Jeff Schulze, group director of Household. "We chose TCS America/Intelenet for its superior service and reputation. In addition, working with an India-based partner provides us a great opportunity to achieve cost savings while continuing to focus on high-quality customer service."

TCS America and Intelenet will provide Household with 100 agents to enable collections from delinquent credit card customers. This facility will be ramped up to 2000 seats with multiple shifts over the next two years. Additional services will include customer acquisition, customer service, telemarketing, analytics and back office processing.

These programs will utilize both inbound and outbound voice technology. The expansion of the services will result in significant savings and scale to Household.

TCS America/Intelenet has put the best technology, infrastructure, personnel and processes in place, allowing companies to relocate their business processes seamlessly, around the clock. Outsourcing of non-core business processes and customer management services results in lower cost, decreased cycle time, increased customer base and higher customer satisfaction.

TCS America/Intelenet's service offerings are structured into three broad categories:

-- Call Centers that deliver first-class technical support for technology, software and electronics products across voice and web.

-- Web-Enabled Customer Care - customer acquisition, customer service, collection and administration services across inbound and outbound voice, images and Web channels.

-- Back-Office Operations - accounting processes including accounts payable, accounts receivable, expense processing, reconciliation, bank, control accounts, supplier and customer accounts, exception research and resolution.

ABOUT TCS and TCS America

TCS provides information technology and management consulting services to organizations in more than 50 countries across the globe. With 11,000 employees and revenues approaching $1 billion, TCS has more than 150 offices worldwide - 50 offices in North America, where it is known as TCS America (headquartered in New York City).

Its clients include companies such as American Express, AIG, Boeing, Citibank, Dell Computer Corporation, The Gap, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Kellogg's, Lucent Technologies, Nike, The State of Pennsylvania, The State of Montana, Prudential Financial, Qwest and the Target Corporation. TCS America currently supports the technology needs of seven of the top 10 U.S. Fortune 500 companies.

TCS America is responsible for more than 65 percent of the company's overall worldwide revenues. Visit us at or www.tcs.com or www.tcs-america.com. Intelenet is a 50/50 joint venture between TCS and the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC).

ABOUT HOUSHOLD INT.

Household's businesses are leading providers of consumer loan, credit card, auto finance and credit insurance products in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. In the United States, Household's largest business, founded in 1878, operates under the two oldest and most widely recognized names in consumer finance - HFC and Beneficial.

Household is also one of the nation's largest issuers of private-label and general-purpose credit cards, including The GM Card(R) and the AFL-CIO's Union Plus(R) card. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.household.com.