Indian IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a multi-million, multi-year deal with ABB to overhaul the Switzerland-based tech company’s global network operations.
The agreement builds on a 20-year partnership between the two firms.
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Under the terms of the expanded arrangement, TCS will assume responsibility for designing, integrating, and running ABB’s worldwide network infrastructure through an integrated network-as-a-service model that incorporates AI.
The agreement takes TCS’s involvement beyond its previous remit of managing infrastructure and applications for ABB and extends its role to managing end-to-end global network operations.
The new model aims to deliver a standardised, centrally managed digital infrastructure for ABB’s operations worldwide.
TCS will coordinate a multi-vendor technology environment and oversee service integration, network operations, security, and compliance on a global scale.
A central element of the project is ABB’s Future Network Model, a company-wide initiative to modernise its network landscape.
This programme seeks to replace ABB’s current, fragmented network systems with a service-based, secure, and scalable architecture.
ABB group chief information officer Alec Joannou said: “The Future Network Model represents an important milestone in reinforcing the digital foundation of ABB’s global operations. As our business evolves, it is critical to have an ecosystem that is resilient, secure, and aligned with long-term transformation goals.
“Our association with TCS reflects a shared focus on delivery excellence, continuous enhancement, and building capabilities that can support our strategic priorities.”
Features of the new infrastructure will include a centralised control framework, integration of service management, a global operations centre, and upgraded security measures.
ABB’s local area and wide area networks (WAN), as well as software-defined WAN systems, are to be modernised as part of the plan.
TCS manufacturing president Anupam Singhal said: “With AI embedded into the network operations model, supported by secure digital infrastructure and our deep domain expertise, we are bringing our ‘infrastructure to intelligence’ approach to build a resilient, intelligent network backbone.
“Through this engagement, we will enable network systems that can sense, adapt, and improve continuously, while strengthening reliability, security, user experience, and scale as ABB continues to advance as a future-ready enterprise.”
TCS and ABB have so far partnered on a series of programmes, previously focusing on consolidating the latter’s ERP systems into a unified SAP platform and supporting adoption of cloud-based services.
The extended collaboration is intended to further align ABB’s digital infrastructure with its evolving business needs.
In May, ABB entered a partnership with Cognite to examine the combined use of agentic AI and advanced data tools for applications in the energy sector.
