Tata Consultancy Services is Helping Boots Accelerate and Scale its Innovation Program to Drive Competitive Differentiation

LONDON | MUMBAI, July 25, 2022: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) and Boots, a leading UK health and beauty retailer, announced the launch of the new INNOVATE workspace, powered by TCS Pace™, at the Boots headquarters in Nottingham.

The new workspace is aimed at nurturing a start-up culture within the organization, helping Boots to uncover opportunities to leverage emerging technology.

INNOVATE was designed in collaboration with TCS to be an agile incubator, combining creative space with top talent and emerging technology, powered by TCS Pace, the company’s proven framework for innovation at scale. The TCS Pace Innovation Architecture provides co-innovation mechanisms for creative problem solving through Pace Sprints, digital toolboxes to enhance collaboration and rapidly design new experiences, technology sandboxes to develop Proofs of Concept (PoCs), and a physical workspace that brings together all these enablers. Using Pace, TCS has been helping clients accelerate and scale their innovation programs to build competitive differentiation.

Dedicated teams of intrapreneurs will leverage the INNOVATE philosophy and workspace to work on ideas that will help to make the retailer’s business more efficient and lead the way for new innovations in the industry. Operating in a rapid test and learn model that enables PoCs to be developed in just weeks rather than months, the workspace is designed to help teach and develop new capabilities, such as UX design and product ownership.

K Ananth Krishnan, CTO, TCS, said: “INNOVATE, powered by TCS Pace, is a world class innovation hub that leverages our research and innovation ecosystem to help Boots become future-ready. TCS is happy to partner with Boots to systematically conceptualize, build and test new technology and business ideas, and drive transformation in agile, iterative cycles.”

Rich Corbridge, CIO, Boots, said: “We are excited to be opening our much-anticipated INNOVATE workspace in partnership with TCS. INNOVATE offers the chance to revolutionise the way we think about technology at Boots and push the boundaries of what we can achieve with agile thinking and a fearless test and learn approach.

“The opportunity to be creative, solve problems and be seamlessly connected with our tech partners is key to positioning Boots at the forefront of innovation in the industry. I can’t wait to see how my Tech at Boots team as well as wider team members take advantage of the INNOVATE philosophy, workspace and the incredible ideas that will be conceived and evolved here.”

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for over 50 years. TCS offers a consulting-led, cognitive powered, integrated portfolio of business, technology and engineering services and solutions. This is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile™ delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development.

A part of the Tata group, India's largest multinational business group, TCS has over 606,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 55 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $25.7 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. TCS' proactive stance on climate change and award-winning work with communities across the world have earned it a place in leading sustainability indices such as the MSCI Global Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Emerging Index. For more information, visit www.tcs.com

About Boots

Boots is the UK’s leading health and beauty retailer. Its mission is to be the first choice for pharmacy, health and beauty - caring for people, customers and communities everywhere.

With over 53,000 team members and 2,247 stores, ranging from local community pharmacies to large destination health and beauty stores, Boots serves its customer and patients’ wellbeing for life.

Boots is the UK’s number one beauty destination and largest pharmacy chain providing dispensing and essential healthcare services, and it offers an unrivalled depth and breadth of product offering including its innovative portfolio of brands, including No7, the UK’s No1 skincare brand, Soap & Glory, Liz Earle, Sleek MakeUP and YourGoodSkin. For over 170 years, Boots has listened, learned and innovated, and it continues to challenge itself to improve its products and services every day.

Boots is part of Walgreens Boots Alliance, which is a global leader in pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing retail.  More company information is available on boots-uk.com.

*Figures accurate as of 31 May 2022