TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) is accustomed to managing the IT systems of multinationals in Singapore, but the impending launch of a radical outsourcing model could also make it the only technology vendor a budding small company will ever need.

After a successful pilot project in India, TCS is looking to extend its so-called 'IT-as-a-service' offering to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) here.

While offloading technology functions and applications to a third party is hardly a new concept, the use of such services has been confined mostly to larger companies with substantial IT budgets.

'At the end of the day, Singapore has a limited number of large enterprises. The bulk of the business here is in the SMB sector,' said Girija Pande, executive vice-president of TCS' operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Beyond putting outsourcing within the reach of SMB customers, TCS has added another twist with its new service. Under the mooted approach, it plans to take over all the IT requirements of the customer - not selected parts of its technology infrastructure.

'This is where the shared platform comes in to help the SMBs,' Mr Pande told BizIT in a recent interview.

Under the IT-as-a-service approach, TCS will offer a small firm the hardware, generic software such as payroll and accounting packages and all the industry-specific applications needed to power its operations.

In addition, TCS will throw in networking and IT services such as software customisation and technical support into the mix. Taken as a whole, the model is akin to renting an entire technology department.

'If you look at SMBs, they often buy hardware through loans and then they have to put in software,' Mr Pande said.

'Then they have to hire people - and that's a challenge - and deal with constant upgrades. We decided to bundle all these together and give it to them at a certain number of dollars per month.'

To keep costs low, the applications included in the package have been developed in-house by TCS - not made by established packaged software companies such as SAP and Oracle.

'We took our own applications and evolved them. If they (SMBs) were to pay the licence fees (for business software), where is the advantage?' said Mr Pande.

India was chosen as the test-bed for the new TCS service, with the initial focus on selected vertical sectors such as wellness, hospitality, retail and education.

With 60 Indian customers now on board, the firm wants to take the programme to Singapore and selected countries in Europe.

The approach is particularly suitable for Singapore, as the bandwidth boost resulting from the upcoming fibre-optic broadband network will allow hosted software and services to be delivered seamlessly, said Mr Pande.

To set the stage for the launch, TCS has initiated discussions with government departments such as Spring Singapore and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

'Rent your IT and not own it. IT obsolescence will burden SMBs,' Mr Pande said.