TCS to overhaul METRO's IT landscape across regions

TCS has been selected by METRO as a strategic partner to help overhaul the wholesaler's IT application landscape, supporting its international strategy across markets in Europe and Asia.

The agreement focuses on moving METRO away from a country-specific patchwork of applications to a more centralised technology environment. TCS will use AI-based tools as METRO seeks to simplify operations and create a more standardised operating model.

METRO, which built its business around strong local operations in multiple countries, is shifting to a technology structure with greater central oversight. The aim is to consolidate applications and technology operations across key markets, reduce operational complexity and free up resources for other parts of the business.

The project is part of a broader business transformation rather than a narrow software integration exercise. It also includes change management as METRO moves to a more unified way of operating across the organisation.

Central shift

For large international retailers and wholesalers, technology estates often reflect years of local market decisions, resulting in overlapping systems and uneven processes between countries. Bringing those systems together can reduce duplication and standardise operations, but it often requires significant organisational change as local teams adapt to new governance, processes and shared platforms.

In METRO's case, the transition is intended to balance local relevance with stronger central direction. That points to a model in which market-level requirements remain important while core systems and operating rules are managed more consistently across countries.

Dr Khaled Bagban, Chief Information Officer, METRO, outlined that approach in a statement on the partnership. "To advance our wholesale business, we need an IT landscape that combines strong local relevance with clear central steering. For METRO, this means building systems that are measurable in their impact, scalable across markets, and capable of turning complexity into competitive strength. This partnership comes with high expectations: we need a partner who not only understands technology, but also how to translate it into tangible business value for our customers and our operations," he said.

Transformation work

TCS described the assignment as part of a wider multi-country transformation effort. It has positioned itself as a supplier to large enterprises seeking to reorganise technology operations that have become fragmented across business units or national subsidiaries.

That matters in sectors such as wholesale, where margins, supply chain efficiency and pricing discipline can be shaped by the quality and consistency of underlying systems. A more integrated application landscape can affect purchasing, inventory visibility, finance operations and management reporting, even when the most visible change appears to be an IT restructuring programme.

Bhuwan Agrawal, Head, TCS Central Europe, said: "We are excited to begin this partnership with METRO. This collaboration represents a significant opportunity to accelerate METRO's strategy. By bringing our collective experience in managing complex, large-scale transformations and leveraging AI-led capabilities, we look forward to partnering closely with METRO to support its future growth ambitions."

The deal also highlights the role of AI in large corporate IT projects, although the companies have not disclosed the specific tools or systems to be deployed. In many transformation programmes, AI is used to analyse application estates, support migration planning, automate parts of service operations and improve monitoring across complex environments.

European footprint

The engagement adds to TCS's work with European businesses and underlines the region's importance to the Indian technology services group. TCS has operated in Europe for more than 45 years and employs close to 15,000 people there, including teams in Germany, where it has had a presence since 1991.

For METRO, choosing an external strategic partner suggests the scale of the internal change ahead. Programmes that consolidate systems across several countries typically require coordination between local management teams, central technology leaders and external consultants or service providers, especially when legacy applications differ by market.

Abhijit Niyogi, Vice President and Business Unit Head, Retail - UK, EMEA and India, TCS, said: "This engagement reflects an important shift towards simpler and more effective ways of operating at scale. We are proud to partner with METRO on this journey and support its efforts to create long-term value through greater consistency, efficiency and innovation."