Marks & Spencer swaps out TCS for fresh helpdesk deal • The Register

UK retailer Marks & Spencer has changed Tata Consultancy Companies as its IT service desk supplier following a procurement course of that started in January.

The contract ended this summer season, although TCS continues supporting different IT providers for M&S, a spokesperson on the meals, garments and family good provider instructed The Register.

“Concerning the IT service desk contract particularly, as is common course of, we went to market to check for essentially the most appropriate product obtainable, ran an intensive course of and instructed a brand new supplier this summer season. This course of began in January, and this modification has no bearing on our wider TCS relationship,” they stated.

M&S declined to call the brand new contractor or which contracts TCS continues to meet.

It has been a troubled 12 months for M&S. In April, it told the London Stock Exchange it was managing a “cyber incident” for “the previous few days.” An e-mail to prospects, seen by The Register, stated Click on & Acquire orders have been affected.

Operations have been considerably disrupted within the subsequent months as technies tried to revive normality.

M&S CEO Stuart Machin said in May that the assault was more likely to take a £300 million ($400 million) chunk out of the corporate’s earnings for the 2025/26 monetary 12 months.

The Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) cuffed four people the next month in reference to the assault on M&S and extra British retailers, which all occurred inside a matter of weeks.

By August, the retailer said it had finally restored its Click & Collect service, whereas the Scan and Store service had restricted availability and on-line inventory checking performance remained affected.

In 2018, M&S opted to cut its tech supplier base and transfer 250 staff to TCS under an IT outsourcing accord. The retailer agreed to pay a one-time “implementation value” of £25 million to dump supply and administration of sure capabilities to the Indian headquartered agency, estimating it will save £150 million over 5 years.

TCS turned M&S’s “principal expertise provider,” changing agreements together with these with Fujitsu and Sapient. The outsourcing deal was designed to establish areas of inefficiency at M&S.

In a press release despatched to The Register, a TCS spokesperson stated:

“The service desk contract with M&S adopted an everyday aggressive RFP course of initiated in January 2025, with M&S opting to proceed with different companions. The service desk part represents a small a part of TCS’ total engagement with M&S. We proceed to work on quite a few different areas, in our function as a strategic companion for M&S.”

“On the cyber incident itself, TCS performed a assessment of our personal networks and programs and our conclusion is that the vulnerabilities haven’t originated from there. TCS doesn’t present cyber safety providers to M&S. It is a service that’s supplied by one other companion.” ®