Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) yesterday announced the opening of its fifth and largest global research and co-innovation centre in Toronto, which the company said is designed to help Canadian companies “bring digital innovations to life faster.”
Situated on the top floor of an office tower at 400 University Ave. in the downtown core, the 16,000 sq. ft. facility will be known as Pace Port Toronto and join a TCS network of Pace Ports already operating in New York, Pittsburgh, Amsterdam and Tokyo.
According to the company, the “post-pandemic world of business poses new risks, while also creating new opportunities. Enterprises from every type of industry are seeking to grow and transform, while also striving to build resilience and achieve sustainability. To capture these opportunities, innovation in isolation is no longer sufficient.’
TCS Pace Ports, it added, bring together co-innovation networks of 2,600+ start-up and industry partners, academic institutions, and its own network of researchers.
The company, which generated revenues of US$25.7 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31 of this year, currently has an estimated 606,000 consultants located in 55 countries.
At the launch, K. Ananth Krishnan, global chief technology officer of TCS, said “establishing a Pace Port in Toronto – North America’s fastest growing tech market – is part of a long-term TCS strategic plan for Canada that includes innovation labs, growing and reskilling our workforce, and our ongoing work with schools to support STEM education.
“Our ecosystem of partners, be they universities, be they start-ups, be they major technology suppliers, and indeed collaborating with our customers, gives us an unprecedented ringside seat into the way this decade will be shaped by technology.
“Why do we exist? We exist to build greater futures with innovation and collective knowledge. That’s what we wrote down in 2019 to let every TCSer, every TCS partner, and TCS stakeholder involved know why we get excited when we come to work every day. We want to build better futures.
“We don’t want to have better futures alone. We will build it collectively and we will build it with a constant mindset of innovation.”
TCS Pace Ports, said Krishnan, are “the way this comes to life. (They) are the physical manifestation of this intent to build greater futures collectively and with innovation.”
Victor Fedeli, Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, who attended and spoke at the event, said the Ford government is “committed to making Ontario a more attractive place for businesses to invest and create jobs.
“TCS Pace Ports bring together co-innovation networks … to drive innovation and create the right conditions for our businesses and job creators to invest, grow and attract investment all across Ontario.”
Soumen Roy, country head of TCS Canada, said by “leveraging the power of a global partner ecosystem, technology partners, academia, and the best of TCS research and innovations, Pace Port Toronto will help local Canadian companies to more quickly transform their businesses with digital technology.”
The facility itself contains an agile workspace, training space, academic research lab, and what TCS described as an innovation showcase to encourage rapid prototyping, research and commercializing of advanced technologies.
A key partner will be the University of Toronto, and to that end TCS announced a C$1 million gift to its School of Cities, which describes itself as a “solutions incubator for urban-focused researchers, educators, students, practitioners and the general public to explore and address the complex global challenges facing urban centres.
“A living laboratory, the School leverages urban data and lived experience to improve policy and decision-making, and collaborates with communities around the world to make cities and urban regions more sustainable, prosperous, inclusive and just.”
