This was after the professional services firm announced laying off at least 500 IT employees at its Tampa Bay, Florida office, according to two PwC executives who didn't want to be identified.

The layoffs are part of a restructuring exercise aimed at aligning the internal IT needs of PwC's US and UK firms, according to Jonathan Stoner, spokesperson for PwC US.

These two firms would outsource IT services to an "India-based vendor", he added. He refused to name the vendor, citing company policy.

The deal signals that large firms in the US and Europe don't want in-house IT professionals on their payrolls for back-office support, said an analyst at the Indian arm of a global consulting firm.

Outsourcing firms such as TCS offer back-office support to so many firms that their cost of delivery is very small compared with large firms managing their own back-offices, said another analyst who, too, did not want to be identified.

"Companies such as TCS have well-evolved systems and practices, which make back-office management extremely cost-efficient," he added.

Source:tradingmarkets.com