Virgin Atlantic Airways, a long-standing Oracle and TCS customer, agreed to conduct the pilot in order to find a complete and easy way to implement the low risk solution. The proposed solution will be used along with process reviews and Virgin Atlantic's current materials management software, Ultramain, to enable Virgin Atlantic engineering to reduce costs and increase efficiencies through improved visibility and accountability, and to gain better automated control of its engineering parts supply chain. The solution will be developed and implemented by Tata Consultancy Services on Oracle(r) Fusion Middleware, RFID-enabled applications and Oracle Database 10g.

"Virgin Atlantic has made the decision to commission this pilot because as a company we are always looking for ways to take advantage of technological advancement. The aviation industry is gradually moving toward RFID standards, and we want to ensure that when these are agreed, Virgin Atlantic will be well placed to take full advantage," said Terry Flynn, strategic development manager - engineering, Virgin Atlantic.

Nigel Woodland, RFID director, Oracle said "This new and exciting collaboration with Virgin Atlantic Airways will enable us to significantly enhance and improve the airline's existing supply chain processes. Oracle has the most comprehensive middleware and software stack available for RFID-based implementations. This pilot will help Virgin Atlantic Airways further utilize its existing Oracle infrastructure to achieve even greater real-time visibility."

TS Rangarajan, head of TCS, RFID Solutions, said, 'TCS recognizes the potential of RFID as a business transformational technology and continues to invest substantially in developing RFID-enabled business solutions. TCS welcomes the pioneering efforts of Virgin Atlantic to adopt RFID to increase efficiencies in a critical business process."

The pilot commenced in June and is expected to go live at Virgin Atlantic's warehouse store in Heathrow in the UK by August.

About Virgin Atlantic Airways
Since it was founded in 1984, Virgin Atlantic Airways has become Britain's second largest carrier serving the world's major cities. Now based at both London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports, it operates long haul services to twenty-six destinations world-wide as far apart as Las Vegas, Mumbai and Sydney.

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the world-leading information technology consulting, services, business process outsourcing and engineering services organization that envisioned and pioneered the adoption of the flexible global business practices that today enable companies to operate more efficiently and produce more value. TCS achieved this by creating and perfecting a unique method of global deployment and delivery of high quality, high value services and products in IT consulting and business process outsourcing. Known as the "Global Delivery Model," this strategic services delivery concept has reshaped the IT services industry. More than 90% of TCS customers reward the company's reliability, passion, creativity, and unique ability to handle the broadest range of their IT needs by continually extending and deepening their partnerships with TCS. With more than 43,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants located in 32 countries, TCS is uniquely positioned to deliver its flexible world class services seamlessly to any location. TCS reported consolidated revenues of $2.24 billion (U.S.) in the fiscal year 2004-2005. The company is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information: www.tcs.com.

About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com