Thursday, April 27, 2006

Onyx Software Corporation (Nasdaq:ONXS), a worldwide leader in customer management solutions for the enterprise, today announced a strategic alliance with Cognizant, a leading provider of business process outsourcing and IT services, in which Cognizant will provide consulting services for Onyx implementations in rapidly growing vertical markets worldwide, including financial services and healthcare.

Cognizant helps large enterprises to manage increasingly complex business processes, improve operational efficiencies, and achieve compliance with regulatory changes. It also assists customers with IT-based initiatives such as self-service portals, consumer-driven healthcare, behavioral health, data warehousing and business intelligence.


As a leader in CRM, Onyx recognizes the critical importance of consulting
services in the successful implementation of effective customer relationships
said Peter Grambs, Vice President of Customer Solutions Practice for Cognizant.

Our expertise in key vertical markets combined with Onyx' strengths and focus on customer-centric data and actionable analytics provide our customers with the ability to make their CRM processes a powerful differentiator and a strong competitive advantage. Both Onyx and Cognizant have excellent levels of customer satisfaction, further complementing our combined approach to service delivery.

"Onyx is delighted to partner with Cognizant," said Jack Denault, Senior Vice President of the Americas at Onyx Software. "Working with Cognizant, we complement our professional services staff with their vertical expertise and offshore capabilities to enhance our ability to meet the complex needs of enterprise clients worldwide. This enables our services sector customers to address the challenges of managing costs and creating competitive advantage, while allowing us to extend the full range of capabilities we bring to their urgent issues."

Friday, April 21, 2006

Lack of Planning and Objective Consensus Hampering ITO – Study

According to a study by PA Consulting, a UK-headquartered consultancy firm, the lack of sufficient planning as well as proper understanding of the objectives of an IT outsourcing (ITO) agreement are the main factors hampering the achievement of strategic value from IT outsourcing. The differences in interpretation and the lack of planning were found to result in poor realization of returns, lost opportunity, and failure to achieve transformational objectives. The study covered about 300 executives, major IT outsourcing suppliers, and legal advisors.

Suppliers quoted cost reduction, followed by access to IT skills and IT investment as the clients’ desired results from ITO. Clients, however, quoted access to skills as the most important objective. According to the study, about 42 percent of the clients undertook proper planning before the initiation of the deal. About 68 percent of the clients wished to have an increased focus on the suppliers abilities.
Misinterpretation was a major drawback that hindered the derivation of maximum value from the project. Only 21 percent of the suppliers and 38 percent of the legal advisors receive complete information about the deal from the clients.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

TCS Wins $500Mn ITO Contract with Citigroup; to Hire 2,200

TCS, the Indian IT services provider, has won a USD 500 million IT outsourcing (ITO) contract with Citigroup. The contract is based on the take-or-pay principle, under which TCS will receive a fixed amount if the work is completed within a stipulated period of time. The duration of the contract has not been disclosed.

Under the terms of the contract, TCS will provide application maintenance and development services to Citigroup. In the first year, the company will employ about 2,200 people for contract execution.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

BearingPoint, a US-headquartered IT services provider, has established its Global Development Center (GDC) in the South Indian city of Bangalore. The investment for the new center was not disclosed. The center is expected to be transformed into the global development hub for BearingPoint in the future

In addition to Bangalore, BearingPoint also has a facility in Chennai, which it operates in conjunction with one of its partners. The new center will provide services in industry segments such as, banking, insurance, telecom, retail, oil, manufacturing, hi-tech, life sciences, and software product development. The center will also support software development, ERP implementation, application integration and management, and BPO services.

The center will initially employ 100 professionals and is expected to reach 1,000 over the next couple of years.

Monday, April 17, 2006

TCS Expected to Win $1Bn IT Outsourcing Contract

According to media reports, Deutsche Bank is expected to award a USD 1 billion IT outsourcing contract to TCS, the Indian IT services company. The deal is expected to cover sales and collections as well as the processing of financial data.

The proposed contract by Deutsche Bank is a part of its restructuring efforts to offshore more than fifty percent of its back-office work to India by the end of 2007. The bank is also planning to shift sales and trading operations by increasing its offshore services staff to 2,000.The deal, if concluded, would be the largest outsourcing deal for any Indian IT company.
Metavante, ICICI OneSource in Outsourcing Agreement

Metavante, the US-headquartered financial services provider, has entered into an outsourcing agreement with ICICI Onesource, an Indian outsourcing services provider. The company has also acquired a 11.5 percent stake in ICICI One Source for an undisclosed amount.
Under the terms of the agreement, Metavante will get exclusive distribution rights for ICICI OneSources’ BPO services to the North American Banking and Financial market. Also, as part of the agreement, ICICI OneSource will get recognition as exclusive offshore delivery partner and preferred onshore delivery partner for BPO services to financial institutions serviced by Metavante.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Worldwide Talent Management Market to Surpass $4Bn by 2009 – Study

According to a study by Yankee Group, a US-based market research firm, the worldwide talent management market will exceed USD 4 billion in revenue by 2009. The major vendors of the market may expect growth rates of 50 percent to 100 percent. The main reason attributed to the growth is increasing demand for developing competitive human capital. HR outsourcing and new service delivery models are also key contributors to market success.

The other major factors contributing to the growth are an increased focus on retaining talent, continued convergence of organizational expertise, renewed focus on acquiring and managing talent, and the mobilization of the global workforce. The report also found that talent management landscape is highly fragmented and comprises vendors of all sizes and capabilities. However, consolidation in the industry is expected to be in the offing and will be a major trend during the next 2 to 3 years because of market maturation.

The talent management market includes recruitment management, performance management, compensation management, succession management, learning management and other HR processes that can be outsourced to third-party services providers.
Watson Wyatt Appointed by InBev as Pensions Administrator

Watson Wyatt, the Virginia-based HR services provider, has been appointed by InBev UK, a brewery brand, as its defined benefit pensions accounting functions administrator. The financial terms and contract period have not been disclosed.

InBev’s Pension Plan has an overall defined benefit membership of around 5,000, including 2,400 active members, and a fund size of GBP 295 million. The quality and cost competitiveness of Wattson Wyatt’s services are the main reason for its appointment.

TUPE Not to Have an Adverse Effect on Indian BPO Firms – UK DTI

The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued a clarification that the latest version of the country’s Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) regulations is not targeted to adversely affect outsourcing to India.

TUPE regulations are applicable when an employee from a company is transferred to a contractor as part of a procurement deal. At present, during such a transfer, the contractor bears responsibility of ensuring the rights of the transferred employee and is also liable to pay damages if these rights are not respected. However, the DTI stated that UK employers are unlikely to move their employees to India while outsourcing business functions to Indian firms. They are most likely to be either re-assigned in UK only or the employees might agree to be made redundant. In addition, DTI pointed out that the new regulations apply only to UK companies and not to Indian firms.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

EDS makes $380m offer to buy 52% in MphasiS

EDS has made a conditional offer to buy 52% controlling stake in Bangalore-based MphasiS for about $380m as the world’s second-largest software services company seeks to compete better with arch-rival IBM and also expand its offshore presence in India. EDS will make a formal conditional open offer to all shareholders of MphasiS on Tuesday, seeking to buy 52% or 83m shares of the company at Rs 204.5 per share.

If the deal goes through, it will be the second-largest purchase by an overseas company in the domestic software services sector after Oracle's buyout of i-Flex.

Oracle’s acquisition of i-flex from Citigroup was the first at about $593m. EDS’ open offer will also be applicable to Barings Private Equity Partners (34.90% stake), the management (8.6% stake) and the remaining shareholders.

The price that EDS is paying — Rs 204.5 per share — represents an approximate 30% premium to the 26-week average price of MphasiS, according to EDS. MphasiS shares rose 3.6% to Rs 215.80. They have climbed 7.93% over the past week and 20.76% in the past month.

The rationale behind MphasiS’ acquisition is that EDS wants to ramp up its financial services practice to compete with IBM Global Services.

Monday, April 03, 2006

According to a study on Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) segment conducted by FAO Research, there has been a 40 percent increase in the number of FAO contracts signed in 2005, as compared with 2004. Further, by the end 2006, an additional 60 percent growth is expected in the number of FAO contracts signed, as compared to 2005. The report reveals that 67 long-term, multi-process FAO agreements have been signed in the past two years, with 39 of them in 2005 and 28 in 2004. Accenture and Capgemini have acquired a majority of the new contracts. Other major providers mentioned in the report are IBM, Progeon, ACS, Genpact, Xansa, EDS, HP, EXL Service, and WNS. The study includes contracts, which are worth above USD 50 million with terms ranging from three to ten years.