The banking crisis clearly meant that the banking industry needed to change. However, those changes have not yet been realized. Prior to the crisis banks were focused on selling new products (e.g., structured products) into mature markets. From 2008 to 2013, banks shifted focus to focus on emerging markets to sell existing services to emerging middle classes. Since 2013, banks have been consolidat[...]

NelsonHall recently spoke with management from Virtual Operations, a privately held Dallas, TX-based provider of consulting, implementation and technical services around robotic process automation (RPA).  The company was founded in 2012 by Dan Hudson and Matt Smith who had previously worked together at OnTarget Partners and other ventures.  We asked them about the growth that they a[...]

Per NelsonHall’s HR Outsourcing Confidence Index (HROCI), around one third of HRO contracts signed in Q4 2013 were for services in multiple countries. There were multi-country deal signings across all HRO service lines, the highest number being in RPO and payroll. RPO In 2013 nearly one third of all deal signings were multi-country, up from a quarter in 2010. M[...]

NelsonHall recently attended Call Center Week in Las Vegas. 2014 was the 15th year of this event, which had 1,800 attendees and 120 booths. It’s hot in Las Vegas in June - and the event covered some hot topics! Using Analytics to Improve CSAT I participated in two well attended sessions on analytics, which took different approaches to the same topic. The session sponsored [...]

Yesterday, Infosys ended a period of speculation and announced it had appointed its next CEO and MD, Dr. Vishal Sikka, who had resigned early last month from SAP, where he was a former board member.  Dr. Sikka’s selection as Infosys' next CEO had been touted by the Indian press soon after the news of the resignation of BG Srinivas, who many had felt had been one of the two top [...]

Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Google+, the list goes on . . .  the need for both B2C and B2B enterprises to establish and foster a social presence has evolved from a nice to have to an essential capability . . . yaaawn! We’ve heard this so many times that we are at risk of ignoring it, like irritating boy band lyrics. But unlike the boy band lyrics, there is some truth to the message. [...]

Sopra and CS Communication & Systèmes, a French IT services vendor, have announced a multi-tiered agreement: CS is to proceed to a €12m convertible bond issuance (maturity 5 years, conversion price per share: €3.6; interest rate: 4%; delivery: July 2014). As part of this issuance, Sopra agreed with DUNA & Cie, th[...]

Bloomberg reports that Sprint and T-Mobile U.S.A. are close to a merger whereby Sprint would acquire T-Mobile U.S. for $40 a share (up 17% from the current $34), valuing the company to $31bn. Deutsche Telekom (DTAG), which holds a 67% stake in T-Mobile U.S.A., would receive 27.5% in cash, 27.5% in Sprint stock and retain a 12% stake in T-Mobile U.S.A. T-Mobile U.S.A. had 2013 revenues of $24.4b[...]

TrueBlue announced on Monday it is to acquire U.S. based RPO and MSP provider SeatonCorp. TrueBlue is a specialist staffing organization that supports staffing and also provides onsite management services which will complement the RPO, MSP services of SeatonCorp. The SeatonCorp business beng acquired includes its:  RPO businesses: PeopleScout (U.S based)&nb[...]

NelsonHall recently attended CGI’s global analyst event in London. The key messages in CEO Michael E Roach’s keynote were the success with which CGI is executing on its "Buy and Build" profitable growth strategy and that the expected benefits of the merger are now becoming more visible. At the same event last year, CGI indicated some of the measures it was applying to impr[...]

IBM announced today a new portfolio of cloud-based offerings called IBM Cloud Business Solutions. Now the last three words don’t in themselves give away too much as to exactly what is on offer - but IBM is taking assets from across IBM Group, including consulting services from GBS, pre-built assets from IBM Research, IBM software, advanced analytics, and cloud infrastructure delivered v[...]

Tech Mahindra Testing Services (TMTS) recently provided insights on the work it is doing to expand automation outside of test execution to newer areas. Part of the company’s rationale in increasing the level of automation is based on statistics showing testing teams suffer testing cycle delays regularly, representing 31% to 69% of their testing time. Testing delay result from a variety of[...]

Atos is to acquire France-headquartered technology vendor Bull for €620m in an all cash transaction. Atos offers €4.9 per Bull share, a premium of 22% over May 23’s closure price of €4.01. The offer is conditional on Atos receiving 50% and 1 shares. The largest shareholders of Bull, Crescendo Industries and Pothar Investments, which own a 24.2% stake in Bull, ha[...]

NelsonHall recently attended a NIIT analyst and advisor event in London. If we compare NIIT’s recent topline performance with some other IT services providers who report in Rupees, its revenue growth in FY 2014 of 14%  (to Rs. 23,050m, or just below $400m)  is on a par with Wipro (16%) and Hexaware (17%: of a similar size to NIIT, with Rs. 22,853m revenue in CY 2013), and far ou[...]

Teleperformance has had an impressive quarter that might have resulted in 9.1% growth if it wasn't for the extremely unfavorable exchange rate fluctuations which resulted in an overall negative impact of €32.7m ($44.2m). Despite this Teleperformance achieved 3% y/y revenue growth in the quarter to €610m. Growth in the English-speaking market & Asia-Pacific SBU w[...]

NelsonHall recently attended a Genpact analyst forum in Boston, where we were keen to learn more about the changes in its strategy that Genpact announced in February to effect a major transformation of its business (see our blog “Genpact: Slow Progress on Transformation Strategy in 2013 - Unveils Next Phase of Plan: http://research.nelson-hall.com/blog/?avpage-views=blog&type=post&po[...]

IGATE held its analyst conference in NYC.  The key message was the company is making initial steps down a new path, one that is directionally the same as before, but with a stronger focus on fewer initiatives. IGATE is increasing its investments in developing IP to support its positioning of offering integrated IT/Operations (ITOPs) services within outsourcing engagements to deliver[...]

Capgemini held its 2014 investor and analyst day this week. For the first time since the beginning of the 2008-2013 crisis, the company has talked about organic growth, a significant development on its focus in recent years on margin improvement. Capgemini’s guidance for 2014 is organic revenue growth of 2% to 4%. The company has now shared a mid-term target of 5% to 7% organic growth. This [...]

Convergys closed the acquisition of Stream on March 3, 2014. Its Q1 2014 reported results include contributions from Stream for the month of March. Revenue wsas $606m, up 23% y/y. Excluding the four week contribution of ~$86m from Stream, revenue was u- 5% y/y EBIT was $22m, an EBIT margin of 3.6%, down 376 bps y/y End of Q1 2014, combined footprint of contact cent[...]

Cielo is Pinstripe & Ochre House's new brand, launched last week at its Talent Rising client forum and analyst day. The rebrand has been expected since the merger six months ago of Pinstripe and Ochre House. From its key offerings of RPO, search and talent consulting services, the event focused on how to engage the wider business in the talent discussion as well as how servi[...]