The securities industry is moving towards shorter settlement cycles to reduce risk and increase efficiency. The last reduction in settlement windows in the U.S. was in September 2017 when settlements moved from T+3 (three-day settlement) to T+2. In February 2023, the U.S. SEC announced that all companies trading securities on U.S. exchanges needed to move to T+1 settlement by May 28,[...]

  The lending business is highly cyclical due to its sensitivity to interest rates, economic cycles, and capital availability to fund loans. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, these factors are currently driving down mortgage originations, which have fallen 60% y/y in the U.S. in Q4 2022. The decline in originations pressuring the margins of this high-cost activity is th[...]

  In the last week of March, Teleperformance made two significant announcements. The first was the planned acquisition of 100% of Majorel shares for a total consideration of €3bn, including €1bn of Teleperformance shares in exchange. The transaction will create a company with $12bn in annual revenue (end of 2023 estimate). The second statement came during the Q1 results, wher[...]

  Travel and hospitality are among the fastest-growing CX services sectors in 2023, with the market recovering to pre-pandemic levels. However, while vendors and clients are trying to adapt to the increased demand, they face higher costs, changing customer requirements, and more IROPs. In February, Conduent was awarded a CX services contract by Virgin Atlantic to manage rebookings a[...]

  In the financial services industry, there was an initial expectation that demand for intelligent automation (IA) would fall off as clients changed platforms and moved to a microservices architecture. Instead, the application of IA in financial services has grown rapidly. The initial evidence from my current study shows that despite challenges deploying the technology effectively, the[...]

  NelsonHall recently completed a market assessment and forecast report on Transforming Financial Services with Cloud, SaaS, and BPaaS Services. It reveals that the financial services industry is responding to the industrialization of cloud services from hyperscalers and IT services vendors by transforming its platforms to microservices architectures and then moving them to the cloud. [...]

  We recently talked to Qualitest about its latest acquisition, Q Analysts, its sixth since 2019. Qualitest has been on an accelerated transformation journey under the ownership of PE BridgePoint. Q Analysts further strengthens Qualitest’s capabilities in next-gen digital QA, with expertise in testing AI-based devices such as AR/VR/MR headsets and generating data for training AI [...]

  This week, Concentrix announced the planned acquisition of Webhelp in the largest CX services deal yet. The total transaction value for Concentrix is $4.8bn in the form of cash, stock, and a seller note for 100% of Webhelp. Upon closing the deal by the end of the year, Concentrix shareholders will own ~78% of the combined company, with Webhelp shareholders ~22%. Number 1 CX servic[...]

  The week of March 13, the 2023 ADP Meeting of the Minds (MOTM) Conference saw more than 3,000 participants descend upon downtown Atlanta. ADP leaders, guest speakers, and clients shared data and insights on industry trends, economic forecasts, and the overall health and direction of the human capital industry. At a high level, six economic trends are reshaping the global labor mar[...]

  NelsonHall recently completed an in-depth analysis of cognitive & self-healing IT infrastructure management services, researching the capabilities of leading IT services vendors and the requirements of their clients. This blog looks at the investments vendors need to make to meet client demand, and how the market will evolve over the next 12 to 18 months. While there is an inc[...]

  In 2022, timely digital learning became the accepted norm, along with personalized learning using delivery methods based on the latest advances in learning tech and services. Before the pandemic, learning was a target for wholesale budget cuts during a time of economic uncertainty. With ongoing talent and skills shortages, 2023 will likely see some organizations de-prioritize lear[...]

  Revenue generation services are the fastest growing LOBs within CX outsourcing at over 9% CAAGR through 2026 globally (NelsonHall forecast). While the focus of most new revenue generation programs is on the consumer space, enterprise and mid-market client onboarding, sales, and retention are also becoming highly promising areas and the next growth engine for the leading CX services p[...]

  The last three years has been a period of rapid transformation for Talent Acquisition (TA), culminating in a new era of work. And in 2023, organizations face challenges such as a shrinking global workforce, skills shortages, and new workforce/workplace expectations. Alongside, broader business survival challenges (navigating an economic recession, availability of resources/supplies, [...]

  A New Focused Division  BT has announced the merger of its two ICT services units, Global and Enterprise, into a new division, BT Business. The new division will have pro-forma revenues of £8.5bn and an EBITDA of £2bn. The current CEO of Global will lead BT Business. With this move, BT wants to unify its B2B market and focus its capabilities on connectivity, u[...]

  We recently talked to Tata Elxsi, the engineering and R&D services vendor headquartered in Bangalore, India. We discussed where the adoption of AR/VR is currently among enterprises, how the metaverse differs from AR/VR, and which B2B use cases enterprises will prefer in the short to medium term. The current demand for virtual reality (VR) is primarily driven by the gaming indu[...]

  We recently talked to Cognizant about its Salesforce Marketing Cloud capabilities. Within the Salesforce portfolio, Marketing Cloud, along with Commerce Cloud, is a high-potential product that will eventually outgrow the more mature Sales and Service Clouds. More than any other Salesforce product, Marketing Cloud has grown through M&A, notably ExactTarget (that came with B2B m[...]

  Process discovery and mining platforms, which examine organizations’ process data as part of transformation initiatives, have become an increasingly critical part of process automation and reengineering journeys. Here I look at what to expect in the process discovery and mining space in 2023 and beyond. Continuous Monitoring Traditionally we have seen COEs use process [...]

  As we end a relatively successful and dynamic 2022 for CX services, here’s a look at some developments we expect in the new year. CX services market is slowing down The CX services market had a strong CY 2022, with most top 10 players registering high single-digit organic growth in Q3. The macroeconomic headwinds already started to impact the second half of 2022, with inc[...]

  We recently attended Infosys’ EMEA CONFLUENCE flagship client event and found the company quietly bullish about recent and projected performance in the region. Europe remains a growth market for Infosys Salil Parekh made it clear some years ago that he wanted to grow Infosys’ business in Europe, and the results are there to see. Europe now accounts for [...]

  Software testing continues to be an industry of contrasts: the primary activity, functional testing, remains a human-intensive activity, despite the accelerated adoption of continuous testing (i.e., bringing functional automation as part of DevOps). But testing has also grown in a highly specialized set of activities, earning the name of Quality Engineering (QE), ranging from supp[...]