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[...]

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[...]

Last week, U.K. law firm Optima Legal and its subsidiary Cost Advocates were granted an Alternative Business Structure (‘ABS’) license by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (‘SRA’), marking the entrance of BPO services provider Capita into the legal market. The acquisition of Optima by Capita is imminent. It will bring in new capabilities in reserved activities (propert[...]

Blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin – we know about our physical make up... what about our digital make up? What does our Code Halo say about us? And more importantly – who does it say it to? How is this “changing the rules”? Yesterday, Cognizant launched its book: Code Halos, which looks at the way in which our digital composition is changing the way industries operate. T[...]

Genpact’s acquisition of Pharmalink expands its capability to offer an increasingly important range of life sciences regulatory services, especially for the pharmaceutical majors. Pharmalink, a small but global player in this niche space, has established important relationships with several of the largest pharmaceutical companies since its inception around 15 years ago.&n[...]

Last week, MphasiS announced the launch of its next generation Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRS) service, in partnership with legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider Mindcrest, to its North American BFSI client base. Services within the scope of the offering include: Contract remediation Document review Consent order fulfillment Corporate compliance research. MphasiS will [...]

Last week, MphasiS announced the launch of its next generation Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRS) service, in partnership with legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider Mindcrest, to its North American BFSI client base. Services within the scope of the offering include: Contract remediation Document review Consent order fulfillment Corporate compliance research. MphasiS will [...]

Serco announced its 2013 results this week including: Revenue £4,288.1m up +5.6%, up +6.7% at constant currency (CC) Operating profit was £143.8m, a margin of 3.4%, down 330 bps The decline in profits was anticipated with a warning given by the company to this effect only a few weeks ago. In this period, Serco reported a net exceptional charge of £90.5m, reflecting p[...]

The new deal between Hartlepool Council and Northgate Public Services (PS) shows how old-style local authority partnership contracts can evolve. This, is a low risk deal for Hartlepool Council, unlike other local authority partnerships of yester-year that failed to deliver.  For a start, Northgate has provided the Council’s IT services since 2001 and it has already established a presenc[...]

Webhelp is to acquire SNT, a Netherlands based CMS vendor. SNT has 3,500 agents across eight sites in Europe with revenues of 77m. The combined company will be called Webhelp SNT following the acquisition which is to be completed in twelve months.  This acquisition will give Webhelp a significant Dutch presence and will bolster its global agent headcount to ~21,500, and increase its a[...]

Firstsource has just announced its strongest quarter since FY 2013. Revenue was up 12.1% y/y to Rs. 7,998m (~$128m) and margins increased 210 bps y/y to 9.3%. The margin improvement is due in part to Firstsource’s consolidation of unprofitable accounts in both its customer management business and in domestic accounts in India and Sri Lanka. Telecoms and media, Firstsource&r[...]

Serco has updated its guidance for 2013 and 2014 following its clearance by the U.K. government to bid for new contracts.  Serco expects a mid-single digit percentage organic decline on 2013 revenue due to: Lower levels of incremental work won across the group to date Attrition from contracts lost such as electronic monitoring Volume reductions in its Australian immigration detent[...]

Earlier this month Capita confirmed that it had won back the London congestion charging contract from IBM. The contract with TfL is for £145m for five years starting from November 2015, with an additional five-year extension option. The scope of the new contract has expanded to include traffic enforcement notice processing for penalty charge notices for bus lane and yellow box junc[...]

Capita acquired Cedar HR back in September 2011 for £15m to bring new market opportunities to the group. At the time there was much talk of police turning to technology and outsourcing for efficiency but a period of indecision preceded and followed the first-ever election of police and crime commissioners in November 2012. Against this backdrop, the Cedar seed has slowly geminated and starte[...]

Work at home agent (WAHA) CMS BPO specialist Arise Virtual Solutions announced this week it is hiring 6,500 WAHAs (who will be equivalent to 3,250 FTEs) across Arizona, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan and Virginia. This marks a turnaround for Arise after what was a difficult 2013 marked by loss of volume in some key contracts and delays in new signings. These hires will represent a 26% increase[...]

Serco has announced a partnership agreement with Bromley Healthcare, an employee-owned social enterprise, to work together in the community healthcare market. Initially the partners will work together to improve quality of community healthcare in Suffolk, with Bromley Healthcare acting in an advisory capacity and supporting clinical leaders. In the long term, they intend to join forces to bid f[...]

Capita has been awarded a £145m contract by Transport for London (TfL) to operate the congestion charging, low emission zone and traffic enforcement notice processing schemes. The contract is for five years starting from November 2015 with an option to extend for a further five years. Services to be provided include: Operating the traffic congestion scheme Operating the low[...]

NelsonHall recently attended a briefing by the Cabinet Office Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) about the new Crown Commercial Service (CCS). This has replaced Government Procurement Service (GPS) and is to become the most comprehensive government procurement services provider in Europe. It is to address the market in a more coherent fashion by organizing into domains and segments but operating as[...]

Convergys is to acquire Stream Global Services for $820m.  With anticipated combined CY 2013 revenues of ~$3bn (Stream ~$1bn, Convergys ~$2.045bn). Convergys will this year become the second largest CMS BPO pure-play by revenue globally, close to Teleperformance (expected CY 2013 revenues of $3.26bn). The purchase price of $820m represents ~80% of Stream’s annual revenues but an impr[...]

Customer management services (CMS) is no longer the red-headed step-child of the BPO world.  In spite of the exit from this area of IBM, most CMS pureplays are currently achieving improving margins and revenue growth. With multi-channel delivery proving crucial in winning new contracts, and the increasing importance of big data and analytics in the value proposition, 2014 is set to be an extr[...]