Reflecting slightly improved macro-economic conditions, 2015 was an active year for M&A activity in the IT services industry. The largest acquisition - for some years - was that of IGATE by Capgemini. And there was a large number of small to mid-sized transactions. When analyzing this active M&A activity, several findings are striking: In spite of all the intensive discu[...]

This is the second of three articles examining M&A activity in IT services during 2015. Last time we looked at how M&A activity was being driven by $10bn to $15bn vendors. This time we take a look at M&A around newer service offerings and digital transformation. The firms that are acquiring capabilities in digital services are vendors in good financial health that have mostly alre[...]

It is three years since Tech Mahindra finalized its merger with Satyam, a challenging journey of 18 months, to diversify its client base from BT (29% of revenues in Q3 FY 2013), the telecom services overall and from Europe (its then largest vertical by far, representing 46% of revenues). At the Tech Mahindra indicated several ambitious targets for CY 2015: Reaching $5bn in annual revenues by[...]

I recently presented at the CCA’s annual Convention in Glasgow, Scotland. One of the key themes was ‘The Digital Game’, with sessions examining how organizations are responding to demand for digital customer services as part of the ongoing transition from call to contact centers. The future of customer engagement was illustrated using examples of newer channel usage, including vi[...]

In NelsonHall’s 2015 RPO Market Analysis report, innovation was identified as a key vendor selection criterion. RPO clients are increasingly seeking vendors who will continually introduce new ideas and recommend new services, with continuous process improvement. However, in our parallel RPO NEAT vendor evaluation study, when we interviewed clients of 15 leading RPO vendors, ‘innovat[...]

Since the first customer and marketing databases in the 80s, to the fully-fledged CRM platforms of the 90s, to the cloud-based CRMs of the 00s and the Social CRM of the 2010s, CRM platforms have had the same goal and challenge – to successfully match customers with companies. With the proliferation of more channels, and changing customer expectations for effortless and real-time interaction,[...]

Over the last few years, social media has gradually achieved a small, but highly significant place within customer care and sales channels. CMS providers jumped to provide solutions as early as 2010-2011, but not until recently have these solutions reached a maturity level that has enabled them to go beyond simple monitoring of comments, posts and tweets. Aegis developed its proprietary social [...]

Workday’s latest announcement of its expanded partnership with ADP focuses on a combination of technology and service; MNCs on Workday can now include ADP’s global payroll offering within one user experience. Through the partnership: MNCs can use ADP’s global payroll functionality from within Workday's user interface in one process for managing their glob[...]

In my previous blog on automation in BPO, I argued that, despite all the hype, the current implementation of robotics process automation (RPA) is little more than a labor arbitrage play, enabling the business to run with increased efficiency using existing technology and offshoring frameworks. So where does automation in BPO go from here? RPA is essentially execution of repeatable, rule-based t[...]

In this, the third and final blog in this series on BPO automation, I take a look at where the BPO market currently stands and where it’s going next. Well, the use of workflow and platforms to surround and supplement the client’s core systems has been well-established for a period of years. BPO has worked relatively well in these environments. The vendors largely have process models[...]

There is currently a huge amount of hype around use of automation in BPO, and many commentators seem to forget that the early BPO contracts were often driven by organizations with inadequate/creaking legacy IT systems using BPO as an enabler to combine replacement of legacy systems with an operations and process improvement layer. These early transformations were also frequently seen by both cl[...]

In Q2 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, changing the definition of who can be considered a fiduciary to a retirement account or plan. The rule, which is currently in a comment period and should be implemented by Q2 2016, extends fiduciary responsibility to advisors, many of whom are currently under a less strict suitability standard of care. The U.S. govern[...]

The future of contact centers is in automation, self-learning AI, support for IoT, and engaging customers and agents at a new level. These were the major themes at the fourth annual Customer Engagement Summit in London on November 26th. Close to 700 delegates and 60 speakers met to compare notes and listen to success stories in robotics implementations, results driven by analytics, and connecting [...]

As the year winds down, it’s a good time to reflect on the significant activities in the HRO market in 2015 and consider the likely shape of things to come in 2016. Overall, HRO contract activity is up ~11% y/y in 2015.  Renewals and contract extensions account for 25% of that activity, vendor changes ~20%, and new deals 55%. Regional and global multi-country contracts continued[...]

NelsonHall recently attended the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) “Empowering the Customer to Win in the Digital Age” event hosted by HPE BPS. The theme was strongly around digital and empowering organizations to own the (increasingly digital) interface between customers, suppliers, and employees. In support of this theme HPE is investing heavily in automation, both in its own platform[...]

Last week, Northgate Information Solutions, the holding company of NGA HR, announced that it has reached agreement with its shareholders and lenders regarding a new capital structure to reduce its debt and enable a faster path to growth. The new structure includes full debt-for-equity swap of the subordinated debt, and full pay down of existing senior debt (using the proceeds from the Northgate Pu[...]

Minutes away from London’s Covent Garden, housed in a five-storey converted banana warehouse, is Sutherland Customer Experience Labs. This is an independent creative agency with its own P&L, offering customer experience mapping, idea generation and solution testing to Sutherland Global Services. However, three quarters of its business comes from external clients: delivering design and cu[...]

Payments processor Worldline has agreed to acquire Equens for cash and stock in a multi-part transaction expected to close in Q2 2016, with both parties claiming this to be a transformational deal. Here we take a look at the details of the deal and assess the impact it will have on the European payments market. Criteria for success in payments processing The payment processing industry is a [...]

CSC has just laid out the financial targets of the standalone business which will retain the CSC moniker when the U.S federal company, CRSA, breaks off.  As well as CSC’s global commercial business, it includes non-U.S. public sector businesses (~$700m revenues in FY15). In its FY15 (ending March 31, 2015) this part of CSC achieved revenues of $8.1bn, and an adjusted operating margin[...]

Will CSC invest nearly $1.2bn in M&A in the space of a few months? Or will Capita progress with a bidding war? CSC has sent a letter to the Xchanging board outlining its interest in making a cash offer of 170p per share for Xchanging stock. This would constitute a premium of 6.3% over Capita’s October 14 offer of 160p per share. CSC’s offer is dependent on Xchanging not [...]