One recurring theme in recent conversations with CIOs has been their increasing interest in DevOps and their recognition of the importance of having the right culture. In fact, three C words: Culture, Collaboration, Communication. The general feeling is that if Agile is difficult, distributed Agile is challenging – and DevOps requires organizational rethinking. But, they agree[...]

On October 6th, NelsonHall held its quarterly IT outsourcing (ITO) Index webcast, presented by Dominique Raviart, Research Director for IT Services research. In Q3 2015, ITO bookings were down 30% year-on-year overall. In North America, bookings declined by 60% y/y, while Europe was up 60% y/y. Over the Q1-Q3 2015 period, ITO bookings were down 30% y/y overall. North America was down [...]

CSC has announced it has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Australian IT services vendor UXC for AU$1.26 per share, a purchase price of ~AU$428m (~US$300m). The transaction is subject to completion of a five-week exclusive due diligence process. CSC expects it to be finalized by February 2016. UXC is one of Australia’s largest independent publicly-owned IT services vendo[...]

At CSS Corp’s analyst day and OneWorld client conference in Santa Rosa, California, the theme was “Let’s Simplify”. CEO Tiger Ramesh opened the analyst day with a story about his own digital experience travelling to the conference, including buying his airline ticket online, and piloting a hotel phone app he used to select his room and take restaurant recommendations. He us[...]

ADP recently held its seventh annual industry analyst event in NYC at its Innovation Lab in Chelsea, providing a current business update, news of recent developments, and insights on what’s to come.   Overall, there has been growth across ADP’s cloud-based platforms, including RUN, Workforce Now, Vantage HCM, and GlobalView HCM, with the total number of clients reaching ~5[...]

Three questions are commonly being aired these days about the delivery of IT services in support of digital transformation initiatives. Having heard each of these being raised several times, we thought it is a good time to put them through a bit of a reality check. First up for examination... Is “Fail Fast, Move On” the Right Approach to Digital Transformation Projects? The [...]

Though we’re only just into fall, the nature of activity in the Benefits Administration market in 2015 provides important pointers to key strategic focus areas in 2016. In the U.S., the emphasis will continue around Health & Welfare (H&W) services, stemming from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2015, tier two H&W specialists such as Businessolver and TASC launched ACA reporti[...]

HCL began its robotics program in late 2013. Since then HCL has invested ~$1.5m in robotics, (ToscanaBot Automation Framework), via its HCL ToscanaBot center of excellence, which currently employs a team of ~25 personnel and is planned to grow to 50+ personnel by 2016. HCL estimates that its robotics practice currently has an FTE impact of around 2,000 with this expected to grow to ~8,000 FTE impa[...]

Virtusa recently briefed NelsonHall on its Pegasystems application testing IP and service offering, and specifically the newly launched ADOPT testing framework, which illustrates the growing maturity of testing services offerings. Virtusa was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Westborough (Massachusetts) with large delivery facilities in India and Sri-Lanka. The company largely provides ap[...]

Last month Allegis Group announced it has combined GettingHired into its Allegis Global Solutions (AGS) business. GettingHired was acquired by Allegis Group in 2012, keeping its own brand, and is now being integrated into AGS’ talent offering, including RPO, in North America. GettingHired provides a talent pool made up of individuals with disabilities who are seeking to fill positions fro[...]

Tech Mahindra Testing Services recently briefed NelsonHall on several of its IP investments, specifically around DevOps, its Integrated Automation Framework (iAF), and its connectors for scriptless automation software products. Software testing remains a labor-intensive activity, and the main testing automation software products continue to be mostly used in test execution. IT services vendor I[...]

Minacs has a strong tradition of supporting the automotive industry: over six years ago, the sector made up ~70% of overall revenues, and it now stands at ~45% due to diversification across multiple sectors. Consequently, Minacs has a vision for supporting the connected car, aiming to deliver seamless CMS solutions for any wirelessly connected vehicle, over any network. Its clients are mainly orig[...]

NIIT Technologies recently shared insights regarding its push into digital services. This digital push adds to existing priorities, which include growth intentions in North America and Europe and a strong focus on its IT infrastructure services. Meanwhile, the company is maintaining its established focus on clients in three core verticals: transportation, insurance and BFS (which combined acc[...]

Along with its Q1 FY 2016 results today (see here) CSC has announced its intended acquisition of Fixnetix, a London-based provider of front-office managed trading solutions with 120 employees and offices in London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Tokyo. Founded in 2006, VC-backed Fixnetix provides and operates specialist trading infrastructure for ultra-low latency trading. It claims its iX-[...]

Last week, the US Department of Defense awarded a long-awaited multi-billion dollar contract to Leidos, Cerner and Accenture to provide and implement an off-the shelf EHR system across the Military Health System. The ID/IQ contract has a ceiling of just over $4.33bn. It has a two-year base with two three-year extension options, and a possible two-year award term, making a total period of up to ten[...]

Cognizant Q2 2015 results: Revenues were $3,085.1m, up 22.6% y/y, and up 25.5% in CC EBIT margin was 17.7%, down 171 bps y/y but up 50 bps sequentially Adjusted EBIT margin was 19.8%, down 122 bps y/y, but the same as in Q1 Non-GAAP operating margin, which excludes stock-based compensation expense and acquisition related expenses, was 20.2%, slightly above the target range of 19% to 20[...]

Over the last few years, ADP has ramped up its capabilities beyond payroll to focus on other areas of HR, including benefits administration and RPO, making it well-equipped to handle the main HR functions. This is important because many organizations, from SMEs to large companies, are looking to minimize the number of suppliers they deal with – though only if quality of service is not c[...]

CGI's Q3 FY 15 results included: Revenues of CDN$2.56bn, down 3.5% y/y in CC and flat sequentially Adjusted EBIT margin of 14.5%, up 167 bps y/y Full results are available here. The y/y CC revenue decline (the same as in Q2) is attributed to the wind down of U.S. government healthcare projects, continued delays in U.S. federal procurement, and the slowdown in U.K. government sp[...]

I recently had the opportunity to meet with the Alorica executive team for an update on the integration of its recent acquisition, West Corporation’s Agent Services business. In March 2015, privately held Alorica acquired West’s Agent Services business for $275m in cash. In 2014, the Agent Services business generated ~$580m in revenue. Alorica anticipates $1.2bn in combined revenue [...]

The recent merger of Willis Group and Towers Watson has created a global advisory and brokerage firm valued at $18bn. The deal was met with raised eyebrows by several financial analysts, who argued that Towers Watson shareholders were being short-changed in a deal with significant strategic risks, all for the benefit of revenue synergies and the tax savings that will result from moving its tax hea[...]