Demand for learning services has been the lowest of all the HR outsourcing services over the last few years. But while the market has been in a lull, several suppliers have taken the time to revamp their learning services businesses in one of two ways. The first approach is about honing learning offerings around one specific learning function. Sometimes this is about refining one func[...]

Sopra Steria has announced its financial results for 2014, focusing on its profitability performance (revenues were previously published in February). Our key takeaways from the announcement are discussed here. U.K. Will Continue to Outperform Other Sopra Steria Geographies in 2015 Sopra Steria U.K. had phenomenal growth in 2014 (+18.2% organically) to ~€859m. Profitability was high (ad[...]

By Vicki Jenkins and Mike Cook A year ago Convergys acquired fellow contact center vendor Stream, making it the second largest CMS BPS provider by revenue behind Teleperformance. NelsonHall CMS analysts Vicki Jenkins and Mike Cook caught up with key members of Convergys’ leadership team on the anniversary of the acquisition to discuss how the new organization is shaping up. The importa[...]

Banks have been struggling to adapt to changing, expensive regulations, and 2015 and 2016 will see further implementation requirements requiring large investments to achieve compliance. Here is a review of some of the more important ones and a look at the implications for bank operations strategy. Key regulations taking effect over the coming months are: EMV (Chip-based payment cards) for[...]

NelsonHall has recently completed a series of visits in India, addressing a number of topics including software testing, application management and digital transformation services. NelsonHall met with software testing pure-play, Cigniti Technologies, now the largest of all India-based testing pure plays. The company has a headcount of 1,600, ahead of Maveric Systems (~1,200) and QA Infotech (~8[...]

Last week I attended NIIT’s annual international customer conference, Confluence 2015, which was themed ‘Learning Transformation: The View Is Worth The Climb’. Alongside sessions on best practice and how NIIT are supporting transformation in learning, ~10 client companies described their transformation journey. Here are the key take-aways from the event, with NelsonHall’s p[...]

Ceridian’s recent analyst day in San Francisco was focused on Dayforce HCM, its proprietary HR cloud offering. The company shared news of Dayforce client wins, new service offerings, technology developments, and its global expansion plans. In 2014 Ceridian was focused on HR product development, and 2015 sees the company launch Dayforce in the U.K. Ceridian is looking to further globalize [...]

The Twittersphere has been buzzing recently with opinions on the compliance of global Human Capital Management (HCM) technologies, with commentators debating the relative merits of different approaches, and discussing key topics such as localization gaps and the breadth of language support. Vendors are making moves to improve their HCM delivery to address these and other issues, and in 2015 the[...]

At Cognizant’s European analyst event in Berlin, the topic of digital transformation and in particular its Horizon 3 services dominated discussions. Horizon 3 services now represent a NelsonHall estimated 10% of revenues (~$1.0bn in 2014). Horizon 3 includes new services such as digital services as well as new business models and new sectors/new geographies. Digital Transformation Cogn[...]

In Capgemini’s recent North America analyst conference, the company provided a compelling description of how its approach in North America has developed recently, together with examples of how this has succeeded, and shared its vision and a roadmap for the next few years. Confidence about prospects for 2015 is high. Capgemini’s 2014 revenues in North America were €2,230m, a gro[...]

What a difference a year makes for EXL. It entered 2014 under the cloud of the loss of two contracts, including the unfortunate termination Travelers (which had accounted for nearly 10% of total revenues in 2013) because of inappropriate behavior by an employee. So it started the year facing significant revenue headwinds. A year later, EXL delivered full year 2014 revenues that beat revise[...]

HP recently announced a major (multi-billon) 10-year IT infrastructure management services contract with Deutsche Bank’s wholesale banking division (which accounts for around 50% of the DB Group revenues). HP Enterprise Services (HP ES) will deploy HP Helion, providing data center services on-demand including storage, platform and hosting – activities formerly essentially done in-ho[...]

STARTEK has announced results for Q4 2014 and full year 2014. Q4 2014 Revenues were $64.2m, up 1.2% y/y LBIT was $1.5m, a negative margin of 2.4%, down 98 bps y/y. Full year 2014: Revenues were $250.1m, up 8.1% LBIT was $4.9m, a negative margin of 2%, up 72 bps. Q4 revenue contribution from largest clients was: T-Mobile: 30.6% AT&T: 19.6% Comcast 15.7%. [...]

Capgemini’s CEO Paul Hermelin describes himself as “very encouraged” by 2014 results; the group has exceeded guidance for: Topline growth: guided on 2-4% organic, delivered 3.4%, accelerating to 5.5% in Q4 Net margin, guided on 0.3 to 0.5 pts improvement, delivered 0.7 pts to 9.2%. Capgemini should read 10% margin by early 2016 Organic FCF: guided at above €55[...]

Learning outsourcing contracts continue to be driven by client needs to reduce their administrative burden and focus on their corporation’s strategic objectives. And talent development is high amongst client business priorities where HR can make a significant impact, being a leading driver for clients outsourcing their learning services. NelsonHall’s most recent learning BPO (L[...]

Barely two months into the year and there has been lots of activity across the benefits administration market, including new contracts, contract expansions, and M&A activity.  Contracts have come out of the U.S. and Europe, including the U.K. and the Netherlands. U.S. activity has come from both the private and public sectors, with deals ranging from as few as 800 employees to mor[...]

Worldline, which IPOd in May 2014, has announced results for full year 2014 and has presented its views on the payments market, its business roadmap, and its successes to date. The results, below, are subject to adjustment when Worldline files its financial reporting statements in late March: Revenues were €1,149m, up 2.8% y/y  Operating margin be[...]

Infosys is to acquire Panaya, a vendor of automation technology for enterprise software management, for $200m in cash. Panaya is a privately held company backed by hi-tech VC firms including Benchmark Capital, HPV and Battery. The transaction is expected to close before March 31. Founded in 2005, and formerly known as ChangeSoft Technologies, Panaya is based in Ra’anana, Israel and h[...]

Germany’s fiscal success story presents an interesting value proposition for the local customer management services (CMS) BPO market. Real GDP in Germany grew by 1.5% in 2014 and current forecasts indicate that, driven by a strong labor force, high consumption and favorable energy prices, Germany should be able to maintain this level of growth through 2015 and accelerate to around the 2.0% m[...]

Accenture Federal Services (AFS) is to acquire Agilex Technologies, a privately-held provider of digital solutions for the U.S. federal government based in Chantilly, VA. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.  The acquisition will enhance Accenture’s digital capabilities in analytics, cloud and mobility for federal agencies. It also will add agile delivery expertise. Agilex br[...]