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[...]

In early December, Norfolk County Council and HP Enterprise Services announced a £26m, five-year contract to develop a cloud-based information hub for service integration and multi-agency collaboration in Norfolk. The ambitions go beyond the information hub with NCC having seen the light of good information management for achieving lasting operational efficiencies in the face of continuing b[...]

Latin America has become an increasingly popular destination for the customer management services (CMS) BPO industry in recent years, outperforming the global CMS market. Will this continue? NelsonHall expects the global CMS BPO market to grow at 3.7% CAAGR through to 2016 with Latin America growing at more than twice that. So what is driving that growth? Much of the growth from this region is [...]

As 2013 comes to a close, it’s time to recap on what happened in HR BPO this year. It has been a good year for HRO with overall contract activity up ~37% on 2012.  But, it was a year of two halves: H1 activity was down 16% y/y, but the market really picked up in H2, when announced contract activity nearly doubled as benefits administration vendors announced health exchange contract s[...]

Mouchel has announced results for FY 2013, for the period ending 30 September 2013:     Revenue was £555.3m       EBIT was £28.1m, a margin of 5.1%. Comparisons with the prior year were not provided as the company in its present from came into being in August 2012. For the new company, for the five weeks to the end of 2012 FY, revenue was[...]

Maximus has announced results for FY 2013, the year ending September 30, 2013. Revenue was $1,331m, up 26.8% as stated. Operating income was $188.2m, a margin of 14.1%, up 200 bps. FY 2013 revenue (and growth) by segment was: Health Services $862.9m (+28.6%) Human Services $468.4m (+23.6%). FY 2013 operating income and margin by segment was: Health Se[...]

The U.K. Cabinet Office recently briefed NelsonHall about progress with its shared services strategy. Shared services has been a recurring theme in the U.K. public sector’s drive for efficiency for many years. It has continued to rise in importance as a lever for cost savings in the public sector, driven first by the Gershon Review of 2004 and most recently, when the current government first[...]

NelsonHall recently had a briefing with Axelos, the Capita and Cabinet Office JV that has been set up to commercialize the Government’s Best Practice Methodologies portfolio. Axelos was incorporated in July 2013, 51% owned by Capita, 49% by the Cabinet Office but governed by a separate board from the parent organizations. The company will be fully operational from January 1, 2014. Axelos [...]

Capita IT Services recently briefed NelsonHall about its newly unveiled horizontal cloud services. Capita Private Cloud is built on VCE Vblock Systems’ converged infrastructure with data storage provided in Capita’s two data centers in the U.K. Services include the usual utility computing, multi-tenanted, with virtual servers dedicated to clients. Capita will migrate its existing opera[...]

Aon Hewitt has come a long way since the merger of the two companies in 2010.  2012 revenues were $3.9bn, accounting for a little more than one-third of Aon plc’s total revenue. Across its HR Solutions business, which includes both consulting and outsourcing, Aon Hewitt has ~30,000 employees, ~20,000 clients, and operates in ~90 countries. Organizationally, the company is divided int[...]

Sitel has restructured its sales team, in August last year it centralized its sales team and hired a head of commercial activity who is involved in all major contracts. At the moment Sitel has 83 account managers excluding a five person sales team in the U.K. whose remit is to fill 1-10 seat excess capacity in centers. Revenue growth from new business last year was offset to an extent by Sitel&rsq[...]

NelsonHall recently attended IBM SmartCloud Analyst Day in London during which IBM highlighted the most recent developments in its cloud strategy against the backdrop of its acquisition of SoftLayer, a significant player in the cloud space. SoftLayer offerings include on-demand dedicated servers and virtual cloud servers, offered in public and private models. Since the acquisition com[...]

Earlier this week, Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services (IS&GS) acquired Amor Group. Headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, Amor has ~540 staff and offers products and services, largely, to education, energy and transport sectors in the U.K. and internationally in North America and the Middle East. Its IP includes products for oil and gas assets protection, and management of [...]

NGA's performance is in keeping with the HRO market which has been buoyant in recent months. The division's revenue will have been boosted by the Convergys acquisition as well as wining new contracts (e.g. Aer Lingus) and successful renewals (e.g. Fifth Third Bank). The restructuring of NPS division last year, to focus more on services, combined with a number of contracts starting in 20[...]

Brent Council’s new hologram receptionist got a mixed reception from pundits last week. Love her or hate her, Shanice, the hologram, is here to save costs while improving sign posting for visitors to the council. The council estimates cost savings of >£17k a year. In another recent development, in July 2013 Capita was awarded a customer contact management services contract extens[...]

Capita's selection as a preferred supplier for a £175m, 12-year deal by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to provide Smart Meter Infrastructure Management came as a surprise. "Smart metering will be the biggest step change in the retail energy sector since the industry was privatized, more than 25 years ago” Capita’s chief executive, commented Pau[...]

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Last week, I zeroed in on specific market activity within the payroll, learning and RPO service lines. Today, I am taking a closer look at H1 2013 activity in benefits administration and MPHRO and considering what we should expect in H2 2013 based on NelsonHall’s recent HRO Confidence Index. Benefits Administration Contract signings aside, t[...]

Now that H1 2013 is complete, it is time to recap on highlights and trends in the HRO world. Overall Activity There was a healthy number of new contracts awarded across all HRO service lines in H1 2013. There was, however, an increase in organizations changing their existing service provider, particularly within benefits administration and RPO. For the last few years, attention [...]

Civica has been awarded a £10.8m contract by Lambeth Council for ICT managed services for schools in the Lambeth Learning Futures organization. The contract is for eight years. Services to be provided include: Transferring services from the incumbent provider Hosting core ICT services in Civica’s cloud Implementing a virtual desktop infrastructure at each school [...]