There are clear positives to this quarter’s results from Infosys, and its share price certainly picked up (is now the highest since March 2012), though it continues to look to address a number of challenges, some of which are company-specific issues. This is the third quarter of improved topline growth. Management has raised revenue guidance for full FY 2014 to growth of 11.5-12% (up from[...]

Accenture reported its Q1 FY 2014 results yesterday (for full details see http://research.nelson-hall.com/search/?avpage-views=article&searchid=8635&id=201593&fv=2). Although net revenues of $7.36bn were above prior guidance ($7.00-7.30bn, assuming a negative FX impact of 1%), CEO Nanterme referred to the quarter’s performance as being “in line with expectations&quo[...]

NelsonHall recently attended an event hosted by Capgemini Brazil. We were keen to find out about developments in the three and a half years since Capgemini acquired a 61% stake in CPM Braxis, at the time something of a scoop. The acquired capability provided Capgemini with a significant presence in the attractive domestic market of Brazil. But it was dilutive on margins, and management expected th[...]

NelsonHall recently visited the Capgemini BPO center in Campinas, Brazil, about 100 kilometers to the northwest of the city of São Paulo. Capgemini’s Campinas center is part of a network of BPO centers in Latin America, the others being in Guatemala City; Santiago, Chile; and, most recently, Blumenau, also in Brazil. We had had the privilege several years before to visit the Guatemala[...]

HP Enterprise Services (ES) has announced fiscal Q4 2013 results, for the period ending October 31, 2013: Revenues were $5,759m, down 9.3% y/y, and down 1% sequentially EBIT was $255m, a margin of 4.4% down 223 bps y/y. Fiscal Q4 2013 revenue (and y/y and sequential revenue growth) by service type was: Infrastructure technology outsourcing $3,563m (-9%, -3%) Application and bu[...]

Capita has announced the retirement of its CEO, Paul Pindar, with effect from February 28, 2014. Pindar will step down after 26 years with the company. Andy Parker, Capita's current Deputy Chief Executive and Joint COO, will succeed Paul as Chief Executive from March 1, 2014.  Dawn Marriott-Sims, currently Executive Director of Capita's Workplace Services division, will be appointed t[...]

Accenture has announced that in 2012 it was awarded a five-year application services contract by Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) to streamline Zurich’s global finance IT. Services being provided by Accenture Finance and Risk Services include development, implementation and management of SAP-based finance and BI applications that support Zurich operations in North America, Germany, Switzerlan[...]

This is Steria’s largest ever award: the press release refers to the contract being potentially worth over £1bn over 10 years (7 plus 3): with the foundation clients, the value is closer to £500m, depending on what additional business Steria brings in to the JV, its lifetime value could be worth much more than £1bn. The contract was signed last night: the conclusion, sin[...]

Accenture has announced its intention to acquire PCO Innovation, a consulting and systems integration group specializing in PLM software. PCO Innovation offers PLM strategy and process consultancy, application architecture, system implementation, data migration and application management. It specializes in PLM platforms including Dssault Systèmes, PTC and Siemens PLM. Today’s an[...]

Wipro published its Q2 FY 2014 results today: full details are available to NelsonHall database or Key Vendor Assessment program subscribers here http://research.nelson-hall.com/search/?avpage-views=article&searchid=3481&id=201189&fv=2. There are some clear positives in Wipro’s performance this quarter: Revenue just topped prior guidance ($1,620-$1,630m), [...]

HP recently provided an update on its turnaround program at a securities analyst meeting in the U.S.  One major takeaway from the briefing is that HP ES, in particular, is taking additional steps to rebuild and strengthen its business. Looking firstly at the HP group-wide picture, turnaround measures till now have included restructuring, retooling, and reducing costs.  Successes so fa[...]

Accenture announced today that it is to acquire Procurian, the largest procurement BPO pureplay globally, for $375m. Around Procurian 780 employees are expected to join Accenture on completion of the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2013. This is a major consolidation of the procurement BPO vendor landscape, with, by NelsonHall’s estimate, the number two player global[...]

Accenture Credit Services has been a success story since its launch in 2011: it currently serves over 100 lending institutions globally worldwide. Growth has been driven by acquisition: the unit was launched following Accenture's acquisition of Zenta, a provider of residential and commercial mortgage processing services in the U.S. And last month, Accenture acquired Mortgage Cadence, a mo[...]

We recently met with CSC's Gary Budzinski, EVP and GM of its Global Infrastructure Services (GIS) business. A year into the ‘Fix the Foundation’ stage of CSC’s multi-year turnaround program, GIS has been aggressively pursuing the corporate drive to rationalize the offerings portfolio (shifting from a historical tendency for services to be client-cu[...]

IBM and Synnex Corp. have announced that IBM is to sell its global customer management services (CMS) BPO business to Synnex for $505m: $430m in cash and $75m in stock (representing less than 5% equity ownership of Synnex). The purchase price includes an estimated 40-50% in intangible assets. IBM expects to recognize a total pre-tax gain on the sale of between $125m and $175m. The operations be[...]

CSC recently announced results for Q1 FY 2014, ending June 28, 2013: Revenues were $3,260m, down 10.3% y/y on restated Q1 FY 2013, down 6.1% at CS/CC excluding a NHS milestone payment Operating margin was 9.3%, up 531 bps y/y EBIT margin was 7.4%, up 536 bps y/y. Revenue guidance for FY 2014 is flat or slightly negative growth in CC, with high single to[...]

TCS has been awarded a five-year £13m contract by the Security Industry Authority (SIA), a unit reporting to the Home Secretary that is responsible for regulating the private security industry in the U.K. Around £5.4m will be subcontracted to a hosting partner. TCS is tasked with providing new systems to support the delivery of the SIA's future licensing, approval and [...]

Pitney Bowes is to sell Pitney Bowes Management Services (PBMS) North America  to Apollo Global Management LLC for ~$400m in cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2013. In May this year, Pitney Bowes announced it was selling PBMS in the U.K. and Ireland to Swiss Post Solutions (SPS) in a transaction that is due to close shortly. Today's announcement ma[...]

An encouraging quarter for Infosys after the disappointment of missing guidance last quarter. It is not possible to determine the precise level of organic growth (excluding Lodestone) as Infosys is folding some of its consulting capabilities into Lodestone Consulting: this has happened already in the U.K. and is occurring now in the U.S. and Germany; the incremental $20m in revenue contributed [...]

Xerox's acquisition of  U.K. based Customer Value Group (CVG) indicates that Xerox's ambitions for the acquired ACS business and for FAO in particular have not dimmed. CVG's primary product, Value+ is a SaaS-based offering that supports the management of customer credit, collections, and disputes and Value+ will now form a cornerstone of Xerox's O[...]