Software testing continues to be an industry of contrasts: the primary activity, functional testing, remains a human-intensive activity, despite the accelerated adoption of continuous testing (i.e., bringing functional automation as part of DevOps). But testing has also grown in a highly specialized set of activities, earning the name of Quality Engineering (QE), ranging from supp[...]

  IBM Consulting recently held its first analyst and advisor event in Europe since IBM’s spin-off of its Global Technology Services infrastructure business (now Kyndryl) and the renaming of the former IBM Global Business Services division to IBM Consulting just over a year ago. When IBM had announced its intended spin-off of the GTS division in October 2020, new CEO Arvind Kri[...]

  In its Q3 FY22, TCS delivered its sixth consecutive quarter of organic growth around the 15% mark. Despite the uncertain macroeconomic background, TCS has a strong pipeline for at least the next two quarters and has yet to see any softening in the market. For example, it was expecting some softening in Europe in the September quarter but instead achieved both increased revenue growth[...]

  We recently talked to ValueMomentum about its QE approach to product-centric development and testing. The company is helping its insurance clients improve the quality of their applications using agile best practices and DevOps tools. In support of this, ValueMomentum has refreshed its automation approach and created a continuous testing platform articulated around design (shift-left)[...]

  TCS recently briefed NelsonHall on its approach to site reliability engineering (SRE) in the context of quality engineering (QE). SRE emerged almost a decade ago as part of the shift-right move, targeting production environments beyond traditional IT infrastructure activities such as services desk and monitoring activities. While no definition of SRE has fully emerged, TCS points [...]

  We recently talked to NTT DATA about its pending acquisition of Apisero, announced last month. NTT DATA has been through significant changes recently with its merger with NTT Ltd. NTT Ltd. grouped a wide range of network and connectivity services, hardware and related services, data center hosting, IT infrastructure services, and resales. The resulting NTT DATA is now a giant with[...]

  We recently talked to Infosys about how its Engineering and R&D services portfolio addresses sustainability and the circular economy, given the strong client interest in sustainable product design. Infosys has accordingly evolved its sustainability engineering offerings from a series of capabilities into a portfolio that is articulated along three product lifecycle phases: des[...]

  NelsonHall recently attended Compucom’s Analyst and Advisor Event 2022 in Paulsboro, NJ.  As in-person meetings and events resume, it was great to engage with Compucom executives, including CEO Mick Slattery, face-to-face once more. Founded in 1987, Compucom provides end-to-end digital workplace services for enterprises, midsize and small businesses. In December 2021, i[...]

  We recently talked to TCS about the company’s involvement in connected plants, TCS’ terminology for digital manufacturing. TCS has a broad connected plants portfolio, ranging from manufacturing IT systems, MES, Industry 4.0 and connected supply chain, to industrial control systems, and automation. The development of this portfolio currently emphasizes further specializ[...]

  We recently talked to Testbirds, the largest Europe-headquartered crowdtesting firm, founded in 2012. We found Testbirds upbeat after the pandemic. The company had an excellent year in 2020, achieving revenue growth of 30% as organizations, challenged by closed offices, turned to Testbirds to conduct crowdtesting of their digital initiatives. This was followed by another excellent ye[...]

  We recently talked to Cigniti about its digital ambitions and its acquisition of RoundSqr. While remaining focused on quality engineering, Cigniti has quietly expanded its capabilities to RPA over the past three years. This extension is logical: RPA shares much with testing, relying on creating and maintaining bots or test scripts. This is the start: Cigniti has broad ‘digit[...]

  NelsonHall recently completed an in-depth analysis of end-to-end cloud infrastructure management services, in which we spoke to multiple leading IT services vendors and their clients. This blog looks at some of the key themes from this research, the investments vendors need to make to meet client demand, and how the market will evolve over the next 12 to 18 months. There is an inc[...]

  We recently talked to Qualitest regarding its acquisition of ZenQ. ZenQ is the latest in a series of recent acquisitions by Qualitest, under the ownership of PE BridgePoint. The company acquired four firms in 2021: QA InfoTech (QAIT) in Bangalore, doubling Qualitest’s presence in India Olenick in the U.S. Telexiom in Germany Comply, an Israeli company that added [...]

  There is a big divide between IT sustainability and quality engineering (QE). In IT, sustainability is emerging from a carbon emission niche, expanding from a consulting to an execution phase. In QE, the focus remains primarily on functional automation with continuous testing/DevOps and AI as primary drivers. In short, the two have little in common. As such, we had not anticipated[...]

  NTT DATA recently announced the long-planned merger of its international business with NTT Ltd., the overseas ICT unit of Japanese telecoms giant NTT. The combined NTT DATA and NTT Ltd. will have revenues of ¥3.5tn (~$26.2bn) and 180k personnel. With this move, NTT unites its two ICT units into a single entity, driving its vision of One NTT. The merger will remove some overlap[...]

  On June 14, 2022, Atos announced the unexpected separation of its IT infrastructure services unit, Tech Foundation, from its BDS and Digital units. With this move, Atos has aggregated its high-growth and high-profitability units into a new company, Evidian. Its infrastructure services capabilities will stay in legacy Atos, with the objective of stopping the revenue decline and improv[...]

  NelsonHall recently attended Unisys’ Analyst and Advisor Event 2022 in Boston, MA. As IRL meetings and events begin to resume, it was great to engage with Unisys executives face-to-face once more. The $1.2bn sale of its Federal business to SAIC back in February 2020 is being partly used to fund acquisitions and portfolio investments for Unisys’ digital workplace and cl[...]

  The war in Ukraine has brought EPAM Systems (EPAM) under the spotlight. Although headquartered in Newton, PA, EPAM has a delivery network heavy in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1993 in New Jersey and specializes in service development, digital platform engineering, digital product design, and custom software. However, with its first offshore development center opening[...]

  NelsonHall recently attended the ‘Infosys Cobalt World Tour’ conference in New York and, as the world begins to open up again, it was great to engage with Infosys executives face-to-face. Infosys presented its Cobalt Cloud strategy and use cases to increase awareness of the benefits to the marketplace and highlighted that its cloud approach is focused on achieving busi[...]

  There is history behind this merger. Known as India’s first hostile takeover bid in the IT sector, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) acquired a 60% stake in Mindtree in July 2019, despite the opposition of Mindtree’s founders and board members. LTIMindtree will be the sixth largest India-headquartered IT services vendor Since then, a merger of both these firms has [...]