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Limiting Input to the Digital Testing Conveyor Belt: IBM Emphasizes Combinatorial Test Design
Feb 19, 2016, by Dominique RaviartIBM Quality Assurance and Testing Services (QA&TS) practice recently briefed NelsonHall on its approach to managing test cases and on reducing the numbers of test case automation, beyond pair-wise testing. Before we jump into the details of IBM QA&TS’ offering, let’s step back for a few moments: software testing remains a very human labor-intensive activity. If we take a man[...]
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RPA: What BPS Can Learn from Software Testing and DevOps
Jan 25, 2016, by Dominique RaviartFor professionals involved in BPS activities, it might be a surprise that software testing (ST) shares a lot of similarities with BPS. Like many forms of BPS, ST is labor intensive – the largest software testing vendors now have up to 30k career testers and 20k has become the new norm. Like BPS, ST has adopted process improvement in a big way. And like BPS, ST is looking at process auto[...]
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The Other Side of Software Quality: CISQ Issues Standards on Structural Software Quality
Jan 05, 2016, by Dominique RaviartCISQ and Structural Quality The Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) recently made an announcement related to software quality. CISQ is a relatively young organization, founded in 2009 by Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (the organization that initiated the CMM process standards) and a slightly lesser-known organization, Object Management Group (OMG), an IT standard t[...]
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IBM Cloud Infrastructure Investments Lead IBM Outsourcing Transformation
Feb 04, 2015, by Rachael StormonthOverall IBM Group revenues in 2014 declined 6% (-1% in CC and excluding divestitures). However, IBM is in the midst of a major adjustment of its portfolio. In line with this, the company is reporting $25bn in revenues (and 16% revenue growth) in 2014 (out of a total of $92.8bn) from its "strategic imperatives". IBM's acquisition of Softlayer, where it continues to invest strongly,[...]
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The New CSC Targeting Topline Growth Within 3 Years: Is Organic Growth Possible?
Nov 17, 2015, by Dominique RaviartCSC has just laid out the financial targets of the standalone business which will retain the CSC moniker when the U.S federal company, CRSA, breaks off. As well as CSC’s global commercial business, it includes non-U.S. public sector businesses (~$700m revenues in FY15). In its FY15 (ending March 31, 2015) this part of CSC achieved revenues of $8.1bn, and an adjusted operating margin[...]
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Capita’s Offer to Xchanging: How it Makes Sense
Oct 19, 2015, by Rachael StormonthOn October 14, the Xchanging board recommended a final cash offer by Capita of 160p per share. The offer, valuing Xchanging at ~£412m, represents a premium of ~44% to the closing price on October 2, 2015 (the last business day before the start of the offer period), 52% to the prior three-month average price and 64% to the one-month average price. Capita states it believes the acquis[...]
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Capgemini’s Product Engineering Testing Business Prioritizes Portfolio Expansion and IoT
Oct 14, 2015, by Dominique RaviartCapgemini Group recently briefed on its R&D services/product engineering testing capabilities in its Sogeti High Tech subsidiary. Background Sogeti High Tech (SHT) is a subsidiary of Sogeti (itself a subsidiary of Capgemini). It provides product engineering services (PES)/R&D services. The company has a background in servicing key aeronautic sector clients. The company has expanded i[...]
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Virtusa’s Pegasystems Application Testing Offering Shows Potential
Sep 17, 2015, by Dominique RaviartVirtusa 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[...]
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KPMG’s Towers Watson HRSD Acquisition Strengthens Global HR Transformation Capabilities
Jul 22, 2015, by Gary BragarKPMG recently announced its intention to acquire Towers Watson's Human Resources Service Delivery (HRSD) practice to strengthen its global HR transformation capabilities, including Workday implementations. The acquisition is expected to close by end of Q3 2015. This is a wise move, given the high growth rate of Workday. Although Workday does not break out its financial results between [...]
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SQS Completes Acquisition of Trissential with More to Come
Jun 15, 2015, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall recently caught up with the management of SQS to discuss its recent acquisitions and its plans in North America. SQS has this month completed the acquisition of Trissential, a U.S.-based firm operating in the Mid-West, with headquarters in Chicago. The company had 2014 revenues of $32.3m, a PBT of $1.6m, and headcount of 130. Why Trissential? Unlike its two previous acquisitions&n[...]
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HP Enterprise Services to Strip Out $2bn of Annual Costs in Next Three Years in Pursuit of Margin of 7-9%
May 22, 2015, by Rachael StormonthHP Enterprise Services has announced Q2 FY 2015 results, for the period ending April 30, 2015: Revenue was $4,817m, down 15.5% y/y, and down 10% in constant currency (CC), reflecting key account run off and weakness in EMEA Segment earnings before taxes (EBT) were $194m, a margin of 4.0%, up 143 bps y/y. Q2 FY 2015 revenue by service line (with y/y revenue growth) was: [...]
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Capgemini’s Testing Practice Continues Development of IPs, Increases Focus on Cross-Client Delivery
Apr 13, 2015, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall recently spent two weeks in India, focusing on latest developments in software testing and digital transformation services. We met with Capgemini Group’s Testing Global Service Line (TGSL), the group’s software testing practice (across Capgemini and Sogeti) and discussed key topics including its push towards cross-client shared service centers, and IP development (with the r[...]
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Cigniti Defines Software Testing Growth Strategy, Targets $90m Revenues in 2015
Mar 26, 2015, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall 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[...]
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Accenture to Acquire Agilex to Enhance Digital Capabilities and Agile Delivery for Federal Sector
Feb 09, 2015, by Rachael StormonthAccenture 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[...]
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DevOps Testing: TCS Takes the IP Way
Feb 02, 2015, by Dominique RaviartTCS has briefed NelsonHall on the recent launch of its DevOps related IP, Non-Production Environment Tracking and Release Automation (NETRA). With NETRA, TCS Assurance Services Unit (ASU), the main testing unit of TCS, is pursuing its strategy originated with Intelligent Testing Systems (ITS) to develop broad-reaching IPs, encompassing open source software, COTS, and TCS-developed accelerators.[...]
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ITO Spending Growth Dips Slightly & Bookings Flat in 2014, but Expect Improvement in 2015
Jan 28, 2015, by Dominique RaviartThis week NelsonHall held its quarterly IT outsourcing (ITO) Index webcast. We have conducted these calls for the last six years to monitor developments in ITO from a quantitative perspective. When we introduced the Index, ITO had largely moved from full outsourcing to a selective outsourcing approach, and Indian vendors were deploying their land and expand strategy with the occasional one-off meg[...]
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Performance Engineering and Testing: Tech Mahindra Pushes on IP
Jan 12, 2015, by Dominique RaviartTech Mahindra recently updated NelsonHall on its performance engineering (TMPE) capabilities. The comments below complement an article on TMPE we wrote in January (see here). TMPE, part of Tech Mahindra’s Testing Services practice, is in high growth mode, having increased its headcount from 450 in early 2014 to 800 currently. Much of this growth has been driven by cross-sell[...]
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Software Testing: NIIT Technologies Investing in IPs and New Offerings
Jan 08, 2015, by Dominique RaviartNIIT Technologies recently briefed NelsonHall on its testing capabilities. Headquartered in Noida, NIIT Technologies had FY 2014 revenues (ending March 31, 2014) of ~$389m, with an operating margin of 15.2%. H1 FY 2015 revenues were ~$189m. Headcount at the end of H1 FY 2015 was 8.7k. The company is an unusual Indian Outsourcing Service Provider (IOSP) with a specialization i[...]
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Tech Mahindra's Continued Partnership with CA: DevOps Testing
Dec 12, 2014, by Dominique RaviartTech Mahindra Testing Services (TMTS) has updated NelsonHall on its DevOps capabilities. TMTS continues to work with CA Technologies around this offering, largely around service virtualization (SV), application release management (ARA) and together with other ISVs/open source software around agile testing/continuous integration (CI). (For more information on the offering, please refer to the pr[...]
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SQS Priorities: Integration of Thinksoft, Development in U.S., Non-Linear Growth
Nov 25, 2014, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall recently met with SQS top management and discussed key priorities in the short, mid- and long-term. Short-Term: India and Delivery Network A short-term priority remains the integration and development of the former Thinksoft Global Services, now SQS India BFSI. The acquisition of Thinksoft increased SQS’ headcount in India to 1.9k or 54% of the overall global headcount. S[...]
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Managing Millennials in Software Testing: Virtusa’s Approach
Oct 29, 2014, by Dominique RaviartVirtusa recently briefed NelsonHall on its gamification approach within its software testing offering. Virtusa is a fast growing offshore (India and Sri Lanka) oriented service provider. Its FY 2014 (year ended March 31, 2014) revenues were $397m, a growth of 19%. This followed growth of 20% in FY 2013 and 27% in FY 2012. The company has just over 8k employees. Founded in 1996 and headquartered[...]
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Tech Mahindra Launches Mainframe Application Development and Testing Service
Oct 06, 2014, by Dominique RaviartTech Mahindra has launched Virtualized Mainframe Testing (vMT), a new service that offers clients savings on their mainframe application development and testing costs, especially for applications that are on a maintenance and enhancement/release mode. vMT mostly focuses on reducing consumption of MIPS. In the context of mainframes, reducing MIPs usage is a key lever for lowering costs, as IBM m[...]
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Wipro Changes its Approach to “Fast and Uncertain”, with Increased Focus on Developing Effective Ecosystems
Sep 30, 2014, by Andy EfstathiouThis week Wipro held its first analyst day in the U.S. in over 18 months. During this time, Wipro has conducted a strategic review of its approach to the market, and decided to change its method of engaging clients and prospects. First CEO TK Kurien opened by describing Wipro’s view of the market: Enterprises were created prior to the current digital era. As a[...]
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Visa Considers Selling its Stake in Monitise: What Does it Mean?
Sep 18, 2014, by Andy EfstathiouVisa has announced it is assessing whether to sell its investment in mobile payment software developer and transactions processor Monitise. Visa formed an alliance with Monitise in 2009 to provide Visa with mobile platform development services. The agreement runs through 2016. As part of the agreement, Visa made a capital investment in Monitise and received 14.4% of the company's equity. Ov[...]
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Software Testing Spending Growth Accelerates in 2014
Sep 15, 2014, by Dominique RaviartTCS, Infosys and SQS have recently published their calendar Q1 and H1 2014 revenues, and provided financial details on their software testing revenues (see notes below). In calendar H1 2014 (all numbers below are constant perimeter NelsonHall estimates): TCS: revenues were ~+24% to ~$612m (H1 2013: ~+23%) Infosys: ~+21% to ~$395m (H1 2013: ~+15%) SQS: + 9% to €129m (~$174m) (H1 2[...]