Vendor Analysis
published on Sep 09, 2014
Report Overview:
Software testing has been one of Cognizant's strategic growth initiatives, as part of its Horizon 1 service portfolio. The profile of Cognizant's software testing practice has changed significantly in the past few years; the practice has followed Cognizant's overall strategy to focus on key accounts and increase market through client intimacy. As a result, Cognizant's testing practice is well developed in the U.S.; largely in financial services and, to a lower extent, in retail and. The unit is expanding in Europe and APAC, relying on this core focused vertical approach.
Who is this Report for:
NelsonHall's Software Testing Vendor Assessment for Cognizant is a comprehensive assessment of Cognizant's software testing offerings and capabilities, designed for:
- Sourcing managers monitoring the capabilities of existing suppliers of IT services and identifying vendor suitability for software testing services
- Vendor marketing, sales and business managers looking to benchmark themselves against their peers
- Financial analysts and investors specializing in the software testing sector.
Scope of this Report:
The report provides a comprehensive and objective analysis of Cognizant's software testing offerings, capabilities, and market and financial strength, including:
- Analysis of the company's offerings and key service components
- Revenue estimates
- Identification of the company's strategy, emphasis and new developments
- Analysis of the profile of the company's customer base including the company's targeting strategy and examples of current contracts
- Analysis of the company's strengths, weaknesses and outlook.
Key Findings & Highlights:
One feature of Cognizant's testing services practice has been its ability to win standalone testing contracts. Currently, 75% of the code tested by Cognizant has been developed by a different firm, by the client's internal IT or by a third party vendor. This is a high ratio; other competitors have tended to sell testing as part of larger development/systems integration or application management contracts.
Outside of the U.S. and U.K., Cognizant has developed its onshore presence through small acquisitions (in DACH and France) of software testing-specific and SAP services, including testing. These strengthened its sales, presales and test execution capabilities.
Cognizant has also developed its presence in Europe organically, hiring commercial and pre-consulting personnel in several main geographies including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the Nordics and France.
In 2012, Cognizant changed the name of its testing practice to Quality Engineering and Assurance (QE&A), to reflect its growing emphasis on QA and consulting. At the end of 2013, QE&A had a headcount of 25.8k (representing 15% of Cognizant's global headcount); this makes it the largest testing practice in the world, by number of career testers. It has ~450 clients.
