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January 30, 2008
Top Stories
UNISYS REPORTS FINANCIAL IMPROVEMENT...Unisys reported fourth-quarter 2007 operating income of $69.4 million, which included $55 million of net cost reduction charges and $11.6 million of retirement-related expense. These results compared with fourth-quarter 2006 operating income of $68.6 million. For the full year of 2007, the company reported operating income of $85.9 million compared with a full-year 2006 operating loss of $326.8 million, a year-over-year improvement of $413 million.
LOGICACMB CREATES NEW OUTSOURCING SERVICE DIVISON...LogicaCMG is creating a new Outsourcing Services division, which develops its existing outsourcing model, in response to customer demand across Europe. Jim McKenna, currently Chief Operating Officer, will lead the creation of the new division. It will become operational in key European geographies from Q1 2008 and will be in place across the whole organisation by 2009.
OPI HITS 2000-EMPLOYEE MILESTONE...Outsource Partners International, Inc. (OPI), a leading provider of finance, accounting, and tax business process outsourcing (BPO) and related services, announced that it recently achieved a major company milestone with the hiring of its 2,000th employee worldwide. This notable figure represents employee growth of 48% during 2007.
Posted by jbowles at 07:16 PM
New Business
Unisys Corporation has received a five-year contract to provide IT outsourcing services to the city of Minneapolis. The contract has a value of $48 million, assuming the contract runs for its full five-year term. Unisys will provide the city with outsourcing services through 2012, continuing a relationship that began in 2003. Unisys will provide a full range of outsourcing services to manage the city’s complete IT infrastructure, from the data center to desktops and mobile devices.
EDS announced a five-year, server management services agreement with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists. The contract was signed in the fourth quarter of 2007, and financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. Under this new agreement, EDS will manage Komen for the Cure’s server environment, including planning, configuring, hosting and ongoing server support, allowing the organization to remain focused on being the global leader in the fight against breast cancer.
State Street Corporation has been appointed to provide a range of custody, accounting and fund administration services to Columbia Management’s Excelsior Funds, which have approximately $20 billion in assets. With the new mandate, State Street now services a total of approximately $320 billion in assets for funds sponsored by Columbia Management, Bank of America’s asset management arm.
Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. announced a renewed contract with Northampton County, Pa., to provide information technology (IT) services. The contract has a length of up to six years and a total value of $13 million if all options are exercised. ACS has provided IT services to Northampton County since 1979. The company was awarded the renewed contract through a competitive bid process.
Posted by jbowles at 07:14 PM
International News
Diligenta, a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services, has won a contract to deliver Business Process Outsourcing services to support Sun Life Financial of Canada UK’s (SLF UK) operations. The services, expected to commence in May 2008, are estimated to be worth £100 million (over US$200 million) over the life of the contract. Diligenta has been working with SLF UK as preferred supplier since October 2007, following a competitive tender which came towards the natural end of SLF UK’s existing outsourcing agreement. Diligenta will continue to run the operation in Basingstoke where SLF UK’s Head Office is based.
Deutsche Post World Net, the world’s leading logistics group, and HP have signed a letter of intent to transfer responsibility for parts of Deutsche Post World Net’s global IT operations to HP Services. Under the terms of the agreement, Deutsche Post World Net expects to save at least 1 billion euros over the next seven years by driving down overall IT costs and better leveraging IT resources needed to run its business and service customers. The companies expect to reach a definitive agreement by mid-2008. If an agreement is reached, HP would take over the approximately 2,500 employees who currently provide the services for Deutsche Post World Net’s data center operations -- including information & data management, infrastructure & network management, and application management.
Capgemini has signed a six year, £23m IT outsourcing contract with UK-based psychometrics company SHL. The deal is aimed at improving the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of SHL's service. The deal will see Capgemini upgrade and maintain the entire IT infrastructure at SHL, covering about 1,000 desktops across 35 locations in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.
Posted by jbowles at 07:14 PM
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Posted by jbowles at 07:13 PM
January 23, 2008
Top Stories
EDS SIGNS IT INFRASTRUCTURE CONTRACT WITH R.J. REYNOLDS...EDS and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company have signed a new services contract under which EDS will manage the company’s information technology (IT) infrastructure environment. The contract was signed in the fourth quarter of 2007 and financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. Beginning in August 2008, EDS will manage R.J. Reynolds’ IT infrastructure environment, including mainframes, mid-range servers, databases and data centers all housed at R.J. Reynolds’ facilities in North Carolina. EDS will also provide field-level and help-desk support for the R.J. Reynolds network and computing environment, which includes WAN/LAN, video conferencing, telephones, PCs and laptops for its employees nationwide.
ACCENTURE EXPANDS CANADIAN OUTSOURCING CAPABILITY...Accenture has expanded its operations in Canada with the opening of a new delivery center in Mississauga. Professionals in the Mississauga facility, which is part of Accenture’s Global Delivery Network of more than 40 centers, will provide clients a variety of systems integration, application development and maintenance, technology consulting and infrastructure outsourcing services. The clients to be served from the Mississauga delivery center include companies in the telecommunications, financial services and utilities industries, among others.
UNISYS WINS NASA AWARD...NASA’s Langley Research Center has honored Unisys Corporation with its Large Business Contractor of the Year award, the company announced today. Criteria for Unisys selection included technical performance; administrative management and outreach - including Unisys mentoring activities on behalf of small businesses and/or minority contractors.
Posted by jbowles at 07:17 PM
New Business
Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. announced the Tennessee Bureau of TennCare's intent to award a new contract for the TennCare Management Information System (TCMIS). The proposed contract has a length of five years and an evaluated total value of $156 million, and must be negotiated and executed prior to ACS commencing operations. The proposed contract calls for ACS to assume responsibility for the current TCMIS used by the state for the management of its Medicaid program.
ACS announced earlier this announced that it has been awarded a seven-year, $130 million contract to provide information technology outsourcing (ITO) services for Allergan, Inc., a premier, global multi-specialty healthcare company. Under the terms of the contract, ACS will supply comprehensive infrastructure services, including data center operations, network monitoring and management, and end-user support services. The ACS-designed solution will provide the scale necessary to meet Allergan's growth, as well as access to new technology to support its unique industry needs.
Posted by jbowles at 07:17 PM
International News
Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises and India's leading integrated telecom services provider, has strengthened its existing relationship with IBM. IBM will bring in its global expertise in areas including the telemedia business, distribution, enterprise segments and business resilience. The new agreement is estimated to be US$150 million.
EDS was awarded a 12-month contract with the Victorian Department of Infrastructure to run a pilot program to trial new technology designed to dramatically increase cargo movement for the Port of Melbourne by integrating information from thousands of users into one online system. The program aims to replicate the success of Spain’s Port of Valencia, one of the first in the world to successfully integrate a port’s supply chain into a single information portal.
Experian has selected Perot Systems to support, maintain and develop its legacy applications and also includes new product development. Financial details of the multi-year agreement were not disclosed. The business relationship includes applications development, legacy systems, applications maintenance & support, and testing services for Experian’s ISDD (Information Solutions Design and Delivery) applications portfolio which spans across new applications technologies, mainframe technologies and legacy applications. These services and solutions will be developed in Perot Systems India and Experian UK.
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company has been awarded a new multi-year agreement to produce nearly 350 telephone directory titles annually for pan-European distribution by European Directories S.A., which is among Europe’s top five directories companies. The agreement is valued at approximately $200 million. Serving approximately 700,000 customers, European Directories is a geographically diversified directories group, with number one or strong positions in several markets across Europe, including The Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden, Gibraltar and Slovakia.
IBM announced three new services agreements in Australia--National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Queensland State Government of Australia.
The Netherlands’ Government Agency for Social Services, UWV KCC’s Customer Service Operations, successfully completed certification to the COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center Inc.) Customer Service Provider Standard. UWV is the first government agency to receive certification in customer service operations.
Posted by jbowles at 07:16 PM
Outsourcing Center Announces Finalists for 12th Annual Outsourcing Excellence Awards Finalists
Outsourcing Center has announced 23 outsourcing relationships held by 46 companies are finalists for the 12th Annual Outsourcing Excellence Awards. Final winners will be announced in May.
The coveted awards recognize the most distinguished examples of successful buyer-supplier outsourcing relationships in several categories, including Best Partnership and Most Strategic. An independent judging panel of industry experts will now evaluate the finalists on criteria including the relationship’s mutual benefits, effectiveness and business outcomes achieved.
Finalists for the awards are:
• Allied Irish Banks p.l.c. and ABN AMRO Bank
N.V.
• AOL BB and Wipro BPO Solutions Ltd.
• Best Buy Co., Inc. and Accenture
• Bharti Airtel Ltd and HTMT Global Solutions
Ltd.
• Bharti Airtel Ltd and IBM India Private
Limited
• BT plc and Accenture
• Continental Automotive India Pvt Ltd. and KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd.
• ENMAX Energy Corporation and Cognera Corp.
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Perot Systems
Corporation
• ING North America Insurance Corporation and
Hewitt Associates
• KB Home and Perot Systems Corporation
• Lloyds TSB and Firstsource Solutions Ltd.
• Microsoft Corporation and Accenture
• National Life Group and Perot Systems
Corporation
• Nuance Communications Inc. and Hewlett Packard
• Ping Identity Corporation and Luxoft
• Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Financial Group) and
iGATE Global Solutions
• Royal Mail Group and Atos Healthcare Ltd
• Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Computer Sciences
Corporation
• Touro Infirmary and Siemens Medical Solutions,
USA, Inc.
• Universal Music and buyingTeam
• Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd and WNS Global
Services (UK) Ltd
• Visteon Corporation and Manpower Business
Solutions
Members of the judging panel are Rod Bourgeois, Senior Research Analyst - Technology Services, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC; John A. Funk, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP; Russ Taruscio, FC&A Procurement Director, BP America Inc.; Ed Davis, Oliver Wight Professor, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia and Dawn Evans, President and CEO, Sourcing Interests Group and Peter Bendor-Samuel CEO of Everest Group.
“We have a daunting task ahead of us as we evaluate these outstanding outsourcing engagements to select final winners,” said Bendor-Samuel.
Award winners will be featured in the annual Awards issue of the Outsourcing Journal (www.outsourcing-journal.com) as well as Forbes’ “Special Section” on outsourcing. Winners will also be invited to an elite celebration evening on the Forbes Highlander yacht, participate in an exclusive educational event that shares lessons and insights from each winner, and attend a black-tie gala and awards presentation at the “Oscars” of Outsourcing in New York City. Additionally, the Outsourcing Journal will feature stories throughout the year that profile award finalists.
Previous award winners include many of the world’s leading companies in every industry and demonstrate the importance of outsourcing in their strategies for business success. A list of all winners since 1997 is displayed at www.outsourcing-awards.com.
Posted by jbowles at 07:16 PM
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Posted by jbowles at 07:15 PM
January 16, 2008
Top Stories
IBM EARNINGS UP...IBM announced fourth-quarter 2007 diluted earnings of $2.80 per share from continuing operations, an increase of 24 percent, compared with diluted earnings of $2.26 per share in the fourth quarter of 2006. The company also reported fourth-quarter revenue of $28.9 billion, an increase of 10 percent as reported, including 6 points of currency benefit, compared with the fourth quarter of 2006. IBM reported full-year 2007 diluted earnings of $7.18 per share, including 5 cents per share relating to the sale of the Printing Systems Division in the second quarter, an increase of 18 percent, compared with diluted earnings of $6.06 per share in 2006. The company also reported full-year revenue of $98.8 billion, an increase of 8 percent, including 4 points of currency benefit.
ACS ACQUIRES UK-BASED ITO PROVIDER...Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. has acquired Syan Holdings Limited, a U.K.-based provider of information technology outsourcing (ITO) services and one of the United Kingdom's largest IBM Business Partners, for approximately $60 million (30.5 million pounds Sterling). Syan's trailing twelve-months revenue was approximately $75 million. The transaction will be funded entirely with existing cash on hand.
CSC COMPLETES FIRST CONSULTING ACQUISITION...Computer Sciences Corporation announced that the company has completed its acquisition of First Consulting Group for $13.00 per share, or approximately $365 million, in an all-cash transaction. Approximately 2,500 FCG employees are expected to transition to CSC. Of these, approximately 1,200 will be located in offshore locations, including India and Vietnam. The remainder will be located in the U.S. and Europe.
NOVUSSTS PIONEERS ONSHORE RPO...NovusSTS is pioneering the unique strategy of onshore RPO by opening a cost-cutting outsource facility in Valdosta, Georgia. In addition to keeping more jobs within the United States, this facility will enable customers to cut costs while retaining a high level of quality, foster communication, and ensure timely delivery of services. NovusSTS works closely with India-based firms who are looking to build facilities in the US and jointly with the city of Valdosta to bring a comparable cost-savings model to customers who want to keep their business closer to home and still enjoy nearly the same savings benefit of going overseas.
Posted by jbowles at 07:36 PM
New Business
Comerica Incorporated has awarded a procurement services contract to Accenture. Financial terms of the seven-year business process outsourcing agreement were not disclosed. The agreement is designed to reduce Comerica's costs for purchased goods and services through improvements to supplier relationships, procurement operations and technology, and spend management.
EDS, Indiana’s Medicaid partner since 1991, has been awarded a $209.9 million, six-and-a-half-year contract to upgrade and continue to maintain the state’s Medicaid Management Information System. The new contract will leverage EDS’ leading-edge interChange Health System, which serves as an industry model and is in operation or being implemented in more than a dozen states, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Among the upgrades are a Web-based tool that will enable health care providers to electronically enroll in the Medicaid program as well as a number of internal processes.
Computer Sciences Corporation has won a contract to provide facility support services at the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center (JSC), located in Houston. CSC estimates the value of the contract, which has a two-year base period, two one-year options and six one-year performance-based award terms to be $544 million if all options are exercised.
Posted by jbowles at 07:35 PM
International News
WNS (Holdings) Limited announced the launch of a new delivery center in Bucharest, Romania. The 150 seat facility in Bucharest expands WNS’ global delivery capability and serves as a nearshore delivery center for global clients with European operations. The center is able to provide multi-lingual services in French, German, Italian and Spanish for clients across a range of industries. At the outset, the center will deliver finance and accounting (F&A) and customer support services. With the launch in Romania, WNS has expanded its global delivery footprint to 14 delivery centers and is developing plans for additional centers in the region.
Capgemini Outsourcing BV, has been selected to manage the IT activities for Maxeda, the largest non-food retailer in the Netherlands. This five-year agreement is for both infrastructure and application management services. The purpose of this agreement is to help Maxeda in achieving its international growth objectives. Furthermore, it strengthens Capgemini's position in the retail sector.
Standard Bank's Argentine branch signed a technology services agreement with IBM which includes hosting, operation and recovery services as well as hardware provision to help the bank update its technology processes. The new agreement covers mainframe, disk drives, tape, recovery services featuring dedicated and enhanced equipment, SNA network operation, and Web Hosting services also provided with new, larger capacity equipment. In addition, this contract led to the signing of an agreement for the purchase and support of distributed software licenses which include IBM Information Management, Tivoli and WebSphere products.
Posted by jbowles at 07:35 PM
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Outsourcing Alert reaches 50,000 key decision-makers a week. For advertising information and rates, contact Peter Bowes. Tel: (508)359-9356 or send an email.
Posted by jbowles at 07:34 PM
January 09, 2008
Top Stories
CSC ANNOUNCES $1.1 BILLION IN NEW CONTRACTS...Computer Sciences Corporation announced on Tuesday that since Oct. 1, its North American Public Sector business unit has signed 72 previously unannounced contracts and subcontracts during its fiscal 2008 third quarter, which ended Dec. 28, with a total estimated value of approximately $765 million if all contract options are exercised. On Monday, the company announced that its Americas commercial business units have signed three previously unannounced contracts during CSC’s fiscal 2008 third quarter, with a total estimated value of approximately $370 million if all contract options are exercised.
KEY MANAGEMENT CHANGES AT UNISYS...Randy J. Hendricks has been promoted to executive vice president and president of Unisys Global Industries. Hendricks was previously senior vice president and president of Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services, where he grew the company’s outsourcing business to Unisys largest services business. Anthony (Tony) P. Doye has joined Unisys as senior vice president and president of Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services, where he will be responsible for driving growth in the company’s outsourcing and infrastructure services businesses. Doye was previously group president of Strategic Programs and the Technology Management Group at Computer Sciences Corporation, where he held numerous global leadership roles in IT services, IT outsourcing, application outsourcing and consulting services.
THERIGHTTHING EXPANDS, LAUNCHES GLOBAL SERVICE CENTER...With increasing client demand, year-on-year double digit revenue growth and recent global initiatives in the Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) industry, The RightThing, Inc. has broken ground to expand its headquarter facilities in Findlay, Ohio. The new structure, scheduled to open in June 2008, will be located next to the company’s current facility with an enclosed walkway connecting the two. The 35,000 square foot expansion will house up to 320 employees and feature a 200 seat auditorium.
LUXOFT CANADA MARKS FIRST ANNIVERSARY...Luxoft, a global provider of IT outsourcing services to clients like Boeing, Deutsche Bank, IBM, Dell, UBS, T-Mobile, Alcatel, and Areva,announced 123 percent revenue growth in Q3 FY07 (ending December 2007) for its Vancouver, British Columbia office which celebrates its first anniversary this month.
SOFTTEK OFFERS ABERDEEN REPORT...Softtek, a global provider of IT and business process solutions and the largest private IT service provider in Latin America, is making the Aberdeen Group’s newly released benchmarked report, “Strong SLA Management Causes Increased Customer Satisfaction,” available for complimentary download at its website.
Posted by jbowles at 07:15 PM
New Business
Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. has been awarded the E-ZPass New York Customer Service Center contract with the MTA Bridges and Tunnels, the New York State Thruway Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. ACS was the incumbent vendor in this procurement. The new 10-year contract allows for one additional three-year option to be exercised for a total contract length of 13 years. The contract value
for the base 10-year contract is more than $500 million.
EDS, Indiana’s Medicaid partner since 1991, has been awarded a $209.9 million, six-and-a-half-year contract to upgrade and continue to maintain the state’s Medicaid Management Information System. The new contract will leverage EDS’ interChange Health System, which serves as an industry model and is in operation or being implemented in more than a dozen states, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Among the upgrades are a Web-based tool that will enable health care providers to electronically enroll in the Medicaid program as well as a number of internal processes.
EDS has been awarded a $76 million, six-year contract to assist in modernizing applications technology for the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The Information Technology Modernization (ITM) project will update the DMV's legacy software application technology to more current application and database structures. The contract was awarded to EDS at the end of the fourth quarter of 2007.
Posted by jbowles at 07:15 PM
International News
Watson Wyatt Australia announced a long-term Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) Services agreement with IBM. Under the terms of the agreement, signed in the fourth quarter of 2007, IBM will assume operation of the administration of Watson Wyatt's corporate superannuation client back-office functions in Australia. The agreement with IBM will involve the transition of the Watson Wyatt back-office processing business, currently outsourced to CitiStreet, to IBM. A number of CitiStreet employees currently dedicated to the Watson Wyatt account will transition to IBM.
WM-data, a LogicaCMG company, announces that it will deliver IT services to the administrative sector of Transport and Communications in Finland, the Finnish Road Administration, the Finnish Maritime Administration and the Finnish Rail Administration. The contract running from 2008 until 2010 is worth approximately 10 million Euros. An option to extend the agreement by three years is included in the contract. This is one of the most significant integrated IT services contracts encompassing several public sector organisations in Finland which will improve efficiency and lead to cost savings.
IBM has signed an agreement with Unilever to transform and manage strategic sourcing and procurement operations for the company's Latin American operations. The five-year agreement is an expansion of an existing global agreement in which IBM manages Unilever's procurement operations in North America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Turkey and for Unilever Central Information Technology (IT).
Posted by jbowles at 07:14 PM
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Posted by jbowles at 07:13 PM
