February 16, 2012
Top Stories
ORACLE BUYS TALEO...Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire Taleo Corporation,a leading provider of cloud-based talent management for $46.00 per share or approximately $1.9 billion, net of Taleo's cash and debt. Taleo's Talent Management Cloud helps organizations attract, develop, motivate and retain human capital to improve performance and drive growth. Together, Oracle and Taleo expect to create a comprehensive cloud offering for organizations to manage their Human Resource operations and employee careers. The combination is expected to empower employees and managers to effectively manage careers throughout their entire employment, enable organizations to retain talent and optimize costs, and improve the employee experience through faster on boarding and better collaboration with team members via social media.
DELL OPENS NEW WESTERN TECHNOLOGY CENTER...Dell Services opened a new technology center in Quincy, Wash., that will provide customers in North America access to cloud technologies and IT outsourcing services. The opening is part of Dell's ongoing commitment to develop new cloud-based services, solutions and delivery options. The Dell Western Technology Center is a world-class, multi-client data center, with redundant network connectivity, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), cooling, utility and back-up emergency power generation. It is built with the largest installation of energy-efficient heat wheel technology in the U.S. for highly efficient cooling and low energy consumption, keeping costs and power usage to a minimum.
ATOS, EMC FORM STRATEGIC CLOUD ALLIANCE...Atos, EMC Corp.and EMC's subsidiary VMware have joined forces to establish a strategic alliance for open cloud computing. Atos will launch a new company called Canopy to provide cloud services, as its part of the alliance. EMC and VMware will offer the technology to drive three pieces to the cloud puzzle for the alliance--an Enterprise Application Store, an Enterprise Platform as a Service product and a Private Cloud offering. On top of that will be the cloud strategy, planning and implementation services and products that will be offered by the new entity Canopy.
Watching expenses like a hawk has been the hallmark of companies that have survived the global recession. So, when did you sign your last outsourcing contract? Specifically, a contract that includes offshore workers, especially in India? If the answer is July 2011 or earlier, there's a good chance you're paying as much as 20 percent too much. Read more...
New Deals
Cognizant has entered into a five-year, multimillion dollar engagement with Future Group, India's largest multi-format retail group, to provide end-to-end IT infrastructure services for all Future Group companies. Under the managed services agreement, Cognizant will support more than 1,000 Future Group stores across 85 towns and cities in India, and the new stores the company opens in the future.
After five years of working together through a joint subsidiary, CMA CGM Group and IBM announced a new strategic partnership. Under the terms of the five-year agreement, IBM will provide industry-specific expertise in new technologies such as cloud computing and analytics, and support CMA CGM's growth. IBM and Public Joint Stock Company (PJSC) Ukrsotsbank, part of the Ukraine's UniCredit Group, have signed an agreement to outsource the bank's information technology (IT) systems and processes to IBM.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has awarded Accenture Federal Services a 10-year contract to redesign, develop and manage three IRS portals. The work will consolidate the consumer-facing website, IRS.gov, the registered-user portal for tax preparers and the agency's employee intranet. The new infrastructure will make it easier to do business with the IRS by streamlining, updating and combining processes for ease of use.
P&C insurer Great American Insurance Grouphas entered into a strategic relationship with IT services provider HCL Technologies to provide Integrated IT services, business process outsourcing (BPO) and infrastructure management services to GAIG and its affiliates.
Advertising Information
Outsourcing Alert reaches more than 94% percent of the Fortune 500 companies along with midsized and small businesses and is sent to over 115,000 opt-in subscribers on a weekly basis. For advertising information and rates, contact Debra Floyd.
February 08, 2012
Top Stories
IBM, TULIP TELECOM BUILD LARGEST DATA CENTER IN INDIA...IBM announced it has worked with Tulip Telecom Ltd. to design and help build the largest data center facility in India to deliver new cloud and networking services. Tulip Telecom is a leading telecommunications network and data service provider, reaching more than 2,000 cities and towns throughout India. With the number of people using mobile devices to access the Internet increasing dramatically, IDC estimates that the amount of information managed by enterprises will grow 50 times over the next decade, and in the next two years alone the number of servers installed will increase by 49 percent over those installed today.
CSC NAMES LAWRIE CEO...CSC announced that Mike Lawrie, 58, has been appointed president and chief executive officer, and will join the company no later than March 31, 2012. Lawrie succeeds Michael W. Laphen, 61, who previously announced his plan to retire. Lawrie has extensive global experience in the IT and software industry including 27 years at IBM where he served as senior vice president and group executive with responsibility for sales and distribution of IBM's products and services worldwide. Additionally Lawrie was general manager for IBM's EMEA business, which included operations in 124 countries and more than 90,000 employees at the time. Prior to that, he was general manager of industries for IBM's business operations in Asia Pacific.
DELOITTE TEAMS WITH SALESFORCE.COM FOR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE...Deloitte announced it is entering into a global alliance with salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, to provide multinational and international companies with the software, mobile and open cloud computing technologies for the social enterprise. Paul Clemmons, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and leader of Deloitte's cloud market offering and emerging solutions service line, will lead the global alliance. He is based in San Francisco.
TROWBRIDGE NAMED TO G6 VISIONARIES THINK TANK...Alsbridge, Inc. CEO, Ben Trowbridge, has been elected to the "G6 Visionaries Global Sourcing Think Tank," a live debate designed to address the most challenging issues facing the industry today. Trowbridge, who offers more than 20 years of diversified global expertise in hundreds of technology sourcing decisions and transactions, will contribute an unbiased perspective on outsourcing, shared services and hybrid solutions. The panel which will take place at 11:00 AM, Thursday, March 8th during the 16th Annual North American Shared Services & Outsourcing Week conference in Orlando, Florida, will feature the viewpoints of some of the industry's top executive and sourcing authorities.
Watching expenses like a hawk has been the hallmark of companies that have survived the global recession. So, when did you sign your last outsourcing contract? Specifically, a contract that includes offshore workers, especially in India? If the answer is July 2011 or earlier, there's a good chance you're paying as much as 20 percent too much. Read more...
New Deals
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), announced the signing of a multi-year, multi-million euro contract with Europcar, the car rental leader in Europe. After a rigorous evaluation process, Europcar Information Services (EIS), the company's IT subsidiary, selected TCS to manage strategic IT Services development for its French operations.
Dell Services and Atos announced a significant offering of IT outsourcing services that will provide a standardized cloud-based IT infrastructure and global support solution for Wolters Kluwer customers in the legal, tax, finance and healthcare industries.
Logica has been selected by BAE Systems, the global defence and security company, to provide multi-process HR Outsourcing Services for its employees in the UK. The six year deal, secured through an alliance with Oracle, represents Logica's second major European oriented multi-process HRO contract award in the past 6 months following a similar contract award by international retailer Ahold for their operations in Europe.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has awarded Unisys a contract to compete for task orders under the Systems Development and Integration--Next Generation (SDI-NG) contract for applications development, modernization operations and maintenance services. Unisys is one of five companies that were awarded the SDI-NG IDIQ contract, which has a term of one base year and four one-year options, which are exercisable at the sole discretion of the government. The contract has a ceiling value of $532 million.
Advertising Information
Outsourcing Alert reaches more than 94% percent of the Fortune 500 companies along with midsized and small businesses and is sent to over 115,000 opt-in subscribers on a weekly basis. For advertising information and rates, contact Debra Floyd.
February 01, 2012
Top Stories
IBM ACQUIRES WORKLIGHT...In a move that will help expand the enterprise mobile capabilities it offers to clients, IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire Worklight, a privately held Israeli-based provider of mobile software for smartphones and tablets. Financial terms were not disclosed. With this acquisition, IBM's mobile offerings will span mobile application development, integration, security and management. IBM says Worklight will become an important piece of its mobility strategy, offering clients an open platform that helps speed the delivery of existing and new mobile applications to multiple devices. It also helps enable secure connections between smartphone and tablet applications with enterprise IT systems.
XEROX JOINS SMB CLOUD FRAY...Xerox Corporation has introduced a new suite of cloud services form small-and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). The services will be sold through Xerox’s value-added resellers (VARs) and include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for midrange and Intel systems; Cloud Backup; and Disaster Recovery services. Xerox says the services also manage workload demand and are priced to serve SMBs that have annual revenue of $10 million to $250 million.
Separately, Xerox announced that it is retiring the name Affliated Computer Services or ACS and the business process and IT company it acquired two years ago will now be known as Xerox.
SALESFORCE INTRODUCES DESK.COM...Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. As with all Salesforce services, this newest one is cloud-based; subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. The target audience is small to midsized businesses (SMBs)that heavily rely on Twitter and Facebook to field customer complaints and service queries.
UNISYS FINANCIALS...Unisys Corporation reported fourth-quarter 2011 net income from continuing operations of $94.3 million, or $1.94 per diluted share. This compared with fourth-quarter 2010 net income from continuing operations of $95.2 million, or $2.20 per diluted share. For the full year of 2011, Unisys reported pretax income of $206.0 million and net income from continuing operations of $120.5 million, or $2.71 per diluted share. The results included $85.2 million of pretax charges related to debt reduction. This compared with full-year 2010 pretax income of $222.9 million and net income from continuing operations of $158.9 million, or $3.67 per diluted share.
BUYINGTEAM TO REBRAND AS PROXIMA, LAUNCHES MICROSITE...buyingTeam, Europe's leading provider of end-to-end procurement services, announced that it will transition to a new brand and from February 20, 2012, will be known as Proxima. The move reflects the scope and range of services that the company now offers its portfolio of blue-chip multi-national clients, driven by the growing importance that businesses place on procurement as a strategic corporate function in today's challenging economic environment. Details can be found at the company's new microsite.
Cognizant is doing good and doing well. The technology consultancy wants to stem the tide of slowly degrading technical education in the U.S. It has just made a $1 million grant over three years to bolster the technology and engineering portions of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. Read more...
New Deals
The U.S. Navy has awarded CSC a task order to instruct naval aviation simulator training programs as part of its ongoing national defense mission. With an estimated $60 million total value, the task order, awarded during CSC's fiscal 2012 third quarter, has a one-year base period and four one-year options.
The Basque Regional Government has selected Accenture to develop a strategic cost transformation program for the Department of Internal Affairs responsible for policing and public safety. Accenture will provide management consulting services to drive rapid cost reduction and operational efficiencies across the department's fleet management activities.
CGI Federal Inc.(CGI), a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group Inc. has been selected by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) for its five-year, US$20.76 million cloud modernization project led by the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT).
Advertising Information
Outsourcing Alert reaches more than 94% percent of the Fortune 500 companies along with midsized and small businesses and is sent to over 115,000 opt-in subscribers on a weekly basis. For advertising information and rates, contact Debra Floyd.
January 25, 2012
Top Stories
ACCENTURE ACQUIRES NEO METRICS...Accenture has entered into an agreement to acquire Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., a leading consulting firm specializing in optimization and predictive analytics based in Madrid. Upon closing, the acquisition will add Neo Metrics' research and development capabilities and assets to Accenture's analytics portfolio, including Neo Metrics' advanced modeler solution, which automatically generates insight from any source of information and creates industrialized, highly-accurate analytical models.
UNISYS HELDS NOAA TRANSITION TO CLOUD-BASED SYSTEM..Unisys Corporation announced the successful completion of a project to transition 25,000 users in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the Google Apps for Government email and collaboration platform--the largest transition to Google's cloud services by a federal agency to date. NOAA expects the new tools to help increase user productivity within the agency and to reduce operations costs by about 50 percent compared to in-house solutions. As a major subcontractor to Earth Resources Technologies Inc. (ERT), Unisys provided engineering and transition services to NOAA, including communications management and training. The team, which also included Google and Tempus Nova, completed all work on schedule, and NOAA transitioned to the new system in December 2011.
EARNINGS HIGHLIGHTS: Tata Consultancy Services - Net Income at $568 million up 9.1% Y-o-Y. Operating margins up 213 basis points at 29.2%. Growth seen across all markets and industries; Volume up 3.2%...WNS - Fiscal year 2011 revenues of $616.3 million, up 5.8% from fiscal 2010. 2011 net income1 of $9.8 million, compared to $3.7 million in fiscal 2010. Fiscal year 2011 diluted income per ADS of $0.21, compared to $0.08 in fiscal 2010...Infosys - Net income up 33 percent to $458M in the three months ended Dec. 31, from 17.8 billion rupees a year earlier...HCL Technologies - Consolidated net profit of INR5.73 billion for the October-December period, compared with INR4.00 billion a year earlier. Consolidated sales climbed more than 35% to INR52.45 billion. Net profit grew more than 15% and sales rose 13%.
WNS TEAMS UP FOR BI SOLUTION FOR UTILITIES...WNS announced its collaboration with Knowledge Relay LLC, a leading provider of Operational Business Intelligence products and services, to offer Data-to-Decision (D2D) services to its global clients in the Energy and Utilities segment, through user-driven, self-service operational business intelligence solutions.
While the typical benchmarking clause in an outsourcing agreement provides the opportunity to benchmark the services, many clients find third-party benchmarks to be expensive, disruptive and time-consuming. There is a better way.
New Deals
Taylor Wimpey, one of the largest homebuilders in the UK, has renewed its IT outsourcing contract with Logica for another five years, in a deal worth £15.2 million. Taylor Wimpey has been a Logica customer for nine years and this new deal will see the relationship extend to 2016. Logica will provide outsourcing of IT infrastructure management, technical applications support, managed testing and project delivery services for the UK house building business, with work taking place from Logica locations in the UK, India, and the Philippines.
Advertising Information
Outsourcing Alert reaches more than 94% percent of the Fortune 500 companies along with midsized and small businesses and is sent to over 115,000 opt-in subscribers on a weekly basis. For advertising information and rates, contact Debra Floyd.
January 18, 2012
Top Stories
SYMANTEC ACQUIRES LIVEOFFICE...Symantec has acquired cloud-based archiving firm LiveOffice for $115 million. LiveOffice partnered with Symantec as its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the firm's Enterprise Vault offering, but will now be fully integrated into the company. Symantec said the deal would help bridge the gap between its storage and eDiscovery units, as well as increase its presence in the cloud computing space. Symantec will now be able to offer on-premise, cloud or hybrid solutions, allowing for a bigger push of its governance portfolio. LiveOffice, based in Torrance, California, offers a variety of storage and e-discovery services, for e-mail, instant messaging, social media, file sharing and other applications in order to meet regulatory requirements. The company works with 20,000 companies in 50 countries, according to its website.
ADP BUYS RANSTAD'S INDIAN PAYROLL BUSINESS...ADP has acquired the Indian payroll business of Randstad Holding nv, NYSE Euronext Amsterdam, from its Indian subsidiary Ma Foi Randstad. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Ma Foi Consulting Solutions Ltd., the Indian company acquired by ADP from Ma Foi Randstad, offers managed payroll services and social benefits administration to clients across India through a fully customized payroll engine. The company uses this platform to serve approximately 350 brand-name multinational and domestic clients. As part of the transaction, ADP will take on a team of over 200 new associates.
ACCENTURE TO BUILD 1ST G-CLOUD ENVIRONMENT IN FRANCE...The French Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (DILA) has awarded Accenture a three-year contract to design, build and deliver its Next Generation Data Center, the G-Cloud, in France. The contract supports the government's strategic technology goals to create savings by controlling costs. Accenture will work with DILA to build a more flexible IT infrastructure to increase access, availability and performance of nationwide public services offered to French citizens. The information will be stored on the country's first government cloud.
Insurers gather and store a tremendous amount of data. Predictive analytics combine powerful, fully automated discovery and analysis technologies to enable insurers to prepare for the future by learning from the past. Tell us what you think on the Outsourcing Buzz Blog.
New Deals
HP Enterprise Services and Blue Shield of California have signed a new five-year contract,extending a relationship that has spanned more than 43 years. HP will continue providing Applications Development and Management Services for more than 100 Blue Shield core administrative data and corporate systems. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
Cognizant has been selected as a strategic partner by INTTRA, a leading provider of e-commerce solutions for the ocean freight industry, to streamline INTTRA's applications and quality assurance portfolios. As part of the multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement, Cognizant will provide a range of application development, application maintenance, testing, and quality assurance services using the managed services model.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) awarded CSC a task order to provide hosting services for its primary acquisition applications. The task order, which was awarded during CSC's second quarter of fiscal year 2012, has a two-month base period, four one-year options and one 10-month option, bringing the estimated total value to $45 million over five years.
Rio Tinto and CGI Group Inc., announced the renewal and expansion of their outsourcing contract. The three-year contract extension is valued at approximately $60 million.
Advertising Information
Outsourcing Alert reaches more than 94% percent of the Fortune 500 companies along with midsized and small businesses and is sent to over 115,000 opt-in subscribers on a weekly basis. For advertising information and rates, contact Debra Floyd.