Industry Updates : ITeS / BFSI Sector

3 May 2011: Firstsource to acquire 74 per cent stake in Sri Lanka telco's BPO arm 

BPO service provider Firstsource Solutions  said it will acquire a 74 per cent stake in Sri Lanka's telecom service provider Dialog Axiata PLC's BPO arm and the two firms will form a joint venture company called Firstsource - Dialog Solutions.

The joint venture company will manage Dialog's customer contact management operations across its mobile, fixed line, pay television and broadband businesses.

3 May 2011: EXL to acquire Outsource Partners for $91 million cash deal 

BPO company ExlService Holdings  announced it will acquire finance and accounting (F&A) outsourcing service provider Outsource Partners International (OPI) for cash deal of USD 91 million.

"The acquisition furthers EXL's strategic objective of leveraging technology and proprietary intellectual property in our solution offerings," said Rohit Kapoor, President and CEO of EXL.

2 May 2011: Tech Mahindra commences BPO operations in Philippines recruiting 600 associates 

Tech Mahindra announced that it has started BPO operations at Manila in the Philippines and has recruited 600 associates locally for this new operation. Through this new facility, Tech Mahindra will provide the client with contact centre support for sales and back office, customer care and technical support for their wireless postpaid, landline and broadband customers.

The announcement by the company comes in the wake of its recent deal roping in a Philippines-based telecommunications company as one of its BPO partners for strategic outsourcing.

2 May 2011: Tech Mahindra plans BPO ops in US, Europe Tech 

Mahindra Ltd plans to set up back-office operations in North America and Europe and could do this through acquisitions.

The business process outsourcing (BPO), or back-office business, which accounts for about 6 percent of Tech Mahindra's revenue, would see significant growth in this fiscal year to end-March 2012 driven by Africa, where it handles operations for Bharti Airtel, Sujit Baksi, president of the company's BPO business said.

1 May 2011: KV Kamath appointed new chairman of Infosys, Shibulal new CEO 

India's second-largest IT company Infosys announced that it had found three wise men who it hopes will reinvent and take it to the next level of growth. KV Kamath, non-executive chairman of ICICI Bank, will replace iconic founder NR Narayana Murthy, who will retire this year after nearly 30 years with the company. He will be helped by Kris Gopalakrishnan, the CEO, who has now been made new executive co-chairman. 

SD Shibulal, the chief operating officer, who briefly left the company in the 1990s to establish Sun Microsystems' e-commerce division, and is recognised as one of the company's best technical minds, will be the new CEO and MD.

29 Apr 2011: Indian IT lags global peers in healthcare vertical 

Indian IT majors have been slow to tap into the healthcare services vertical , which has in recent years has emerged among the fastest growing verticals after banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI). Being less affected by the recession and more open to IT spends, the healthcare space has grown in importance.

But there is no Indian IT company in the top 10 healthcare service providers' list brought out by Healthcare Informatics, a healthcare advisory outfit, for 2010. Global IT majors like Dell, CSC and Cognizant now have over $1 billion revenues coming in from their healthcare IT practices. 

But Indian IT majors are now looking to catch up with their global peers in the $100-billion global healthcare IT market. Wipro recently made a leadership change and is recruiting senior healthcare experts to tap the space. India's largest IT services company TCS recently announced that it is aggressively looking for healthcare acquisitions in Japan and Germany. 

29 Apr 2011: Mohandas Pai accepts Bangalore University's offer 

Mohandas Pai has agreed to co-chair the committee set up to form a new economics school at his alma mater Bangalore University. This is the first public role that Pai has agreed to undertake since he resigned as a board member at Infosys, and indicates the kind of roles he is interested in taking up in the future.

27 Apr 2011: Wipro chasing 25 deals of over $50 mn each: CFO 

Wipro Ltd, India's third-largest software services exporter, is chasing about 25 deals of over $50 million each, its chief financial officer said.

The company, which posted a 14 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, has been struggling to win large outsourcing contracts amid intense competition from local and global rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and IBM.

27 Apr 2011: Nasscom sees strong spurt in tech demand 

National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) sees a strong revival of demand that could not only help meet, but even exceed, growth expectations for 2011-12, newly-appointed Nasscom chairman for 2011-12, Rajendra S Pawar said.

26 Apr 2011: RBS appoints Devesh Kumar as Head of Equities, India 

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group announced the appointment of Devesh Kumar as Head of Equities, India, in a move to further grow its equities business in the country and the region.

Kumar is now responsible for all of RBS's cash equity (research and sales), equity derivatives and equity financing businesses in India.

He is based in Mumbai, reporting jointly to Peter Irvine, Head of Asia-Pacific (APAC) Equities, and Ramit Bhasin, Head of Markets, India.

26 Apr 2011: TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL duel MNCs for bigger US share

Looking to reach the $20-billion mark within the next few years, India's top technology firms are readying plans to gain a bigger share of their largest market, US, by aggressively chasing contracts being served by multinational rivals now. 

The strong showing of the IT majors in the last fiscal to March 2011, bullish hiring targets for the current fiscal and factors such as a 10%-plus wage increment reinforce the positive demand outlook for IT services in 2011-2012. FY11 was the first full year when clients resumed spending on IT after the recession and the fourth quarter sales indicate that demand will continue to be strong resulting in another year of double digit growth for Indian IT heavyweights. 

Infosys Technologies expects to hire 45,000 people in the current year, while Tata Consultancy Services has already made over 37,000 offers on campuses, indicating a strong order pipeline. "Rapid growth in business demand during FY11 resulted in the largest ever hiring effort in our history with a gross addition of 69,685 professionals during the year," said Ajoy Mukherjee, head - global human resources, TCS. 

25 Apr 2011: Infosys offering Finacle to more Indian banks 

Finacle, the banking product division of Infosys Technologies, is set to offer its core banking solution version 10 to more Indian banks. In India two banks have gone live with Finacle core banking solution version 10 and some more banks are implementing.

Finacle, with over 140 clients across 73 countries, has rolled out seven new products in FY 11 and three new products in FY 12.

25 Apr 2011: Tata Consultancy Services eyes acquisitions in healthcare in Germany and Japan  

Tata Consultancy Services , is eyeing acquisitions in Germany and Japan in the healthcare sector, as it looks to expand beyond its core U.S. market. TCS and smaller rivals Infosys Technologies and Wipro have been looking for overseas acquisitions to boost growth amid growing competition from global rivals such as IBM and Accenture.

25 Apr 2011: India key hub for global sourcing in financial services BPOs  

Global Business Process Outsourcing in the financial services sector has the potential to reach a market size of $250 billion, with India playing a key role, says a study by global consulting and research firm Everest Group.

The financial services BPO (FS BPO) sector, is a $16-18 billion market comprising nearly 40 per cent of the $40 billion global sourcing market.

India, Philippines and China are mature locations for FS BPO, while Eastern Europe, Central America and South America are witnessing the fastest growth, the report, titled, "Role of global sourcing in financial services BPO", said.

Read more...

Industry Updates : IT Sector

3 May 2011: TCS gets IT contract from ABN AMRO Clearing 

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd said that ABM AMRO Clearing Bank NV had selected its banking software solution as part of the bank's modernization programme. Financial details were not disclosed. 

3 May 2011: Agile gets $5.7 mn funding from IDG Ventures India 

Investment Financial services software-maker, Agile Financial Technologies, said it has got a USD 5.7 million funding from a group of investors led by venture capital fund IDG Ventures.
The series A financing will enable the company to go ahead with its organic and inorganic expansion plans in new markets.

2 May 2011: Hexaware, KPIT Cummins, Polaris to see price uptick in FY12 as demand rises 

Smaller, specialised software services firms are likely to see better pricing in FY12, as demand for the services they offer rises, partly offsetting the impact of higher costs on margins.

Analysts expect rates in verticals such as banking, financial services, insurance, energy, utilities and manufacturing to increase about 1 percent, along with applications such as enterprise resource planning, consulting and package implementation.

Companies such as Hexaware, KPIT Cummins Infosystems, Persistent Systems and Polaris Software Labare expected to see some improvement in pricing in the current fiscal.

  

2 May 2011: MindTree integrates its three units in one  

IT company MindTree informed National Stock Exchange that the company has integrated its Business Intelligence , Data Warehousing and Knowledge Services practices into a new unit of Data and Analytic Solutions (DAS) practice. 

2 May 2011: Wipro's Tarang Lab and CSA to provide testing service in India 

Wipro Technologies said its product qualification and compliance lab Tarang and Canada-based testing, certification and standards development organization CSA Group will collaborate for providing localized testing and certification services in India. 

  

2 May 2011: L&T Infotech selected for IRDA IT project 

Insurance regulator IRDA said it has selected L&T Infotech for implementation of a project aimed at providing data and information for analyzing insurance companies and regulatory decision making.
The objectives of the project would be to ensure efficient management of data and information received by IRDA from insurers, intermediaries and TPAs in the form of financial statements, investment schedule, actuarial reports & reports on re-insurance. 

 

29 Apr 2011: Infosys staff blame it on poor leadership, lack of aggression for sluggish performance 

A section of Infosys employees blame poor leadership and lack of aggression in the top management as key reasons for the firm's recent sluggish performance.

While 44% believe the firm was lacking in aggression, 30% of the employees blame poor leadership. 25% of employees, on the other hand, said bad market conditions was the reason for the slower growth numbers. The IT industry has seen a big spurt in demand since the global downturn ended but companies have also been warning on continuing uncertainties and employees seem to agree.

27 Apr 2011: Polaris Software acquires US firm IdenTrust Inc for $20 mn 

City-based banking, financial services and insurance software developer Polaris Software Lab Ltd.  announced the acquisition of an 85.3 percent stake in the US-based IdenTrust Inc for $20 million to enter the cloud computing space in a major way.

  

27 Apr 2011: Global Operating System mkt grew to $30.4 bn in 2010: Gartner 

Global operating system (OS) revenue grew 7.8 per cent in 2010 to total $ 30.4 billion, in 2010 on back of recovering demand for IT products and services, research firm Gartner said.

An operating system (OS) is software, consisting of programmes and data that runs on computers and manages various application softwares.

As the global economy recovered, worldwide OS revenue totalled $ 30.4 billion in 2010 from $ 28.14 billion in 2009, Gartner said.

  

22 Apr 2011: Patni loses two key executives after iGate deal 

Two of Patni's key executives, Ajay Chamania and Deepak Khosla, who head the company's growing business units of product engineering services and the India market respectively, have resigned.

Patni, which was acquired by smaller rival iGate earlier this year, is currently in the process of integrating different business units and overlapping functions. Patni's product engineering practice is a key vertical accounting for over 15% of the company's annual revenue and counts several large storage companies like EMC among clients.

This unit has also been seen as a core differentiator for Patni and Chamania, an old Patni hand who has been responsible for building this. Experts say this development could have some impact on Patni's clients in this unit in the months to come.

  

21 Apr 2011: HCL Technologies' strong showing lifts dark clouds over IT sector 

HCL Technologies' strategy of chasing growth over profitability to win customers over the last few months has paid off handsomely in the March 2011 quarter as many of these clients increased their spends, helping the company grow in revenues and profits above expectations. The country's fifth-largest software exporter laid to rest concerns about its profitability with a 17% sequential rise in net profit, powered by growth in its core infrastructure management services and software application services.

20 May 2011: Infosys on hunt for acquisitions in Europe & Japan; eyes cloud computing 

 Infosys Technologies Ltd  is on the hunt for acquisitions in Europe and Japan and in industries including healthcare and public services.

Gopalakrishnan, who is set to step down as chief executive and become co-chairman in August,  said by investing in new industries and geographies, Infosys was looking to build multiple engines of growth over the next 3-5 years.

"There are multiple strategic requirements for acquisition so those are the things we are looking at. Typically a smaller acquisition rather than a large one," he said.

Read more...