TCS acquires BridgePoint Group

Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization announced the acquisition of BridgePoint Group, LLC, and a US management consulting firm catering to the financial services industry, and specializing in retirement services, through the purchase of select company assets.

This acquisition augments TCS’ financial services and insurance domain knowledge, particularly in the area of US retirement services, where BridgePoint team of experts currently provide strategic insights and advisory services around growth, business agility, customer experience and technical transformation. TCS currently partners with eight of the top 10 US Banking, Financial services and Insurance Institutions, and offers retirement services across the globe.

BridgePoint entire management team and key experts will join TCS. Their deep customer relationships and significant industry knowledge adds to TCS’ ability to provide digital solutions that enhance sponsor and participant experience, and drive Business 4.0 transformations in the $1 trillion US retirement services market.

The US retirement business is complex, so Bridge Point’s deep industry expertise and team of highly experienced consultants will enable TCS to develop a robust customer-focused retirement services business.

TCS acquires W12 Studios

Infotech (IT) firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has acquired London based digital design company W12 Studios for an undisclosed sum, marking its first digital acquisition. W12 Studios will be a part of TCS Interactive, which is the digital division of the IT service provider’s business and technology services unit.

With its bold, provocative and visionary approach to design, W12 Studios adds to TCS Interactive portfolio of services as it helps the world’s leading brands innovate, create and deliver unique digital experiences across the entire user journey.

W12 Studios, founded in 2012 by chief executive Fabian Birgfeld and creative chief Michael Albers will retain its current name, branding and location in London's historic Metropolitan Wharf in Wapping. The duo will continue to lead W12 Studios and keep their current roles.

TCS, which became the first Indian company in April to cross $100 billion in market value, is also looking at newer technologies such as Internet of Things, automation and cloud computing to push its digital revenue past the $5 billion mark this year.

Filipino BPO, Blackstone to acquire Serco India

Private equity giant Blackstone and Filipino BPO Company SPi Global remain in race for buying London listed Serco’s Indian BPO Unit.  The deal is said to be in the range of $400 Million. Formerly known as Intelenet, it had been sold by Blackstone to Serco for $634 Million in 2011. Out of both companies, only one company will win the bid to acquire Serco BPO Unit.

Intelenet was set up in 2000 as a 50-50 venture between HDFC and TCS. In 2004, HDFC acquired TCS stake for 160 crore to sell it to Barclays later. In 2007, Blackstone bought an 80 percent stake in Intelenet for about $260 Million. When it sold Intelenet in 2011, Blackstone had a 66 percent stake and rest was divided among Barclays, HDFC and the management team. Blackstone had managed to get more than a 60 percent return on its four year investment.

Serco had announced the future strategy of the company would be to focus on being a Business to government service provider across five core areas and four key regions. SPi Global, a leading diversified BPO service provider in Philippines operates on offshore based model primarily serving US and Europe Customers with more than 20,000 employees across 17 delivery locations in six countries, including India, US, China, Vietnam, and Nicaragua.

In April 2012, Serco Group had bought all its BPO assets together to create Serco Global Services. Serco BPO operation is largest in India after Genpact and TCS. 

Infosys Buys Panaya

Infosys is an Indian Multinational corporation that provides business consulting, information technology, software engineering, and outsourcing services. It is headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. Panaya is American software as a Service (SaaS) company that provides cloud based quality management services for enterprise applications worldwide. Its services run on the Amazon Product Advertising API.

Infosys announced that it would buy automation technology company Panaya Inc, at an enterprise value of about $200 Million, as the third largest IT Company in the world looks to boost competitiveness and margins. Panaya Technology would help it to bring automation to several service lines through software as a service model, reducing risks, costs, and the time taken to bring services in the market.

For $8.25 Billion turnover Infosys, which has a cash reserve of $5.4 Billion, this is the second largest acquisition after the September 2012 buyout of Switzerland based SAP services company Loadstone Management Consultancy for $345 Million. Infosys is acquiring Panaya at a time when IT services companies are laying greater emphasis on automation as workforce optimization holds key to profitability for the industry which is primarily driven by human resource.

Infosys and its peers TCS, Wipro, and HCL have been deploying automation to enhance delivery to their clients. Infosys has been traditionally shy of acquisition making less than half a dozen buyouts in its existence of over 33 years most of which were small with deal size below $50 Million. Infosys has been making big bets on automation and other new technology like artificial intelligence and cloud based services as the company tries to regain some lost ground from rivals like Tata Consultancy Services.

Cognizant Buys Trizetto

Cognizant is a global leader in information technology, consulting, and business process services. It provide services such as claims processing, billing and call center operations to insurers, hospitals and some state run health care exchanges set up under President Barack Obama’s affordable care Act, as known as Obamacare. Colorado based Trizetto provides information technology services, including care management and the administration of benefits. 

Cognizant struck up its biggest deal, acquiring healthcare IT services provider Trizetto Corp for $2.7 Billion. It is the biggest acquisition in Indian IT sector. Healthcare is undergoing structural shifts due to reform, cost pressure, and shifting responsibilities between payers and providers. Trizetto will provide Cognizant to increase their market share. In 2008, Apax acquired Cognizant, a London based private equity firm. Trizetto was built up through 16 acquisitions in last 15 years, according to their website. It serves about 350 health care plans and supplies software to almost 245,000 doctors and other care providers.

Following this acquisition, Cognizant grip on the segment will increase further, leaving behind peers like WIPRO, Infosys, and TCS. At present, healthcare accounts for around 26 percent of Cognizant revenue, which is estimated to go up to 30 percent on integration with Trizetto. Cognizant and Trizetto have had a long-term relationship. This acquisition represents a great opportunity to integrate services across three horizons. Traditional IT services, high growth businesses like management consulting, business process services, and IT infrastructure services and will provide greater value to clients.

There are lot of acquisitions and changes going on in Indian Healthcare sector. E-commerce sector is focusing on providing medical facilities online. Companies like Ranbaxy, Cipla, and Sun Pharma are into manufacturing of new medical products. IT sector is all set to provide services to clients and hospitals. Tech giants are developing products which includes health apps or which can tell people health status. We can assume that technology is going to play a major role in Healthcare sector and it is going to benefit millions of people. It is estimated that Healthcare business is to grow at a rapid pace.

Mobile apps for Managing People

Companies across sectors are increasingly using mobile apps to carry out resources related tasks such as recruitment and talent management, and cut the time that goes into key processes including collecting and filling data, and waiting for approvals. Let us look at some apps of some companies and their use.

TCS NextStep is an app used by TCS and is in use since 2012. Candidates can register for a job from this app and track the status of the job. This app gives update on the interview location and Google maps synchronize it. Candidates can view and save their offer letter with the help of app., TCS is using the app as its main hiring tool. By this app, TCS hiring process has become paperless. Companies have seen a 20-30% increase in the adoption of application.

Zoho People is an app developed by Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd and is in use since November 2013. Zoho is Chennai based CRM software Provider Company. Zoho People allows people to mark their attendance. Instead of swiping card to enter office, the app lets employees to log in the check in and checkout times. Employees find this useful to check in to work, especially when they work from client locations and it helps keep a check on their activity. The company will include a leave request feature through which employee can apply for leave and their managers can accept it over mobile device.

SuccessFactors is an app used by Godrej Industries Ltd since December 2013. The app has features such as job requisition approvals, interview feedback, offer approvals, and performance evaluations and lists the number of tasks pending against the feature, making it a ready reckoned for executives. The user interface of this app is designed in such a way that it lays out all necessary details on a single page. The interview feedback feature allows senior executives to view the overall rating given to a candidate, view the resume, and even see if the potential hire fits the budget of the organization. This leads to more efficiency in the recruitment process.

Workday is an app used by Philips India Ltd since April 2014. This app let executives enter objectives of employees and track them on a real time basis. They also help executives log in feedback given on projects on a real time basis. It also generates manpower requests across the organization, and is looking to upgrade it to performance and talent management functions over the next few months.

With continuous change in technology, companies are now shifting their focus on the use of smartphone for all their work. Internet is also playing a major role in executing all processes. This is also reducing use of paper work in the companies and connectivity is more in using mobile apps. It also requires less number of employees in executing processes and it is easy to sort data out of it.