Hewitt takes over RealLife HR

Hewitt Associates, Inc. is in the process of acquiring RealLife HR, a leading provider of benefits management services. RealLife HR delivers health and welfare benefits administration services via a proprietary platform. The company’s solutions are targeted at organizations with fewer than 15,000 employees and/or retirees.

Tata Consultancy Services bags BSNL order

(TCS) has penned a prestigious telecom services contract worth about US$ 140 million from BSNL recently. The project will see TCS deploy a complex set of data networks for BSNL's operations across the Northern and Western regions of India. The company will also implement operational support systems and business support systems components including CRM, billing, mediation, and directory enquiry, among others. Another big deal signed up by TCS is in the transportation space, where it will provide comprehensive IT, BPO, and infrastructure services to Hawaiian Airlines for the next five years. The end-to-end application maintenance and support services will be provided to the airlines core revenue accounting application through its global network delivery model. The services from TCS will ensure near zero risk, operational efficiencies, and sustainable cost advantages to the airlines.

Accenture and Microsoft in US$185 million deal

Accenture and Microsoft have signed a seven-year, US$ 185 million BPO agreement, whereby the former will provide Microsoft with a range of finance and accounting (F&A) and procurement services. As part of the contract, Microsoft will outsource some of its transactional finance activities and consolidate services currently provided by other vendors. The finance and accounting services to be provided by Accenture, will include accounts payable, travel and expense, and record-to-report functions, including fixed assets, general ledger, treasury and statutory reporting. On the procurement side, Accenture will provide services related to category management and requisition-to-purchase-order processing.

Apollo Health Street acquires Zavata

Apollo Health Street (AHS) has announced the acquisition of Zavata for about US$ 170 million. The acquisition will not only enhance AHS' position in the US outsourcing  market but will also enhance the company's existing skill sets in the healthcare BPO space. The transaction will be funded through both debt (worth USD 120 million) and equity (worth USD 50 million). The combined entity is expected to employ around 2,500 professionals across the US and India, while its customer base will exceed around 160 organizations.

BT renews contract with Xansa

British Telecom has extended its finance and accounting (F&A) outsourcing contract worth GBP 128 million for six years with Xansa. As part of the agreement, Xansa will continue to manage BT's various F&A functions in the UK. It will provide BT with F&A services, such as transaction processing, financial reporting, and ledger and payroll. The services will be provided through Xansa's onshore and offshore operations in the UK and India, respectively.

HeroITES takes over Telecm Service Centres

HeroITES has acquired Telecom Service Centres (TSC) for about GBP 40 million. Post-the acquisition, the combined entity will be rechristened TSC Hero and the management team of TSC will continue to be in charge of the new company. The transaction is likely to enhance the market potential and growth prospects of the merged entity in the European, Asian, and the US markets. Moreover, the acquisition will allow Lloyds' private equity arm Lloyds TSB Development Capital to exit from TSC.

Spanco consolidates outsourcing business into single subsidiary

Telesystems and Solutions has announced its plans to integrate its entire BPO operation into a single, wholly-owned subsidiary named Spanco BPO Ventures. Spanco BPO Ventures will now become a holding company for all Spanco Telesystems' BPO joint ventures (JVs), such as Bharat BPO Services. Spanco's Middle East JV (in which it holds a 51 percent stake) and international BPO JVs such as Respondez will also become a part of Spanco BPO Ventures.

Infovision increases investment, headcount

BPO services provider Infovision is looking at investing around Rs. 300 crore and hire about 16,000 professionals in the next three years, as part of its expansion plan. Overall, the company aims to grow five-fold during the period and serve existing and emerging verticals such as telecom, banking, hospitality, FMCG, airlines, retail, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. The company, which is headquartered in Delhi, expects to increase its number of employees to 25,000 by 2010 from the current figure of 9,000 across 23 offices in India.. Infovision is also targeting revenues of Rs. 1,000 crore in the next three years, up from the existing Rs. 200 crore turnover.

In keeping with the latest Government regulations and TRAI guidelines, Infovision has set up a Do Not Call Registry, which became operational on September 1. The company has invested over Rs 10 crore in setting up the DNCR, which will serve its 52 clients such as HSBC, HDFC and ABN-AMRO, among others.

3i buys into HCCA

3i Infotech Ltd has acquired 51 percent stake in BPO services provider HCCA Business Services Pvt. Ltd. It has done so to leverage HCCA’s delivery capabilities in HR operations, including large-scale payroll processing for clients in the BFSI (banking, financial, services and insurance) sector.

Kenexa takes over German consultancy

Kenexa Corporation has announced the acquisition of Germany-based HRC Human Resources Consulting GmbH. Headquartered in Munich, HRC Human Resources Consulting GmbH is a leading consultancy for business-orientated employee surveys in German-speaking countries. Kenexa Corporation, which has India operations in Hyderabad, provides outsourcing, employee research and software to help organisations more effectively recruit and retain a productive workforce.

The acquisition of HRC will provide additional proprietary content to Kenexa’s current survey and performance management offering and their offices will expand Kenexa’s geographical reach in mainland Europe — a key growth area for Kenexa.

Cisco unveils unified solution

Cisco has come up with unified communications solutions for IT and BPO companies, which enables improved productivity and enhanced security. For Cisco, the IT and BPO segments account for 30 percent of revenues. The company plans to help partners, including system integrators (SIs), go global with these solutions. Internet protocol (IP)-based networks help bring about convergence of voice, video and data for enterprises. The Cisco suite of products cover even security at the network level.

CSC Signs US$ 20 Million Outsourcing contract with Wilton Re

Computer Sciences Corporation has signed a 10-year, US$ 20 million business process outsourcing (BPO) contract with Wilton Re to support the privately owned life reinsurance group's growth strategy of acquiring large blocks of insurance policies. Under the agreement, CSC will transition approximately 80,000 policies acquired by Wilton Re to CSC's insurance BPO operations and provide full back-office administration services, including policy and claims administration, customer service, billing and premium processing, in support of the company's policyholders. CSC will also provide the scalable foundation for future Wilton Re acquisitions.

Capgemini bags five-year F&A BPO deal

Capgemini has won a five-year agreement with NXP by Philips, to provide end-to-end finance and accounting services.110 Indian staff will transfer to Capgemini, bringing its Indian F&A headcount to almost 1,500. Capgemini is stressing that this is its twentieth F&A deal that it has won in the past three years. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed, but we estimate its total contract value to be in the €10-€20m range.

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