Deals

Bharti shortlists five cos for $1-bn Africa IT outsourcing deal
Bharti Airtel has shortlisted three multinational firms and two home-grown IT majors for its billion dollar plus IT outsourcing contract in Africa.  IBM, which currently handles Bharti’s IT for India and Sri Lanka along with Hewlett Packard and Accenture are among the multinational vendors that have made it to the shortlist. Also, Wipro and Tech Mahindra are the Indian vendors in the running for what could be one of the largest IT deals spread across 15 geographies in Africa.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/Bharti-shortlists-five-cos-for-1-bn-Africa-IT-outsourcing-deal/articleshow/6203688.cms

Patni Americas Wins Deal with Insurance Processor
InsPro Technologies (InsPro), a provider of comprehensive and flexible Life & Health insurance processing solutions, announced today a teaming agreement is in place with Patni Americas, Inc. (Patni), a leading global IT and BPO services provider.
http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/patni-americas-wins-deal-insurance-processor/4784/

General Motors Renews $2 Billion HP Enterprise Services Agreement Supporting Vehicle Design and Production
HP Enterprise Services has been awarded a multiyear applications and infrastructure services contract valued at more than $2 billion to help General Motors Company.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2010/100721a.html

Capgemini Renews Two Outsourcing Contracts with General Motors
Capgemini announced the signing of two long-term contract renewals with General Motors Holdings, LLC (GM) to provide application outsourcing services for GM’s Global Sales & Marketing and Dealer Systems.  The combined value of the 5-year agreements is approximately $250 million (€190 million).
http://www.capgemini.com/news-and-events/news/capgemini-renews-two-outsourcing-contracts-with-general-motors/

EXL Signs Multi-year FAO Contract with Petrogas
ExlService Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:EXLS), has signed a multi-year contract with Petrogas, the largest independent operator of the Applegreen chain of service stations in Ireland. EXL will provide finance and accounting services to Petrogas and manage its entire finance and accounting operations.
http://www.exlservice.com/pressreleasedetails.aspx

IBM Signs with Desjardins Group to help transform its IT operations
Desjardins Group, the largest cooperative financial group in Canada, has selected IBM to help assist its infrastructure operations transformation. The agreement includes outsourcing of its centralized IT infrastructure operations and hosting services under a five-year contract.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32148.wss

Sun Life Financial Awards Accenture Multi-Year Application Development and Management Services Contract
Accenture has signed a multi-year application services agreement with Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, a member of the Sun Life Financial group of companies, to develop, implement and manage a variety of applications that support the insurer’s operations in Canada.
http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5039

The European Union Awards Accenture Multi-Year IT Systems Management and Development Contract
The Taxation and Customs Union Directorate General (DG TAXUD) has awarded Accenture an IT systems management and development contract to support the European Commission’s CUST-DEV2 program, which is designed to introduce a centralized and paperless customs system (eCustoms) across the EU by 2013.
http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5037

M&A, Partnerships, JV

Hewitt Associates to Acquire Leading U.S. Investment Advisory Firm, EnnisKnupp
Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire EnnisKnupp, a trusted and leading provider of investment advisory services to large institutional investors.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/press-release/hew_hewitt-associates-to-acquire-leading-u-s-investment-advisory-firm-ennisknupp-1051875.html

IBM Closes Acquisition of BigFix
IBM has completed the acquisition of BigFix, Inc., a privately-held company based in Emeryville, Calif. BigFix helps organizations more intelligently secure the enterprise by managing and automating security and compliance updates on thousands of computers around the globe.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32149.wss

Ramco Systems and IDBLUE Announce RFID Partnership Agreement
Ramco Systems - the Global Aviation Maintenance & Engineering (M&E) and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) software provider, has reached a global partnership with IDBLUETM. Ramco Systems will provide end to end RFID solutions within the aerospace sector for MRO, aircraft and component, data identification, tracking, enhanced line maintenance and performance based utilization.
http://www.ramco.com/news/company_press_july_26_10.asp

News & Events

Dataquest India Top 50 IT Companies Rankings Released
The Dataquest Top 20 annual industry survey, tracks the growth of the IT and BPO industries and ranks the top companies by their revenue.
http://dqindia.ciol.com/dqtop20/2010/CompanyRanking/default.asp

Firstsource appoints Shalabh Jain as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Asia Business Unit
Firstsource Solutions, a global provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) services, has appointed Shalabh Jain as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Asia Business Unit.
http://www.firstsource.com/FirstSourceCMS/UploadedFiles/ArticlePDFFiles/ABU_Shalabh_Jain_july142010.pdf

Polaris’ Intellect Payment Services Hub (PSH) recognized in Leading Analyst Firm’s Payment Frameworks research
Polaris’ Intellect Payment Services Hub (PSH) has been included amongst the leading Payments solution in Gartner’s Payment Frameworks report.
http://www.polaris.co.in/media/media-release/2010-july-intellect-payment-gartner.pdf

Awards

Leading Analyst Firm Names Accenture 2009 Western Europe Market Share and Revenue Leader for Operations and Billing Systems Support, and Service Delivery Platform
Gartner, Inc. has recognized Accenture as the 2009 EMEA market share and revenue leader in Western Europe in three critical solution categories:  billing systems support (BSS), operations systems support (OSS) and service delivery platform (SDP). 
http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5033

CSC Named a Leading Vendor in Celent’s 2010 Insurance Software Deal Trends Study
Celent, a financial services technology research and advisory firm, has identified CSC as a leader in Property and Casualty (P&C) core claims in the P&C edition and as one of the leading vendors in the Infrastructure & Financial, Distribution and Policy Administration subcategories in both the Life/Health/Annuity and Property/Casualty editions.
http://www.csc.com/newsroom/press_releases/51426-csc_named_a_leading_vendor_in_celent_s_insurance_software_deal_trends_study

Analyst/Reports

Strategic Partnerships: Procurement is Not Governance
This paper explores the mistakes companies make when setting up governance structures for outsourced Application Development and Maintenance Services and how companies can move up the outsourcing maturity curve and improve the value of their outsourcing partnerships by re-evaluating their governance structures and practices.
http://bitURL.net/acmm

Inquiry Spotlight: Growing Demand for Vendor Management, Q1 and Q2 2010
Forrester tracked all of the inquiries sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals asked us in the first half of 2010 and found that 16% of them were focused on vendor management. This report highlights what your SVM peers are asking about vendor management and offers insights into those questions.
http://bitURL.net/acmq

Everest’s Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) market report, Benefits Administration 0utsourcing – Resilient Demand, Dynamic Supplier Landscape
This research study analyzes the BAO market across various dimensions. It focuses on Market overview and key business drivers; Buyer adoption trends; Current transaction characteristics; Supplier landscape; and Implications for buyers and suppliers.
http://bitURL.net/acmn

Global Sourcing 2.0 - Evolving Global Delivery Imperatives for Outsourcing Service Providers
This Everest report analyzes the global delivery trends and imperatives in outsourcing and discusses their implications for buyers and service providers.
http://bitURL.net/acmp