Monthly Archive:: February 2014
What If CSC and HCL Get Brave?
On February 27, 2014 In Thought Leadership
CSC and HCL announced an alliance a few weeks ago, which is more of a go-to-market than structural change. But what if the twosome were to agree to a follow-on alliance to do something really big — something with huge industry and market consequences? It would be extremely brave and very risky. But it
The Ethical Dilemma of Service Provider Innovation
On February 26, 2014 In Thought Leadership
I must confess I look askance at how some services customers think. They want to keep their cake and eat it too. But it’s batty and preposterous to think you can have something both ways if the two ways conflict. We’re seeing schizophrenia in the marketplace. Customers look to the provider community for insight
The ABCs of WNS
On February 25, 2014 In Thought Leadership
The jury’s in — the back-to-basics strategy is working at WNS. The results of this strategy pop out in its FQ3-14 earnings report. Net revenue increased 5 percent to $120 million. Gross profit increased 16 percent year over year to $45 million. SG&A expense went down four percent. Adjusted earnings per share rose to
Notable Numbers: Payment Companies Outperform in BPO
On February 19, 2014 In Thought Leadership
If you owned stock in major BPO companies in 2013, you’re happy, as most of them outperformed the S&P stock market. But you’re a really happy stockholder if you invested in payment transaction companies — those returns are almost twice as sweet as most of the other BPO stocks! As a group, payment transaction
CSC’s Path: One to Watch
On February 14, 2014 In Thought Leadership
Under new CEO Mike Lawrie, CSC’s well-publicized turnaround is showing increased momentum. He put CSC on a new path, and that strategic shift shows modest improvement in margins. But they still have a big wrinkle to iron out — despite increased profits, CSC’s revenue has been flat to down. The question is: Will the
Infosys Makes a Turnaround, but Has Miles to Go Before It Sleeps
On February 11, 2014 In Thought Leadership
INFY’s December 2013 quarterly report demonstrates that Murthy’s back-to-basics strategy is starting to show fruit with Infosys upping its guidance for both revenue and earnings. Its year-over-year revenue growth of 9.8 percent is encouraging; however, when we compare it to the performance of industry leaders TCS and Cognizant, it is clear that there is
We Don’t Get Innovation
On February 10, 2014 In Thought Leadership
The lack of innovation from service providers is a constant and mournful refrain echoing around the industry. This plaintive and mournful dirge reminds me of Sisyphus, who was cursed to endlessly roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it tumble back down, never achieving satisfaction. Likewise, the unending efforts of service providers
Rethinking Outsourced Application Development and Testing
On February 5, 2014 In Thought Leadership
The cloud revolution is breaking down walls surrounding existing outsourcing arrangements. In fact, the business case for some outsourced workloads crumbles in light of opportunities in the cloud. In a traditional data center or IT outsourced infrastructure model, you pay for the capacity 24/7; but in a cloud environment, you pay only for what
HP’s Most Difficult Challenge Has Yet to Hit
On February 4, 2014 In Thought Leadership
To date the cloud has not been a major disruption in the traditional outsourcing market. Rather, cloud has attacked the rogue IT or departmental processing market. But we believe that this tide will now turn inward onto the enterprise space, where HP and other infrastructure players live. How will HP take on cloud disruption?