Information Technology and BPO services provider Patni Computer Systems said on Tuesday it has won a multi-million dollar deal from Universal American, a senior health insurance company in the US. “It is a five-year agreement for providing end-to-end policy administration services for Universal American Corp,” Patni Computer said in a statement here.

In addition, Patni has also signed a definitive agreement to acquire CHCS Services Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Universal American, it said. Commenting on the development, Patni CEO Jeya Kumar said, “This move takes on dual significance for Patni in terms of growing our global life and healthcare insurance business as well as establishing us as a Third-Party Administrator (TPA).”

The acquisition would create a new hub for Patni in Pensacola Fla, and establish a new line of business for the company as a TPA in the insurance and healthcare sector, it pointed out.

“This acquisition is a major milestone in our endeavour to expand our platform based offerings,” Patni SVP and Global Head - BFSI Ganesh Iyer said. Source

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is in talks to sign IT services, BPO deal with Mahindra Satyam, reports CNBC-TV18, quoting sources. The talks with Mahindra Satyam are post LIC’s stake buy in Tech Mahindra.

The management of both LIC, Mahindra Satyam are discussing the contours of the deal, which is likely to be between USD 300 and USD 500 million.

On March 29, sources told CNBC-TV18 that Mahindra Satyam is one of the selected vendors, of which only three will be selected for the final round of the government’s unique identification (UID) project. Wipro, HCL Tech, TCS, Infosys, eClerx, Cognizant, and IBM are among the selected vendors. Source

Although Cebu has topped last year’s survey as the world’s top emerging destination for outsourcing and off-shoring, an industry leader here bewails the lack of enough manpower in Cebu’s business process outsourcing (BPO) to meet growing demand in the sector.

“Cebu does not have enough economies of scale to supply BPO firms that continue to expand here. We don’t have to attract more BPO investors but we must in the short term address the problem on human resource,” said Joel Mari Yu, Managing Director of the Cebu Investment and Promotions Center (CIPC), an organization tasked to market Cebu to foreign and local investors.

Citing an industry survey, Yu said BPO companies here could easily hire 5,000 employees each month or 60,000 people annually working as either call center agents or technical support representatives, among others. (more…)

HCL Technologies reported a better-than-expected net profit growth during the March ’10 quarter on account of strong business volumes and lower foreign exchange losses. But the slack in its BPO division marred operating profit and overall profitability. The scenario is not likely to change soon since the BPO segment is expected to take at least three quarters to stage a turnaround.

The business process outsourcing (BPO) division of the country’s fourth-largest listed IT player has been facing problems for long. In the past, HCL Technologies’ CEO Vineet Nayar, during a conference call, had admitted that the segment remained neglected and needed an overhaul.

A look at past data reveals that BPO has gradually lost its significance in HCL’s overall strategy. Three years ago, the division operated at a margin of 15% and accounted for 16% of revenue. Today, this proportion has shrunk to just over 8% with an operating loss. The segment has not shown much progress on the revenue front either. Its March ’10 quarter revenue of $52 million (approximately Rs 239 crore) reflects a growth of a meagre 4.6% over the three-year ago level. During the same period, the revenue of the IT services division has increased two-folds fuelled by inorganic expansion. (more…)

Quatrro BPO Solutions, founded by Raman Roy, received its second round of venture funding worth $13 million from Walden International, Olympus Capital and other individual investors. While Olympus participated in Quatrro’s first round of funding worth $90 million earlier, Walden invested $8 million as part of the latest fund-raising by the back-office firm.

The four-and-a-half-year old Quatrro BPO Solutions, which offers services, such as accounting, technology support, mortgage, fraud control, information management and testing services, plans to use the fund to drive its organic and inorganic growth strategy. Says Raman Roy, CMD, Quatrro BPO Solutions: “The additional funding gives us dry powder to work on deals.”

For Walden, which is known to invest in start-up phase in companies, this is the fourth investment in India after MindTree Consulting, in which it invested almost a decade back. It has also invested in Anantara Solutions and CoOptions Technology, in which it had invested $5.5 million in November last year. Quatrro is Walden’s first investment in a BPO company in India. (more…)

Davao tops the list of the 2010 Top 10 Next Wave Cities for outsourcing operations as the city scored high on availability of qualified talent and infrastructure that more than make up for its low scores on business environment and risk management, and cost.

The annual list of Next Wave Cities, prepared by the Commission on ICT, Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), was announced Friday. Those that made it to the list are areas that have been identified to possess all the criteria to host BPO operations.

Completing the list of the 2010 Next Wave Cities are Sta. Rosa in Luguna, Bacolod City, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro City, Malolos City, Baguio City and Dumaguete City. (more…)

Business process outsourcing firms across the country are drawing in new leadership as they face challenges in services delivery and
growth. The $11-billion, decade-old sector that redefined working out of India for global Fortune 500 companies for thousands of youngsters fresh out of college, is now looking for fresh faces to drive its next phase of growth.

Last week’s change of guard at Firstsource Solutions, with Matthew Vallance replacing MD & CEO Ananda Mukherji, comes close on the heels of Infosys BPO, WNS Global Services and Vertex appointing new heads to run the business.
Keshav Murugesh took over as CEO of WNS Global Services and Infosys BPO appointed Swaminathan Dandapani as CEO. At Genpact, India’s largest BPO company, NV Tyagarajan recently relocated to India from the US where he led the sales effort, to play a bigger role in the company.

“Firstsource was Ananda’s baby. In nine years, he grew it from zilch to about $400 million. There’s a sense of having done something and now you need fresh legs,” says K Sudarshan, managing partner at executive search firm EMA Partners International. (more…)

BPO service provider, Firstsource, today said its Managing Director and CEO Ananda Mukerji would be stepping down from his current position on July 27. Matthew Vallance, currently Joint Managing Director & President, BFSI & Telecom and Media and member of the Firstsource Board will succeed Mukerji as Managing Director & CEO, a press release issued here said.

From that date (July 27), Ananda Mukerji will assume the position of non-executive Vice-Chairman on the Board of Firstsource, the release said.

“Ananda has led the company since its inception and has established Firstsource as one of India’s largest pure-play BPO companies. The Board is pleased to accept his recommendation of appointing Matthew Vallance as his successor,” Firstsource’s Chairman, Ashok Ganguly, said. (more…)

Domestic IT and BPO service providers are yet to grasp the basic spirit behind data security even as their overseas clients worry more and more about terror strikes in India, according to a survey of Indian firms and their overseas clients. The survey, conducted by Forrester Research, found that Indian companies were confusing gadgets and technology for the real need — a culture of security.

“Most vendor initiatives are merely gestures or marketing activities rather than genuine efforts at holistic change,” concludes the report titled ‘How secure is your offshore work?’, targeted at the customers of offshoring companies.

The primary problem that the survey hit upon was the underestimation of the human element by Indian firms. Forrester’s interactions with employees revealed that companies had not communicated the need for data security to their employees fully, but were instead relying on gadgets and gizmos. (more…)

AYALA CORP. WANTS TO INVEST more in the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to ride on the sector’s booming prospects over the next few years.

Alfred Ayala, president of the group’s BPO holding arm Live It Solutions Inc., said they were in preliminary talks with several firms after successfully spending $200 million to acquire outsourcing companies over the last three years.

“There’s nothing formal yet,” he said.

“We don’t have a specific [budget for acquisitions] anymore, but we’re definitely looking. It’s more opportunistic at this point,” Ayala said. (more…)