At a local Analyst and Advisor Event in Frankfurt, Germany, TCS gave an update on its strategy and operations for the Central Europe (i.e. mostly German) region. Being the largest of the Indian IT service providers in Germany, with estimated revenues of €130m in FY 2011, the company has progressed significantly in building out its localization strategy for the German market. [...]

The increasing use of renewable energies – coupled with the phase-out of nuclear power in Germany – certainly forms the most disruptive change in the history of the energy sector. It significantly impacts the transmission grid infrastructure but – more importantly – causes a shift as it changes the interaction between distribution, supply, generation and transmission companies as well as consumers. Moreover, it requires [...]

In spring 2012, PAC interviewed 192 finance decision makers in medium-sized and large companies in the DACH region (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) on the status of their finance organization, strategic priorities, as well as experiences with and future plans for F&A outsourcing. The key findings are summarized below. The full report is available for download here (published in German). As a result [...]

Small and medium-sized enterprises are on the brink of a profound change: they are currently performing the technical groundwork to ensure that their employees will in the future enjoy greater freedom of choice with regard to where, when and with what they work. This was shown by a PAC survey of small and medium-sized German companies with 100 to 500 PC workstations on the topic of desktop virtualization.

Continuing its ‘string of pearls’ acquisition strategy, Capgemini announced in November 2011 that it acquired the Order-to-Cash (O2C) division from US-based Vengroff, Williams & Associates Inc. (VWA). The privately held company, founded in 1963, evolved from being a 3rd party collections agency to a specialist for O2C provision. The acquisition comprises two components. Firstly, Capgemini acquired the O2C operation, which [...]

At its Analyst and Advisor Event on October 6, 2011 in Duesseldorf, India-based IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services (‘TCS’) outlined its business development strategy for Central Europe (i.e. the DACH region). Part of the global industrial giant Tata Group and with annual revenues of USD8.1bn in 2010, TCS ranks among the Top 15 IT services players globally. With average [...]

The nature of Business Process Outsourcing is changing fundamentally. In the past, BPO has been characterized primarily by a labor arbitrage approach, such as shifting travel & expense management from London to Delhi. With salaries in India as well as Eastern European countries rising sharply (10-20% p.a. depending on location and skill sets), competitiveness is being eroded. Similarly, BPO providers [...]