A couple of weeks ago, Atos invited a handful of IT analysts to join a briefing about its financial services unit. Being keen to get an update, I took my chance and joined the meeting. Some background facts on Atos in Financial Services In 2012, Atos generated 20% of its total revenue with clients from the financial services segment, making [...]

At the beginning of this week, I had a chance to visit the SAP Financial Services Summit in Den Haag that was dedicated to SAP’s partners in banking and insurance. I got a good insight into SAP’s recent accomplishments in the banking and insurance industry, which I’d like to share with you here. Recent achievements in FSI During 2012, SAP [...]

“…with an attractive offering, it is”. Several weeks ago, I published a note regarding the takeover of Höll Computer und Software by Avaloq. In the meantime, Avaloq made another bold move by creating a joint venture with German-based quirin bank. At the end of last year, the two organizations established the Avaloq Sourcing AG, a provider of business process services [...]

One of the UK’s more prominent software-as-as-service success stories, Ffastfill, announced today that it has received an offer to buy the company by Pattington, part of Dublin’s Ion Group. Pattington previously acquired another UK company operating in a similar space, Patsystems, so this looks like a consolidation play. Ffastfill’s directors have recommended the offer, which values the company at £106m [...]

There was a 10% fall in the value of IT services deals announced in 2012, based on new research from Pierre Audoin Consultants. PAC’s Deal Tracker, which records all publicly disclosed IT services contracts (including IT and business process outsourcing, consulting and systems integration deals), recorded €48bn of deals in 2012, which represented a decline from the €53bn logged the [...]

Testing services suppliers are looking to differentiate themselves in a number of ways, in what is becoming a highly competitive market. Some are building up expertise and IP around industry sectors, some are focusing on specific vendors (SAP, Temenos) and others are developing skills sets around particular technology areas (mobility, security). For Steria, the main focus is on quality excellence, [...]

Swiss-headquartered core banking software Avaloq just announced the takeover of German-based Höll Computer und Software GmbH. Avaloq is one of the leading providers of business applications to the banking sector. According to PAC’s rankings, Avaloq is the top provider of application software products to the banking sector in Switzerland (regarding revenue from software licenses and maintenance). Since the acquisition of [...]