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Infosys BPO–HVS Alliance
Infosys BPO and HVS International, a New York-based consulting and services organization, have announced a strategic alliance to offer outsourcing solutions in the hospitality industry. The Infosys BPO-HVS global alliance will leverage HVS consulting expertise and market reach in the hospitality industry and the process outsourcing capabilities of Infosys BPO to develop and execute domain-specific, predictable, and process centric solutions to improve productivity and optimize costs for companies in the global hospitality industry.

UnicornHRO Buys BMH
UnicornHRO, a provider of human resources (HR), benefits and payroll solutions, has acquired BMH, the Dallas-based developer of Open4 HR information and payroll solutions. The acquisition will strengthen UnicornHRO's position as a major provider of hosted and outsourced HR/Payroll services for the middle market and expand its capabilities and resources to better serve an installed base of 800 companies supporting over 3 mn employees throughout North America.

FAO market to Grow by 30% in 2007
The Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) market will grow by 30% in 2007, says a study by The Everest Group. According to the study, North America-based contracts continue to account for over half of FAO revenues, with increasingly rapid growth in Continental Europe. In 2006, Genpact, HP, Infosys BPO and Xansa significantly increased their market share.

Kimberly-Clark Outsources F&A Services to Genpact
Kimberly-Clark has outsourced a five-year contract to provide finance and accounting activities to Genpact. The contract is a part of Kimberly-Clark's global competitive improvement initiatives, which were announced in July 2005. Under the terms of the outsourcing agreement, Genpact will support the company's global operations in the areas of accounts payable and travel expenses, pricing administration, accounting-to-reporting and supply-chain accounting.

Expedia Signs Deal with APAC Customer Services
Expedia Corporate Travel, a full-service travel agency, has signed multiyear outsourcing agreement with APAC Customer Services, a provider of customer-care services and solutions. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Under the terms of the outsourcing agreement, APAC will provide customer-care services to Expedia Corporate Travel. The services will be provided from APAC's Tucson customer-care facility.

MCL, N Hunter Ink Outsourcing Deal
MCL Software, an Experian company, has signed a new five-year agreement with N Hunter to provide the National Hunter system, a leading anti-fraud data sharing service. Under the new agreement, MCL will provide the National Hunter system for a further five years, and will also be responsible for the technology and operational infrastructure required to support the National Hunter scheme. As part of this new agreement, a new third-party interface is to be developed to enable members to access the database.

Right Hemisphere–TCS Partnership
Right Hemisphere has formed a strategic alliance with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to deliver and support state-of-the-art technical documentation solutions worldwide. The collaboration will provide customers with a one-stop solution for outsourcing work in product lifecycle management publishing. TCS will provide services in technical publications encompassing document production, software implementation and software customization using Right Hemisphere's products.

Lux-Airport–Unisys Contract
Lux-Airport, the operator of the new airport terminal to be opened in the first half of 2008 in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, has awarded Unisys a five-year outsourcing contract to build and manage an IT infrastructure to support the airport's operations. Under this, Unisys will also build common-use infrastructure including self-service kiosks. The company will work closely on this with specialist software supplier RESA and will also provide technical management, support and help desk services for the next five years.

Firstsource Acquires BPM
Firstsource, formerly ICICI Onesource has acquired BPM, a US outsourcing company that owns MedPlans 2000 and MedPlans Partners, which are mainly in the business of processing healthcare claims on behalf of US clients. The acquisition will enable the company to offer a wide range of outsourcing services, including complex claims adjudication, clients-database management, policy administration and claims-processing capabilities in the US health-care market.

Macquarie's HR Deal to Accenture
Macquarie bank, an Australian investment bank, has awarded a HR contract to Accenture. The duration and financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. Under the terms of the contract, Accenture is expected to provide various back-office HR functions, including payroll and administrative functions. In December 2006, the bank said that it is likely to use Accenture's expertise to move about 175 data processing and administration jobs to India in early 2007.

Computacenter Acquires Digica
Computacenter Services, an IT-infrastructure services provider, has acquired Digica, a transformational outsourcing and managed IT services provider, for about $30.6 mn. Computacenter will also clear the debts ($23.3 mn) of Digica. Digica provides data center managed services and SAP/Oracle application services from purpose built datacenters in Nottingham, Warrington, Leeds and an off-shore center in Cape Town, South Africa. The facility in Cape Town complements Computacenter Services' purpose-built service desk in Barcelona.

i-flex to Acquire Capco Subsidiary
i-flex solutions, a provider of IT solutions to the financial-services industry, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Singapore subsidiary of Capco, a provider of integrated transformation services and solutions designed for the financial-services industry. The acquisition will strengthen i-flex consulting's ability to provide high-end consulting to banks in the APAC region. The combined i-flex-Capco team provides a compelling pool of expertise to assist banks in business transformation, management of large technology implementations and addressing risk and compliance requirements.

China Telecom–PacificNet Epro Deal
China Telecom, a China-based fixed-service telecommunications provider, has awarded an outsourcing deal to PacificNet Epro, a China-based outsourced call center, customer relationship management (CRM) and telemarketing services, e-commerce, VAS and IVR, gaming and mobile Internet services provider. Under this deal, PacificNet Epro will enhance the CRM service-level and telemarketing-management capability of China Telecom's customer-services center. PacificNet Epro will also be responsible for various services, including call-center workflow design, business management, project Return on Investment, etc.

CSC Inks $150 mn Outsourcing Deals
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) has signed eight previously unannounced $150 mn IT contracts with leading organizations in Australia during this quarter. The agreements range from one to four years in duration and include new deals and renewals. The clients represent a variety of industries, including natural resources, the Australian federal government, financial services and utilities. CSC has also signed a five-year, $140 mn extension to an existing applications-management outsourcing contract.

SerWizSol to Set-up Domestic BPOs
SerWizSol, the BPO solutions company from the Tata Group, is set to expand in India by establishing vernacular BPOs targeting the domestic potential. According to Kuruvilla Markose, head of HR and training at E2E SerWizSol, the company would be establishing call centers in all state capitals shortly. Currently the company operates out of three locations, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Pune, and would be adding two or three centers in the next fiscal. The company would be investing close to Rs 10-15 crore for the expansion.