DIGEST: BPO

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.