March 06, 2007

Genpact Acquires European SAP Provider ICE

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Genpact, a vendor of business and technology services, has announced the acquisition of ICE Enterprise Solutions, a European SAP (News - Alert) service provider established in 1996. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

ICE is an SAP Services Partner, Utilities Partner, and BW/SEM Partner in the Netherlands and an SAP Partner and StreamServe Partner in Spain. The firm specializes in serving large European multinationals in the manufacturing, utilities, oil & gas, insurance, and financial services industries.

Genpact counts GE, Nissan, Wachovia, Kimberly-Clark, Genworth, Air Canada, Penske, Linde Group among its clients in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Genpact President & CEO Pramod Bhasin said the acquisition "perfectly matches" the needs of clients looking for business process service providers with" broad and deep technology capabilities."

ICE Founder & CEO Cok Volgering said his company is "excited to be part of a growing enterprise that has so much promise for SAP clients worldwide."

"This acquisition is in line with our strategy," said Tajinder Vohra, Genpact Senior Vice President - Software, IT and Supply Chain Services, noting that Genpact has ERP, application and IT workers based in India, China, the UK, and the US, and provides Oracle (News - Alert) E-business suite products as well.

Bhasin said his company's "business impact" comes "by applying Lean Six Sigma process rigor across the board."

Genpact was created by GE and became a separate company in early 2005. In the past two years, Genpact has acquired over 27,000 workers. Services are delivered from 24 operations centers in seven countries, plus Holland and Spain with the acquisition of ICE.

The company claims "more than 2,000 Six Sigma-trained Green Belts and 500 Black Belts and Master Black Belts."

The Kolkata, India-based firm announced last October that it would be" ramping up" its Kolkata workforce to 5,000 associates by 2010. Currently, about 375 associates work at the Genpact’s city unit.

Genpact’s Kolkata site leader Indranil Choudhury, said at the time that with a large talent pool and a favorable industrial climate, "Kolkata is an important location for Genpact."

Last fall Genpact inaugurated an 80,000-sq ft facility leased out at the DLF IT Park in Rajarhat on the eastern fringes of the city. The center, which was inaugurated by West Bengal’s IT minister Debesh Das, has a capacity of 1,000 seats.

Genpact officials said they would undertake "knowledge process outsourcing services, primarily in the field of finance and accounting, business analytics, software development, IT helpdesk support and insurance for clients worldwide."

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

(source: http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-genpact-/2007/03/06/2387817.htm)