Partnering for Expansion

Did IT services, consulting and business process outsourcing company Cognizant Technology Solutions strike its most recent partnership deal with Invensys as an effort to expand to new markets in the midst of a recession? Not at all, Cognizant Senior Vice President Mahesh Venkateswaran tells Channel Insider.

Rather, says Venkateswaran, Cognizant’s recently announced global product research and development deal with Invensys Operations Management is part of a longer-term strategy by Cognizant to provide its vertical manufacturing customers with a more complete solution — edge to core. Cognizant has struck similar deals in the past, he says, so this is nothing new.

The five-year contract calls for Cognizant to augment and maintain Invensys’ suite of products and bring greater operational efficiency, scalability, consistency and cost-effectiveness to its global R&D process. To help achieve this, Cognizant is extending job offers to more than 400 of Invensys’ employees from its existing R&D center in Hyderabad, India.

Terming this a “co-learning” relationship, Venkateswaran says such deals provide both companies with expertise. Cognizant particularly gains “expertise of the plant floor much ahead of the competition.”