HP has been slow to make a move in the BPO market. It was rumored that HP was having difficulties selling its finance and accounting services. That it has announced the deal prior to its signing could be an indication of the pressure it has been under to announce a customer.
HP has spent two years integrating the back-office functions of its $20bn acquisition of Compaq, delaying its ability to offer the same services to third parties. HP’s shared services are processed in two main hubs in Bangalore and Chennai, with support centers in Barcelona, Singapore and Guadalajara. Its Indian hubs are currently responsible for accounts processing, accounts receivable, fixed assets, and general ledger.
The sites had 2,300 employees as of December 2003, with 200 people a month being added with a target peak of a 4,000-strong workforce. There are currently 250 people at the Guadalajara center which works as a back-up and disaster-recovery center, and 200 in Barcelona, and 80 people in Singapore working on country-specific regulatory transactions such as VAT reporting, with customer support for specific languages.
As revealed in ComputerWire’s BPO Market Report last month, HP has confirmed that Marc Schwarz, Deloitte’s former head of outsourcing, has joined HP to head up its finance and accounting outsourcing operations.
HP has some work to do to catch up in the finance and accounting outsourcing market. BPO advisory group Everest estimates that Accenture has 40.7% of the market already, with IBM second on 31.7%, followed by Exult (7.9%), EDS (5.8%), ACS (5.6%), Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (3.7%), and Deloitte (1.5%).
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
