{"id":1812,"date":"2009-09-28T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T08:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/xerox-copies-dells-example-and-acquires-acs-but-again-wheres-the-fit\/"},"modified":"2009-09-28T08:54:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T08:54:00","slug":"xerox-copies-dells-example-and-acquires-acs-but-again-wheres-the-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/xerox-copies-dells-example-and-acquires-acs-but-again-wheres-the-fit\/","title":{"rendered":"Xerox copies Dell’s example and acquires ACS, but again, where’s the fit?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Is there a recurring theme here? US-based giants with faltering commodity business models from yesteryear, making very late plays to get into the IT-BPO services business?<\/strong><\/p>\n While I could see some synergies between <\/strong>Dell and Perot<\/strong><\/a>, this one's even tougher to fathom, unless Xerox has further plans to marry ACS with a stellar IT services acquisition.<\/strong> <\/p>\n ACS was one of the early darlings of BPO, and was right at the top of the competitive tree in the early 2000's whenever a large Finance & Accounting, HR or call center deal was up for grabs. It would always give Accenture and IBM a run for their money in BPO pursuits, and had a compeling culture and engagement methodology for many of the old world BPO engagements (i.e. a lot of lift and shift and staff re-badging). <\/p>\n Sadly, ACS has rather fallen away in recent times, and has struggled to cope with the aggressive entry of the Indian-centric global competitors into the BPO space. The new generation of global services providers are bringing passion and combined IT-BPO prowess<\/a> into the mix, in addition to global sourcing models that are driving down the price-points.<\/p>\n Xerox, on the other hand, has been eyeing broader business services for a while, and I can see why they'd find part of the ACS portfolio attractive – a broader client-base, great presence in healthcare, government, hi-tech and consumer business, a strong BPO brand and global delivery presence. ACS also has a strong IT services business, but not on the same scale as the top tier. <\/p>\n The real challenge for this combined entity, is to cope with the new throng of competitors in this space: Cognizant, Genpact, Infosys, TCS et al., and not solely the incumbents such as Accenture, Capgemini and IBM. The combined Xerox-ACS business will have a short-term potential to consolidate a commanding position in back-office BPO areas such as document management, call center, payroll, benefits admin and accounts payable. <\/p>\n However, clients today are spoiled for choice with other service providers which can offer the same services at lower cost. Xerox also needs to make a quick move to push a utility delivery model, based on common processes and standards, with compeling industry-alignment<\/a>. Continuing to push old-world BPO, where the customer shifts existing processes with limited transformation, is not a recipe for success. <\/p>\n My take? If this combined entity were to merge with a strong IT services provider and develop a coherent IT-BPO strategy, then we really have something to talk about. Funnily enough, if you combined the new Xerox with the new Dell, then<\/em> you'd be looking at a company with a lot of future potential…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is there a recurring theme here? US-based giants with faltering commodity business models from yesteryear, making very late plays to get into the IT-BPO…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,81],"tags":[],"organization":[],"ppma_author":[19],"class_list":["post-1812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-process-outsourcing-bpo","category-it-outsourcing-it-services"],"yoast_head":"\n