VAR500: Cognizant Invests In India, While Accenture, NetApp Expand Partnership

VAR500 Solution Providers Make Waves

VAR500 solution providers, made news as Cognizant expanded in India, Accenture and NetApp inked tech agreements, Convergys boosted Latin American agreements, PEAK became elite with IBM, Carahsoft partnered with Nominum, and ManTech snapped up TranTech. Here are the details:

Cognizant Plans To Expand To Inda

Cognizant is planning to expand in India by investing more than $500 million through the end of 2014 to increase its campus footprint. The construction will add more than 8 million square feet, resulting in housing for more than 55,000 employees. The real estate development program will create additional software development and training facilities in regions designated as Special Economic Zones in four cities: Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore, and Kolkata.

Accenture, NetApp Expand Partnership

Accenture and NetApp are expanding their existing relationship with two technology agreements. The first is focused on the joint development, marketing, and delivery of a customized set of solutions concerning data center optimization and virtualization, cloud computing, and application optimization. The second revolves around NetApp's Professional Services organization to expand its implementation capabilities by leveraging a dedicated Accenture team providing consulting and integration services.

"Companies today want not only speed and simplicity in their IT infrastructure solutions but also maximum flexibility, efficiency, and functionality," said, Rockwell Bonecutter, Global Alliance Channel Lead, Accenture. "Teaming with NetApp, we can help clients transition to a flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure, setting the foundation to take advantage of cloud computing."

Convergys Boosts Latin America Services

Convergys has established a state-of-the-art contact center in Colombia that will provide customer care services for leading corporations in the Americas. The new facility, in Bogot, will bolster Convergys presence in Latin America, where the company has offices and contact center facilities in Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica.

Convergys is hiring all levels of talent for the facility currently, including management, support staff and skilled contact center agents to begin serving clients from the site in the first quarter of 2011. Once fully staffed, the site will employ up to 2,000 customer service experts.

"Bogot boasts a highly-educated bilingual population ideally suited to help ensure that Convergys continues to meet our global clients current and future need for superior technical and customer support, sales, and back office services," said Jorge Robledo, Convergys vice president of operations in Latin America.

PEAK Becomes Elite

PEAK Resources has received IBMs Dynamic Infrastructure Elite status. Only 15 of IBMs more than 3,300 IBM Business Partners in North America qualify for the Dynamic Infrastructure Elite designation. PEAK Resources specific focus with IBMs Dynamic Infrastructure Specialty Elite is in Business Resiliency.

Qualifying partners must meet annual IBM reseller revenue goals, hold a balanced portfolio and provide client references. Skills criteria include maintaining certifications in the areas of overall dynamic infrastructure sales and technical certifications, system architecture, project management. The partner must also hold brand certifications for the IBM hardware, software or services it is authorized to sell in specific Dynamic Infrastructure solution areas.

Carahsoft Partners With Nominum

Carahsoft Technology has partnered with Nominum, the provider of intelligent domain name system solutions, to bring world-class DNS solutions to government agencies. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as a contract aggregator and government distribution partner for Nominum, providing dedicated sales, marketing and order management resources to support Nominum's government efforts and drive demand for those solutions within the public sector market.

The partnership with Carahsoft lets Nominum, which has powered the largest telecom, enterprise and government networks with secure, reliable, scalable DNS solutions for more than 10 years, more aggressively pursue opportunities within the government market.

ManTech Scoops Up TranTech

ManTech International has acquired TranTech an Alexandria, Va.-based provider of information technology, networking and cyber security services to the federal government. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition will enable ManTech to deliver technology services through TranTech's prime position on the Defense Information Systems Agency ENCORE II contract, an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract vehicle with a $12 billion ceiling and performance period through 2018. TranTech will be integrated into ManTech's Technical Services Group, led by Louis M. Addeo, TSG group president and chief operating officer.

Want to catch up on VAR500 news? Check out last week's VAR500 Roundup.