VAR500: SHI Reports Healthy Revenue; Wipro Offers HR Cloud Solution

VAR500 Solution Make Waves

VAR500 solution provider SHI reported encouraging earnings news earlier this week, indicating that at least for some solution providers, the sluggish economy is picking up. Also, Xerox's Buck Consultants released a survey that found employees hoping for a sizable raise this year will have to hold out a bit longer.

In other VAR500 news, Wipro entered into a cloud deal with Workday to provide HR management solutions; Accenture boosted its Middle East business, CDW expanded the available bandwidth at the largest private U.S. arts college and Tata Consultancy Services made a U.K. banking deal.

SHI Revenue Way Up

SHI International Corp., said its third quarter 2011 revenue grew 29 percent year-over-year to $869 million for the quarter and $2.6 billion year-to-date. SHI's revenue for the first nine months of 2011 increased 32 percent, compared with the same period one year ago. The company has launched some innovative products that help account for the surge. For example, in August, SHI launched its industrial-grade cloud computing platform, signing dozens of new customers and SaaS providers within the first six weeks of the launch. SHI's Enterprise division grew 25 percent, while its emerging Corporate Sales division grew 103 percent.

Survey: Expect Small Pay Raises, If Any

Workers can expect modest pay raises averaging 2.8 percent next year, compared to 2.7 percent in 2011 and 2.9 percent in 2010, according to a survey released today by Buck Consultants, A Xerox Company.

Buck’s survey, "Compensation Planning for 2012," also found that pay-for-performance remains as crucial as ever, given the importance of effectively allocating budgets to retain top performers. Eighty percent of respondents have a pay-for-performance philosophy, although this is down from 87 percent last year. Average promotion increases range from 5.7 percent (for C-suite employees) to 7.3 percent (for the vice-president level).

Wipro Offering Cloud Computing Solution For HR

In a deal with Workday, Wipro Technologies will provide consulting and IT services to clients deploying Workday solutions. Workday creates SaaS-based enterprise solutions for global human resources, payroll and financial management. Wipro helps customers adopt and integrate cloud services into their enterprise systems with an integrated solutions approach and managed IT as a service. The partnership will combine Workday’s cloud-based business management solutions with Wipro’s expertise in optimizing and integrating cloud-based solutions.

Accenture Expands In Middle East

Accenture and Al Faisaliah Group have formed a joint venture aimed at strengthening IT capabilities in the Middle East. Accenture has acquired a majority stake in IT business Al Faisaliah Business & Technology Company (FBTC). The partnership combines FBTC’s enterprise architecture, systems implementation and technology consulting skills, with Accenture’s broad management consulting, technology and outsourcing experience, industry depth, focus on innovation and global delivery capabilities. Accenture will now provide IT services and delivery capabilities to clients in Saudi Arabia.

CDW Broadens Broadband For Arts College

Columbia College Chicago, the largest private arts and media college in North America, accessing and editing media content in real time is vital to students and their studies, is working with CDW Government LLC (CDW-G), to implement a dark fiber solution that will expand bandwidth at all campus locations. Dark fiber is a custom, private connection that, when combined with the latest routing and switching technology, will help Columbia College Chicago manage its own network and reduce bandwidth restrictions and extra costs from a local telecommunications provider.

TCS To Support U.K. Credit Unions

Tata Consultancy Services will work with Scotwest and Capital Credit Unions, providing TCS BaNCS Core Banking as their IT platform in the U.K. Cussco, the joint company set up by both these credit unions, will deploy the common platform and support its entire IT architecture throughout the UK to serve its existing customers as well as seek growth avenues, as new regulations open more opportunities in community banking.