VAR500: Capgemini, CSC, Accenture And More

VAR500 IT Solution Providers

It's Thanksgiving week, and as VARs prepare (in many cases) to give their employees a well deserved long weekend, they are still making news (if not pumpkin pies). VAR500 IT solution providers are in the news -- signing government contracts, buying vendors and even receiving humanitarian awards. Accenture, Tata Consultancy Services, Computer Sciences, Deloitte and Capgemini were all headline makers this past week.

Sky's the Limit for CSC

CSC is a member of two teams awarded contracts under the Federal Aviation Administration’s System Engineering 2020 (SE2020) program. This program is part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) initiative to modernize the national airspace system. SE2020 comprises a series of task orders to provide mission analysis, research, development, prototyping and flight demonstration of solutions.

In other news, CSC ranked in the top 100 greenest companies in America in the 2010 Newsweek Green Rankings.

Capgemini Gets SAP Hosting Contract

Bowe Bell + Howell, a provider of high-performance document management solutions and services, selected Capgemini for a five-year SAP Hosting agreement. Capgemini will work with BBH to support their SAP activities, including support of their hardware and networking, as well as hosting of the SAP enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and business intelligence solutions. The goal of the services is to provide improvements in user effectiveness and adoption as well as improved SAP system performance, response time and data storage capabilities for BBH over the course of the agreement.

’Capgemini’s overall experience in the development and support of SAP applications, including SAP CRM, along with their track record of providing hosting services for clients with CRM needs, was a big factor in selecting them to help support and enhance our current environments.’ said Ron Ridge, vice president and chief information officer, Bowe Bell + Howell.

Deloitte Under Fire In Tennessee

According to a report in the Tennessean.com, an audit shows the financial management firm Deloitte Consulting over-billed the Tennessee Valley Authority by $4.8 million from 2003 through 2008.

The audit by the TVA's Office of Inspector General calls the overbilling, as "unsupported or not in accordance" with contracts that were reviewed. A large portion of what's in question involves overtime, Deloitte spokesman David Thompson told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the consultant "strongly disagrees with the inspector general's assertions."

Accenture Scoops Up Software Vendor With Retail Expertise

Accenture will buy Germany-based customer relationship management and mobility software provider CAS Computer AG, in a deal expected to close by the end of January 2011. Financial terms were not disclosed.

CAS Computer's apps facilitate organizations management of trade promotions, retail executions and customer service. The company’s services are targeted at organizations operating in the consumer products industry.

The acquisition will increase the offerings of Accenture Software, which focuses on the development, maintenance and support of industry-specific, software-based solutions, with more than 40 software products today.

’The acquisition of CAS will build on Accenture’s ability to help our clients in consumer packaged goods achieve high performance in one of the most competitive areas in their industry – winning the ’store shelf’,’ said Fabio Vacirca, who leads Accenture’s Consumer Goods & Services industry practice in Europe and Latin America.

TCS' Top Exec Receives Humanitarian Award

The Vijay Amritraj Foundation honored Subramanian Ramadorai, vice chairman of TCS, with the Corporate Citizen Award in Beverly Hills. The award is an annual recognition of people from the corporate world who are actively involved in the field of corporate social responsibility.

’I’m delighted to receive this award from the Vijay Amritraj Foundation and am humbled by this recognition," he said in a statement."Tata Consultancy Services, the company that I have been with for 38 years…has leveraged its expertise in IT and software services to create new tools that enhance reach and efficiency of those that do charitable work.’

The VAF supports 16 charities in India, including those promoting education, village development, cornea treatment and the rescue of young girls from prostitution.

See what VAR500 companies were up to last week.