It has been a busy quarter for business process services (BPS) provider Genpact. The General Electric (GE) spin off completed its $550m acquisition of US-based BFSI specialist Headstrong on 3 May (see Genpact takes Headstrong move to grow BFSI business). In April it also bought order-to-cash (OTC) SaaS provider Akritriv Technologies for an undisclosed sum. Akritiv is an interesting acquisition, since it represents a concerted effort by Genpact to buy its way into the emerging platform-based BPS space, also called business process-as-a-service (BPaaS). This is a hot bed of activity right now. As we mentioned earlier this week, rival EXLService is acquiring finance and accounting (F&A) outsourcer Outsource Partners International (OPI), through which it gains an F&A platform called OPInvoice (see EXL acquires OPI and looks at growth potential).
Akritiv’s SaaS platform is based on Salesforce.com's Force platform, through which it provides OTC functions such as credit and accounts receivable on an ‘as-a-service’ basis. Akritiv’s platform will now be ‘bundled’ with Genpact’s broader set of BPS offerings such as its global delivery model, back-end analytics and its ebilling platform (which it acquired in 2009 from Avolent) with the aim of providing an end-to-end offering for receiving and processing customer sales.
Genpact also announced impressive Q1 results for the period ended 31 March, with revenues up 14.7% to $330.6m, and net profits up 28% to $36.1m (net margin of 10.9% vs. 9.8%). On another positive note, global client revenue (excluding revenue from former parent GE) grew 23.6% vs. 0.7% for GE, thanks to strong growth for business process management, including over 50% growth in Smart Decision Services, its consulting-led diagnostic service that provides vertically-focused business process roadmaps. There was also healthy demand for F&A in key verticals, such as consumer packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals. Despite this, Genpact will need many more quarters of strong non-GE growth to overcome a continuing high reliance on its former parent.
TechMarketView's forthcoming BPViews report, UK BPS Market Trends and Forecasts 2011, will forecast the opportunities for platform-based BPS (BPaaS) and traditional BPO models in the UK over the coming few years.