It’s turning out to be quite a love affair between (now) iGate Patni and Serco, with the announcement that Patni will in effect become Serco’s SAP support and maintenance arm in the UK. Patni will take on Serco’s couple of dozen or so SAP specialists and then take over support and maintenance both for Serco’s own SAP systems and those of its clients – mainly local authorities. The arrangement is initially till 2015.
Patni has been supplying services to Serco for quite some time on a project basis, but the relationship took a leap forwards in August last year when Patni won a 7-year deal with Serco to develop a new ‘information management platform’ for schools (see Patni helps Serco get educated). This was followed a few months later by a partnering arrangement with 2e2 (see Patni paves the partnering path). Derek Kemp, who now pretty much runs all of iGate’s operations outside of the US, told me that up to one-third of Patni’s UK revenues will eventually come through partnering channels. It just seems to make so much sense for a player of Patni's size.