VAR500 Roundup: Northrop, HP Services, Accenture, Xerox and Capgemini

VAR500 Companies: Mostly Good News

VAR500 companies continue to expand geographic markets as two big names increase their visibility in India and Brazil. Meanwhile, defense contracts are still alive and kicking for integrators. A large military contractor apologizes over a statewide implementation snafu -- while a household name spends some ad bucks.

Northrop Grumman Apologizes for Virginia IT Outage

Linda Mills, Corporate Vice President and President, Northrop Grumman Information Systems, apologized last week for an network connectivity outage that caused 26 state agencies to lose Web services for about a week.

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency outsources the management of its data centers to Northrop Grumman through a 10-year, $2.4 billion contract that began in 2005. "We support Governor McDonnell’s call for an independent review of the incident and we will reimburse the Commonwealth for the reasonable costs of an assessment as it is an essential and responsible measure that will strengthen our ability to protect against future issues," Mills said in a statement.

HP Services Bolsters Cloud Offerings In India

Silicon India is reporting that HP Services is working with Bharti Enterprises to offer cloud services for small application developers and SMBs in cities in India.

The deal is aimed at small developers and SMBs in health-care, hotels and the textile sector. Silicon India said that HP estimates that 60 percent of the applications used by SMBs will be shared in the coming years and in the health-care and hotel industry, the figure could be as high as 80 percent. The publication also said the Indian cloud computing market could top $1.08 billion by 2015, from the current $110 million.

Familiar Faces Kick Off Xerox Services Ads

Mr. Clean, Bullseye the Target Dog and Marriott's bellmen all have one thing in common: They benefit from document services provided by Xerox. Xerox, which spent $6.4 billion on Affiliated Computer Services earlier this year, is launching a campaign this week in print, television, Web and airports to let customers know the company is more than a copier vendor.

"We're fortunate to have great client partners who worked side-by-side with us in showing how their businesses benefit when Xerox is doing what we do best," said Christa Carone, chief marketing officer, Xerox.

The acquisition of ACS tripled Xerox's services business.

Capgemini Expands in South America

Capgemini will acquire a 55 percent interest in CPM Braxis, a Brazilian IT services company. With more than 200 clients and 5,500 employees, CPM Braxis focuses on application outsourcing and enterprise application services, and infrastructure integration and infrastructure services. CPM Braxis expects 2010 revenue of approximately $571 million. Gartner reports Brazil represents 47 percent of the $23 billion Latin American IT services market.

’The acquisition of CPM Braxis," said Paul Hermelin, Capgemini CEO (pictured), "allows us to fulfill three objectives: to extend our presence in a fast-growing country; to support our global clients in the regions where they focus their investment, and to strengthen our Group with the addition of a experienced management team, and more than 5,500 dynamic employees."

{C}

Accenture Nabs Gov't Defense Contract

The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) awarded Accenture a four-year, $73 million contract to integrate DLA’s energy supply chain into its enterprise business system (EBS) program. Accenture’s solution will streamline operations, integrate financial activities and reduce systems support cost. It will also provide DLA with total asset visibility and reduce customer wait times.

When the energy integration is complete, DLA will have added more than $18 billion in traceable items to its fully integrated logistics supply chain.

"We look forward to helping DLA and DESC continue providing for America’s armed forces through an efficient, reliable and speedy supply chain that meets the ever-changing needs of DLA’s customers,’ said Lisa Mascolo, managing director, Accenture’s U.S. federal practice.