Cognizant wins IT services deal from German firm

Bangalore: US-based leading IT consulting major Cognizant on Friday announced winning a multi-year deal to provide software services to Vorwerk group in Germany.

"Vorwerk has selected us to transform its IT infrastructure and provide application services for standardising and centralising its operations and reduce costs," the company said in a statement but did not disclose the value of the deal.

The euro 2.6-billion ($3.3-billion) Vorwerk group with subsidiaries in 24 countries the world over directly markets high-quality utility products, including Kobold vacuum cleaners, Thermomix kitchen appliances and Jafra cosmetics. As part of the six-year deal, Cognizant, headed by Indian-born chief executive Francisco Dsouza, will provide Vorwerk integrated service management, data centre, network and application management services.

"We will also deliver end-user computing services and manage a new service desk to assist Vorwerk's employees in diverse languages spanning German, Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech and Polish," Cognizant president for technology solutions Debashis Chatterjee said in the statement.

The partnership with Cognizant will also enable Vorwerk to focus on its core competencies, as centralisation will make its IT environment transparent and pro-actively monitor, manage and improve its IT infrastructure.

"We chose Cognizant as our strategic partner because of its ability to understand our needs and provide the best support to meet them. As an expanding business, customer orientation and time-to-market are top priorities for us," Vorwerk managing partner Reiner Strecker said on the occasion.

The tech tie-up will help the direct-sales specialist (Vorwerk) to optimise its IT investments and improve service quality to its end-users and support its strategic orientation in the IT sector.