Cognizant Online Tutorials

Cognizant is an American multinational information technology services and consulting company. It is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S. Cognizant is part of the NASDAQ-100 and trades under CTSH. It was founded as an in-house technology unit of Dun & Bradstreet in 1994, and started serving external clients in 1996.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation
Company typePublic
Traded as
  • Nasdaq: CTSH (Class A)
  • NASDAQ-100 component
  • S&P 500 component
ISINUS1924461023
IndustryInformation technology consulting
Outsourcing
PredecessorDun & Bradstreet
Founded26 January 1994; 30 years ago (1994-01-26) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
FoundersKumar Mahadeva
Francisco D'Souza
Headquarters
Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Ravi Kumar Singisetti (CEO)
RevenueIncrease US$19.42 billion (2022)
Operating income
Increase US$3.01 billion (2022)
Net income
Increase US$2.29 billion (2022)
Total assetsIncrease US$17.85 billion (2022)
Total equityIncrease US$12.30 billion (2022)
Number of employees
355,300 (Q42022)
Websitewww.cognizant.com

After a series of corporate reorganizations, there was an initial public offering in 1998.

Ravi Kumar Singisetti has been the CEO of the company since January 2023, replacing Brian Humphries.

History edit

Cognizant was established in 1994 in Chennai, India, as Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (DBSS), a 76:24 joint venture between Dun & Bradstreet and Satyam Computer Services, with Srini Raju as the founding CEO and MD. It began with 50 employees in Chennai as Dun & Bradstreet's in-house technology unit focused on implementing large-scale IT projects for Dun & Bradstreet businesses. In 1996, the company started pursuing customers beyond Dun & Bradstreet.

In 1996, Dun & Bradstreet spun off several of its subsidiaries, including Erisco, IMS International, Nielsen Media Research, Pilot Software, Strategic Technologies and DBSS, to form a new company called Cognizant Corporation, headquartered in Chennai, India. Three months later, in 1997, DBSS renamed itself Cognizant Technology Solutions.

In July 1997, Dun & Bradstreet bought Satyam's 24% stake in DBSS for $3.4 million. Headquarters were moved to the United States, and in March 1998, Kumar Mahadeva was named CEO. Operating as a division of the Cognizant Corporation, the company focused on Y2K-related projects and web development.

In 1998, the parent company, Cognizant Corporation, split into two companies: IMS Health and Nielsen Media Research. After this restructuring, Cognizant Technology Solutions became a public subsidiary of IMS Health. In June 1998, IMS Health partially spun off the company, conducting an initial public offering of the Cognizant stock. The company raised $34 million, less than what the IMS Health underwriters had hoped.

Kumar Mahadeva decided to reduce the company's dependence on Y2K projects: by Q1 1999, 26% of company's revenues came from Y2K projects, compared with 49% in early 1998. Believing that the $16.6 billion enterprise resource planning software market was saturated, Kumar Mahadeva decided to refrain from large-scale ERP implementation projects. Instead, he focused on applications management, which accounted for 37% of Cognizant's revenue in Q1 1999. Cognizant's revenues in 2002 were $229 million, and the company had zero debt with $100 million in the bank. During the dotcom bust, the company grew by taking on the maintenance projects that larger IT services companies did not want.

 
Cognizant's old logo
 
Cognizant's logo until 2022 March from 2018

In 2003, IMS Health sold its entire 56% stake in Cognizant, which instituted a poison pill provision to prevent hostile takeover attempts. Kumar Mahadeva resigned as the CEO in 2003, and was replaced by Lakshmi Narayanan. Gradually, the company's services portfolio expanded across the IT services landscape and into business process outsourcing (BPO) and business consulting. Lakshmi Narayanan was succeeded by Francisco D'Souza in 2006. Cognizant experienced a period of fast growth during the 2000s, as reflected by its appearance in Fortune magazine's "100 Fastest-Growing Companies" list for ten consecutive years from 2003 to 2012.

In September 2014, Cognizant acquired healthcare IT services provider TriZetto Corp for $2.7 billion. Cognizant shares rose nearly 3 percent in pre-market trading.

On 24 June 2015, the company signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with Escorts Group in India to help Escorts' businesses in digital transformation and modernize its operations across all business segments.

On 30 June 2015, it partnered with Singapore-based supermarket retailer NTUC FairPrice to perform digital transformation in NTUC's business to improve personalized and consistent customer service across multiple channels.

In January 2022, Cognizant sold its acquisition Oy Samlink to Kyndryl and Mustache to DJE Holdings.

Acquisitions edit

Company acquired Country Date Business Reference
Thirdera   USA December 2023 An Elite-level ServiceNow partner
Mobica   UK January 2023 Internet of Things (IoT)
Utegration   USA December 2022 SAP capabilities for Energy & Utilities
AustinCSI   USA November 2022 Digital Transformation
Onesource Virtual   USA November 2022 Professional services and application management practices (Workday)
DevBridge   USA December 2021 Digital Engineering
Hunter Technical Resources   USA August 2021 Digital Engineering
TQS Integration Ltd.   USA July 2021 Data Analytics, Industry 4.0
ESG Mobility   Germany March 2021 Connected cars, IoT
Magenic Technologies   USA January 2021 Agile Software and Cloud Development, DevOps
Linium   US January 2021 ServiceNow
Servian   Australia January 2021 Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence
Inawisdom   UK December 2020 AI, Machine Learning
Bright Wolf   USA October 2020 Internet of Things (IoT)
10th Magnitude   USA September 2020 Microsoft Azure
Tin Roof Software   USA August 2020 DevOps, Software Engineering
New Signature   USA July 2020 Microsoft Cloud Provider
Collaborative Solutions   USA May 2020 HR and Finance Cloud Provider
Lev   USA March 2020 Enterprise Digital Marketing
EI-Technologies   France February 2020 CRM Consulting
Code Zero   USA February 2020 CRM Consulting
Contino   UK October 2019 Digital Transformation (DevSecOps/Data/Cloud)
Zenith Technologies   Ireland June 2019 Life Sciences Automation
Meritsoft   Ireland March 2019 Fintech
Oy Samlink   Finland January 2019 Technology Provider
Mustache   USA December 2018 Digital Agency
Softvision   USA October 2018 Digital Solutions
Advanced Technology Group   US September 2018 CRM Consulting
SaaSFocus   India August 2018 CRM Consulting
Hedera Consulting   Belgium May 2018 Consulting
Bolder Healthcare Solutions   US March 2018 Health Care IT
Zone   UK October 2017 Digital Agency
Netcentric   Switzerland October 2017 Digital Marketing
T2C | Top Tier Consulting   USA September 2017 Healthcare Consulting
TMG Health   USA June 2017 Health Care IT
BrilliantService   Japan March 2017 Intelligent Products, Internet of things
Adaptra   Australia December 2016 Insurance Consulting, Project Management
Nova IT   Australia December 2016 HR Services
KIS Information Services (KIS)   Germany December 2016 IT Services
Mirabeau BV   Netherlands November 2016 Digital Marketing, Customer Experience
Frontica Business Solutions   Norway October 2016 IT Services & Solutions
Idea Couture   Canada July 2016 Digital Services (Innovation and Experience Design)
Heliocentric   El Salvador May 2016 BPO Services
Quick Left Inc.   USA May 2016 Mobile & Web Apps
ReD Associates   Denmark April 2016 Market Research
KBACE Technologies   USA January 2016 Oracle Cloud, ERP
Storebrand Baltic   Lithuania Nov 2015 Lithuanian IT unit of Norway's Storebrand
CNO Financial Group (India)   India Feb 2015 IT Application Development
Odecee   Australia November 2014 IT, Consulting and BPO services
Cadient Group   USA October 2014 Digital Healthcare
TriZetto Corp   USA September 2014 Healthcare Payer Software, Provider Revenue Cycle Software (Consulting, Software, BPO, Hosting)
itaas Interactive TV Solutions   USA April 2014 Digital Video services
ValueSource Technologies   India October 2013 IT services
Equinox Consulting   France October 2013 Financial Services Consulting Firm
SourceNet Solutions   US May 2013 BPS for Finance & Accounting
QBridge   US Jan 2013 Marketing Automation
C1 group (6 companies)   Germany December 2012 btconsult gbbb ; C:1 Solutions GmbH ; psc Management Consulting GmbH ; C:1 SetCon GmbH ; Enterprise Services AG [a Swiss company focused on process and IT consulting]; C:1 Holding GmbH [87]
Medicall  Philippines November 2012 Medical Transcription [88]
Excellence Data Research   India August 2012 Market Research [89]
ING US   USA June 2012 Technology [90]
Zaffera   USA September 2011 SAP Consulting [91]
CoreLogic India   India July 2011 Mortgage processing [92]
Galileo Performance   France June 2010 Consulting related to the measurement, management and continuous optimization of IT system performance [93]
PIPC Group   UK May 2010 Program & Project Management Consulting [94]
UBS India Service Center   India October 2009 Business process outsourcing, industry research [95]
Pepperweed Advisors   USA September 2009 Business Consulting, Program Management [96]
Invensys Rail R&D India & Invensys Operations Managed R&D Center India   India July 2009 Product Research & Engineering, Manufacturing [97]
Active Intelligence   Canada February 2009 Consulting, implementation and support services for Oracle Retail Merchandising, Planning and Optimization suite [98]
Strategic Vision Consulting   USA June 2008 Business Consulting for media and entertainment companies [99]
T-Systems India   Germany March 2008 System Integration [100]
marketRx   USA November 2007 Life Sciences Analytics, healthcare KPO [101]
AimNet   USA September 2006 IT infrastructure services [102]
Fathom Consulting   Canada April 2005 Telecom & Automotive IT Services [103]
Ygyan Consulting   India February 2004 SAP consulting [104]
Infopulse   Netherlands December 2003 IT services [105]
Aces International   USA April 2003 Siebel CRM consulting [103]
American Express Travel-related Services account from Silverline Technologies   USA Sep 2002 Financial services [106]
UnitedHealthcare Ireland Limited   Ireland June 2002 Healthcare services (a subsidiary of the UnitedHealth Group) [107]

Business model edit

 
Cognizant's original corporate headquarters in Chennai, now an offshore delivery center

Like many other IT services firms,[citation needed] Cognizant follows a global delivery model based on offshore software R&D and offshore outsourcing. The company has a number of offshore development centers outside the United States and near-shore centers in the U.S., Europe and South America.[citation needed]

 
Cognizant's out of home (OOH) advertisement in Bengaluru

In its early years, Cognizant gained business from a number of American and European companies with the help of the Dun & Bradstreet brand. The company's senior executives envisaged the firm as a provider of high-end customer services on-par with the six contemporary major system integrators (Accenture, BearingPoint, Capgemini, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and IBM), but at lower prices.[108]

Operations edit

Regions edit

The company has 318,400[109] employees globally, of which over 200,000 are in India across 10 locations with a plurality in Chennai.[110] On 20 Jan, 1994, Cognizant registered its branch in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India with the legal name Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited. The other centers of the company are in Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Gurgaon, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata,[111] Mangalore, Mumbai and Pune. The company has local, regional, and global delivery centers in the UK, Australia, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, China, Philippines, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico etc.[112][113]

Business units edit

Cognizant is organized into several verticals and horizontal units. The vertical units focus on specific industries such as Banking & Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Retail. The horizontal units focus on specific technologies or process areas such as Analytics, mobile computing, BPO and Testing. Both horizontal and vertical units have business consultants, who form the organization-wide Cognizant Consulting team together. Cognizant is among the largest recruiters of MBAs in the industry; they are involved in business development and business analysis for IT services projects.

Corporate affairs edit

 
Cognizant's Delivery Center in Chennai

Management edit

Cognizant is currently led by Ravi Kumar S (CEO) from Jan 2023. Brian Humphries (Ex-CEO), Jan Siegmund (CFO) and Rajesh Nambiar (President, Digital Business & Technology).[114]

On 1 April 2019, Francisco D'Souza was replaced by Brian Humphries as the CEO.

On 12 January 2023, Brian Humphries was replaced by former Infosys President, Ravi Kumar Singisetti as the CEO.

Finance edit

Year Fortune 500 rank
2022 194[115]
2021 185[116]
2020 194[117]
2019 193[118]
2018 195[119]
2017 205[120]
2016 230[121]
2015 288[122]
2014 308[123]
2013 352[124]
2012 398[125]
2011 484[126]

Cognizant was listed on NASDAQ in 1998, and added to the NASDAQ-100 Index in 2004. After the close of trading on 16 November 2006, Cognizant moved from the mid cap S&P 400 to the S&P 500.[127] Cognizant became a Fortune 500 company in 2011.[128]

Corporate social responsibility edit

Cognizant's philanthropic and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are conducted through the Cognizant employees for the financial and administrative support of the Cognizant Foundation.[129][130] Registered in March 2005 as a "Charitable Company" under the Indian Companies Act, the Cognizant Foundation aims to help "unprivileged members of society gain access to quality education and healthcare by providing financial and technical support; designing and implementing educational and healthcare improvement programs; and partnering with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, healthcare institutions, government agencies and corporations".

Cognizant has a grassroots corporate social responsibility project called Outreach, through which the volunteer employees lend their expertise for devising skill-building and workforce programs to improve the operations of NGOs.[131][132]

Awards edit

In 2015, the Fortune named it as the world's fourth most admired IT services company.[133] In 2017, Cognizant was named in Fortune's Future 50 list.[134]

Sponsorships edit

Over the year 2021, Cognizant signed multiple sponsorship agreements with sports, sailing and racing teams.

In January 2021, the newly rebranded Aston Martin Formula One team announced Cognizant as their title sponsor for the 2021 Formula One World Championship and beyond.[135][136] In February 2021, Cognizant signed a sponsorship deal with the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour to become a Global Partner of the Presidents Cup and a title partner of the LPGA Tour’s Founders Cup.[137]

Later in the same year, in April, Cognizant signed an agreement to be SailGP's digital transformation partner.[138] In June, Cognizant also became the Presenting Partner of THE JOHN SHIPPEN Shoot-Out Inaugural Golf Event.[139]

Criticism and controversies edit

India edit

Bribery edit

Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) paid million in bribes to Indian government officials on behalf of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. to secure permits, ranging from environmental clearance to power. L&T has made illicit payments and Cognizant reimbursed the money by disguising it as compensation for cost overruns.[140]

Companies Act violations edit

In March 2019, significant publicity was raised because Cognizant repetitively violated the directives of the Registrar of Companies. The Company "has moved [sic] the Madras High Court fearing possibility of criminal prosecution being launched against it by [the] Registrar of Companies for alleged violation of the provisions of the Companies Act of 2013 and the Companies (Appointment and Disqualification of Directors) Rules of 2014." One of those questions was as to why the company had not disclosed complete information on stock options of its parent holding company — CTS Corporation in the United States — having been given to the employees, including its directors, and the payments running to several hundred crores of rupees (approx US $40 million) having been paid to the parent company in the US towards stock compensating recharge.[141]

Discrimination edit

In 2018, a race discrimination suit was brought: "Three former employees claim they were forced out of their jobs and replaced with 'less qualified' Indians after being poorly treated by their Indian supervisors and colleagues, given unjustifiably low performance ratings and denied promotions." Cognizant said it was "national origin" and not race.[142]

Layoffs edit

200 senior executives, above the Director's Level were dismissed because they were not able to catch up with the latest technologies. The number of the executives that were dismissed is unusually high and questions the ability of the company to catch up with the latest technologies.[143]

In 2017, eight employees filed petitions with the labor department, complaining Cognizant forced them to resign as part of a performance-based review. The labor department closed the case in favor of employees and advised company management to give one more opportunity for the petitioners to prove themselves. At the time Cognizant had also rolled out a ‘voluntary separation program’ for directors, associate vice-presidents and senior VP's which offed them 6–9 months of their salary.[144]

In 2017, approximately 6000 Cognizant employees in Hyderabad/Bangalore/Chennai lost their job as a part of company's annual performance review process.[145]

On July 1, 2023, Cognizant acquired the Microsoft/Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience US medical scribes division. On January 8, 2024, Cognizant laid off over 700 of those US medical scribes and managers to migrate the US hospital accounts to their Indian scribes division in a rolling/tiered fashion with termination dates at the end of February and March 2024. In addition, approximately 40 of the US employees (thus not triggering the WARN Act, which stipulates a minimum of 50 employees) were terminated immediately on January 8, 2024, with only 1 month's severance pay instead of the 2 months' severance that would have been required by the WARN Act.

Tax evasion edit

The Income Tax department has frozen Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp's bank accounts and deposits in Chennai and Mumbai for allegedly evading a dividend distribution tax (DDT). A Cognizant spokesman confirmed the report and said in a statement that a court has instructed the tax department not to take further action pending further hearings. Cognizant failed to pay the tax of more than 25 billion rupees ($385 million) in the 2016–17 financial year, according to The Hindu, citing officials from the tax department.[146]

The court asked the company to deposit 15 percent of the disputed tax, amounting to 4.9 billion rupees ($75 million) as security deposit till it decides on the case.[147]

Ireland edit

Working conditions edit

In February 2018 the UK and Irish press expressed concerns about contractors employed by Cognizant in Dublin as part of the outsourcing contract with Google about the conditions of employment in relationship to compensation and basic employment allowances like sick leave.[148]

United States edit

Corruption edit

In 2016, Cognizant announced that it was cooperating with US authorities in an investigation related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and carrying out its own probe to determine whether some payments made in India breached the law. The company also said President Gordon Coburn had resigned and would be replaced by Rajeev Mehta.[149]

Crawford & Company lawsuit edit

Cognizant has been sued by Crawford & Company, the US-based independent providers of insurance claims-handling services, for alleged breach of contract. Cognizant had been mandated by Crawford to implement PeopleSoft Financials software as part of an ERP project called Project Atlas that it was critical to Crawford's operations. Project Atlas included components for both internal operations and client-facing services.[150]

Wage theft and H-1B visa violations edit

Cognizant leads the ranks of companies receiving H-1B visas from the United States. The company has been steadily increasing its U.S. work force. In January 2011, the company announced plans to expand its U.S. delivery centers, including a new 1,000-person (0.4% of worldwide workforce) facility in Phoenix, Arizona.[151] In February 2011, Cognizant said it had 60 full-time recruiters actively hiring in the U.S.[152]

In 2009, an investigation by the US Department of Labor (DoL) found Cognizant in violation of the H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Administrative Act. The DoL discovered that the company had stolen wages and benefits from 67 of its workers, for which they demanded they repay $509,607 in back wages. Joseph Petrecca, the director of the Wage and Hour Division's Northern New Jersey District Office noted that the company took immediate steps to correct the violations, saying the "level of cooperation sets a standard for others in the industry."[153]

In 2016, the company was the subject of a lawsuit by workers for Walt Disney World who said workers from India were brought into the United States on H-1B visas in order to replace them.[154] However, in October 2016, federal Judge Gregory A. Presnel of the United States District Court in Orlando dismissed the lawsuits, stating "none of the allegedly false statements put at issue in the complaint are adequate."[155]

Cognizant was also required to pay $5.7 million in back pay and fines in a U.S. District Court ruling for a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed that Cognizant did not provide quality assurance analysts the full value of their overtime pay.[156]

Working conditions and mental health issues edit

In February 2019, an investigative report by The Verge described poor working conditions in Cognizant's Phoenix, Arizona, office.[157] Cognizant employees tasked with content moderation for Facebook developed mental health issues, including posttraumatic stress disorder, as a result of exposure to graphic violence, hate speech, and conspiracy theories in the videos they were instructed to evaluate.[157][158] Moderators at the Phoenix office reported drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and sexual intercourse in the workplace, and feared retaliation from terminated workers who threatened to harm them.[157][159] In response, a Cognizant representative stated the company would examine the issues in the report.[157]

The Verge published a follow-up investigation of Cognizant's Tampa, Florida, office in June 2019.[160][161] Employees in the Tampa location described working conditions that were worse than the conditions in the Phoenix office.[160][162] Content moderator Keith Utley suffered a heart attack while working for Cognizant in March 2018 and died in a hospital; the Tampa office lacked an on-site defibrillator.[160][163] Moderators were required to sign non-disclosure agreements with Cognizant to obtain the job, although three former workers broke the agreements to provide information to The Verge.[160][164] In the Tampa office, workers reported bed bugs, unsanitary work conditions, inadequate mental health resources, sexual harassment, workplace violence, and theft.[160][165] As a result of exposure to videos depicting graphic violence, animal abuse, and child sexual abuse, some employees developed psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder.[160][166] Cognizant sanitized the office before The Verge's visit, a practice the publication described as a "dog-and-pony-show phenomenon".[160] In response to negative coverage related to its content moderation contracts, a Facebook director indicated that Facebook is in the process of developing a "global resiliency team" that would assist its contractors.[160]

On October 30, 2019, Cognizant announced that it would phase out a portion of its content moderation contracts in 2020.[167][168]

See also edit

  • Disney litigation
  • Tech companies in the New York City metropolitan region

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