Cognizant bags deal from UK's Marks & Spencer

LONDON, UK: Cognizant, a provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, announced on Tuesday that it is helping Marks & Spencer Group plc, one of the UK's leading retailers, improve operational efficiencies, drive business effectiveness, and provide superior customer experience.

As part of multi-year managed services contract, Cognizant would provide end-to-end integrated applications and infrastructure management services to Marks and Spencers covering business and functional areas -- procurement, supply chain, forecasting, sales and financial management, Cognizant said in a press release.

“As a result of a number of service improvement initiatives delivered by Cognizant over the last year, we are now more confident about promising our business better system availability, capacity, and stability,” said Damone Quigley, Head of Infrastructure and Application Services at M&S.

“Ever since our relationship began in 2009, both M&S and Cognizant have demonstrated an open, trust-based relationship that has created a strong foundation from which to deliver further efficiencies and achieve more positive outcomes in the coming years,” added Quigley.

“A new generation of consumers, the millennials, is changing the way consumer demands and preferences are expressed and fulfilled, and brand value and product benefits are perceived,” said Sanjiv Gossain, senior vice president and Head of the UK and Ireland Operations of Cognizant.

He said this has led to increasingly virtualized and globalized business and technology architectures, which are changing the retail landscape significantly.

“We are committed to helping M&S embrace new technologies and business processes to strengthen its leadership position as a seamless multi-channel retailer and expand its international business,: he added.

Cognizant currently has 50 delivery centers worldwide and over one lakh employees as of December 31, 2010.