Company Profile is an initiative by ListMyStartUp to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Cognizant Technology Solutions, founded on January 26, 1994 by Kumar Mahadeva & Francisco D'Souza, is an American multinational IT services provider. It also provides consulting and business process outsourcing (BPO) services. In the course of dot com boom, it flourished by receiving the application maintenance work that the big corporations were reluctant to carry out. Gradually, it moved into application development, complex systems integration and consulting work.
Cognizant grew rapidly during the 2000s and became a Fortune 500 company in 2011. It is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000 and the Fortune 500 and is positioned among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world.
Cognizant - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation
- Headquarters-Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S
- Industries-IT services, IT consulting
- Founders-Kumar Mahadeva, Francisco D'Souza
- Founded-26 January 1994
- CEO-Brian Humphries
- Areas served-Worldwide
- Website-www.cognizant.com
Cognizant - About and How it works?
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, incorporated on April 6, 1988, is a professional services company. The Company operates through four segments: Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing/Retail/Logistics, and Other. The Company's services include consulting and technology services and outsourcing services. The Company develops, licenses, implements and supports third-party software products for the healthcare industry, including solutions for health insurance plans, third party benefit administrators (TPAs), and healthcare providers. It provides IT Infrastructure management outsourcing services that include data center, infrastructure security, network and convergence, end user computing services and mobility.
Cognizant - Logo and it's meaning
Cognizant’s old logo consists of two C’s - one vertical and one horizontal. The vertical C in the logo symbolizes the equality of its employees while the horizontal C signifies the corporation’s commitment to its customers.
Cognizant's Logo Evolution
A few months back, Cognizant launched its new logo. The core thought driving this transformed identity was the brand's work and motto: digitally transformative, thereby, ensuring that their clients remain ahead of, or at par with their competition.
Cognizant - Founders and History
Kumar Mahadeva and Francisco D'Souza are founders of Cognizant.
Francisco D'Souza
Cognizant began as Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (DBSS),established 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 splits off few of it's auxiliaries including Eriscon, IMS International, Nielsen Media Research, Pilot Software, Strategic Technologies and DBSS, to form a new company called Cognizant Corporation, headquartered in New Jersey, U.S. Three months later, in 1997, DBSS renamed itself to Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Cognizant - Mission
Cognizant's single-minded mission is to dedicate their business process and technology innovation know-how, deep industry expertise and worldwide resources to working together with clients to make their businesses stronger. Their aim is to be the number one solutions provider in each sector they provide service in, through integrity, competence, innovation and execution. Commitment to their customers, employees, licensees and shareholders is the foundation of their mission. They commit to being, “Open, Honest and Direct.”
Cognizant - Business Model
Like many other IT services firms, 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. 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 foresaw the firm as a provider of high-end customer services at lower prices than it's competitors Accenture, BearingPoint, Capgemini, E&Y, Deloitte and IBM.
Cognizant - Revenue
Cognizant Technology Solutions revenue for the quarter ending September 30, 2020 was $4.243B, a 0.12% decline year-over-year.
Cognizant Technology Solutions revenue for the twelve months ending September 30, 2020 was $16.752B, a 0.75% increase year-over-year.
Year Annual Revenue Percentage change
2018 $16.783B +4.08%
2017 $16.125B, +8.88%
2016 $14.81B 9.81%
Cognizant - Funding and Investors
Cognizant is registered under the ticker NASDAQ:CTSH . Their stock opened with $10.00 in its Jun 19, 1998 IPO.
Cognizant has raised a total of $241K in funding over 1 round. This was a Post-IPO Equity round raised on Nov 18, 2016 by Summit Financial Wealth Advisors.
Cognizant - Investments
Cognizant has made 5 investments. Their most recent investment was on Nov 20, 2018, whe Civic Hall raised $2M
Cognizant - Competitors
One of the top most competitors of Cognizant is Infosys. Infosys Limited, is an Indian multinational corporation that provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. Headquartered in Bangalore, India. Other competitors include Accenture(US), Insight, CGI and CIBER.
Cognizant - Controversies
Bribery : 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 unlawful installments and Cognizant repaid the amount by masking it as pay for cost overruns.
Companies Act violations : Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation has agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and two of the company’s former executives were charged for their roles in facilitating the payment of millions of dollars in a bribe to an Indian government official.
Layoffs : 20 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.
Tax evasion : 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).
Cognizant - Growth
Cognizant is praised for it's amazing pace of growth. Till December 2018, Cognizant has added $14.66 billion in revenue, or the combined numbers of what Wipro and Tech Mahindra Ltd could achieve. All the credit goes to the company’s super-aggressive sales culture as the firm always had more people managing it's large accounts. Cognizant’s senior management comprises more people from outside the firm, unlike the insular approach followed by many other competitors.
Cognizant - Achievements
Cognizant recognized as a Top Provider in the Outsourcing and Consulting categories besides being named as a Customer Satisfaction Leader by CGT.
Ovum Decision Matrix recognized Cognizant as "Market Leader" in Outsourcing Testing Service Providers.
Consumer Goods Technology (CGT) awarded Readers’ Choice Award for the ninth consecutive year.
Forrester Research, Inc. named Cognizant a Leader in Business Intelligence Services.
Cognizant placed in IDC MarketScape as a Leader in IT and BPO Services.
Cognizant - Future Plans
A spokesperson for Cognizant said that it will continue to invest in the business, while decreasing certain costs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic wrecking havoc in the global market place.
Brian Humphries, chief executive, Cognizant, said, “Today, we are announcing a simplification of our operating model and a cost reduction program, which will allow us to fund investments in growth. Looking ahead, we see a clear path to unlock the organizations full growth potential, win in our key digital battlegrounds, and return Cognizant to its historical position of being the bellwether of the IT services industry.”
IT firm will go through a net reduction of 5,000-7,000 employees, either through attrition or role elimination. This accounts for around 2 per cent of its total employee base. Expecting a challenging demand environment after 2020, the company plans to invest in developing digital skills while correcting the employee pyramid, by on-boarding close to 20,000 entry-level hires.
