Monday Morning Impact – December 12

Cognizant to Acquire Digital Marketing Agency

Cognizant announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire privately-held Mirabeau BV, a Dutch digital marketing and customer experience agency specializing in industries such as travel and hospitality, financial services, retail, and B2B sectors.

With a client list that includes KLM, ING, and Air France, Amsterdam-based Mirabeau provides design and branding services supporting digital marketing strategies and omnichannel customer experiences.

“Companies in consumer-facing sectors are increasing their investments in interactive solutions to provide better, more personalized experiences to their customers,” said Santosh Thomas, President, Global Growth Markets, Cognizant. “To help our clients drive growth, Cognizant Digital Business links social science research, digital strategy services, design thinking, marketing services, analytics, IoT products and services, cloud applications, and interactive content management. Mirabeau further strengthens our ability to work with clients to identify important insights, develop strategies, and then design, prototype, and scale meaningful product and service experiences.”

With the close of the acquisition, approximately 260 specialists from Mirabeau will become a part of Cognizant’s Digital Business practice. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Channel Impact^®
The acquisition will expand Cognizant’s digital business capabilities in the Netherlands and across Europe.

CompTIA: IT Sector Employment Inches Upwards in November

The U.S. IT sector recorded its fifth consecutive month of job growth in November, according to the IT Employment Tracker released today by CompTIA, a technology industry association based in suburban Chicago.

The software and technology services category led November job growth, adding 5,400 new positions, according to CompTIA’s analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation report. For the year, the IT sector has added 79,500 new jobs in software and services.

Reversing nine months of declines, computer and electronics products manufacturing employment increased in November, albeit by a modest 900 positions. For the year manufacturing jobs are down 8,100.

Job losses in data processing, hosting and related services (down 2,100), telecommunications (down 2,000) and other information services, including search portals (down 800) offset the November employment gains in the other categories.

The second component of the nation’s IT workforce – IT occupations across all other industries – had a strong showing in November, with an estimated net gain of 114,000 jobs. For 2016, IT occupations show an estimated net gain of about 200,000 jobs.

Channel Impact^®
Despite widespread industry workforce issues, the latest numbers suggest IT employment is moving in the right direction.

FireEye Names New Head of Worldwide Sales

FireEye, Inc., a Milpitas, CA-based security vendor, has announced that former Symantec and Nuance Communications executive Bill Robbins has joined the company as executive vice president of worldwide sales. Robbins reports to FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia.

Robbins has more than 20 years of global leadership experience in cyber security, cloud services and other technology markets, overseeing sales, operations, market development and organizational change management.

Most recently, Robbins served as executive vice president of worldwide sales at Nuance Communications, where he led all aspects of revenue generation, including customer and partner relationships, sales strategy, sales operations and corporate marketing.

Prior to joining Nuance Communications in 2013, Robbins was the chief operating officer at [24]7, a consumer experience software and services company. In this role, he was responsible for all sales, delivery, professional services and operations.

During a 10-year career with Symantec, and Veritas Software prior to the company’s acquisition by Symantec, Robbins served as executive vice president of worldwide sales and services, and earlier headed sales in the Americas and in Asia Pacific and Japan.

Channel Impact^®
An established professional well known to the channel, the hiring of Robbins will likely be a solid move fore FireEye.