What do the top Hedge Fund and Mutual Fund Gurus like in the Outsourcing and IT Services group? This article, the 40th in a series, identifies, through research of the latest available institutional 13-F filings, the Gurus who are most invested in the Outsourcing and IT Services group, and the specific stocks within that group that they prefer to hold in their portfolios. Please note that the group includes Consulting, Business Process Outsourcing, Staffing, and IT Services companies.

Furthermore, please note that this article will be among the last in this series, as the latest March 2011, quarter 13-F Institutional filings are now almost complete. Later this week, I will bring to you the ‘Top New and Added Picks’ of Guru Funds by industry/sector detailing this time not the top holdings, but more importantly what new positions they took and what existing positions they added to in the latest March 2011, quarter. Please check my article page for previous articles in this series.
A Guru is defined as someone who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area. When it comes to hedge funds, there are a number of ways to anoint leading managers as Gurus, including long-term performance, low portfolio volatility and an elite reputation in the investment community.
Many of us are familiar with leading investors and hedge fund managers such as Warren Buffett, George Soros, Carl Icahn and Julian Robertson, but the hedge fund community alone includes over 9,000 funds; add in mutual funds, ETFs, and other investment entities and the number is likely to be at least two to three times that number. While there is no official list of Gurus, less than one percent or between 100 to 200 fund managers are commonly believed by the larger investment community to have earned the distinction of being called Gurus.
The study of the investing habits of Gurus can be informative as these are very savvy, well-respected investors with a high personal net worth deploying large sums of capital from their funds regularly. They have a long-term track record of success, and while one can easily just ride their coattails, the savvy investor may want to use these lists as a starting point to conduct their own due diligence.
The total capitalization of the US Equity markets is somewhere in the $15 trillion range, and the total market capitalization of leading Outsourcing and IT Services group companies is $470 billion or just over 3.1% of the overall market. The Table lists the top five investment Gurus whose funds have invested more than that average of 3.1% in the group. The following are their leading picks in that group:
• Cognizant Tech Solutions CL A (CTSH) provides custom IT Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing Services for Companies.
• Accenture PLC (ACN) provides management consulting, technology and outsourcing services to businesses and government agencies.
• Towers Watson & Co. (TW) provides human resources and financial management consulting services to corporations and public institutions.
• Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR) provides outsourcing solutions for investor communications, securities processing, and securities clearing.
• Covergys Corp. (CVG) is a global leader in relationship management, and provides outsourced customer care, billing services, and interaction software worldwide.
• Amdocs Ltd. (DOX) provides business support system software to service providers in the communications, media and entertainment industry.

Steve Mandel, who started Lone Pine Capital in 1997, is also a former Tiger Cub. He was a senior managing director and consumer analyst at Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management Corporation from 1990-97 prior to starting Lone Pine Capital.

Brave Warrior Capital, a hedge fund co-founded in 1984 by Guru Glenn Greenberg and John Shapiro, maintains a highly concentrated portfolio of 11 holdings. Mr. Greenberg describes that as a defense against ignorance, and maintains that the more companies you own the less you know about each, and the less you know about a business the more you are likely to make a mistake out of fear or greed.

Jana Partners LLC, a hedge fund co-founded by Guru Barry S. Rosenstein in 2001 with partner Gary Claar, invests in event-driven strategies, meaning that the fund finds opportunity in corporate transactional events such as consolidations, acquisitions, recapitalizations, bankruptcies and liquidations in selecting its investments.

Dallas, TX-based Hedge Fund Maverick Capital was founded in 1993 by Lee Ainslie. Mr. Ainslie is one of the Tiger Cubs, so called because they learned to pick stocks at Julian Robertson’s legendary hedge fund Tiger Management LLC. For an almost $10 billion fund, it is relatively concentrated in only 71 securities, with 40% of the fund being invested in the Technology Sector.

Omaha, NE-based Wallace R. Weitz & Co, founded in 1983 by Guru Wallace Weitz, manages assets for the Weitz Funds, individuals, corporations, pension plans, foundation and endowments. They seek understandable, well-managed, cash-generating businesses, and base their investment decisions on the present value of the future free cash that the business will generate.
Credit: Historical fundamentals including operating metrics and stock ownership information were derived using I-Metrix® by Edgar Online®, Zacks Investment Research, DailyGraphs®, Thomson Reuters and Briefing.com. Fund data including assets under management and firm profiles are sourced mostly from Hedgetracker.com. The information and data is believed to be accurate, but no guarantees or representations are made.

Source:http://seekingalpha.com/article/271286-top-outsourcing-and-it-services-picks-by-fund-gurus-concentrated-in-the-sector

IT outsourcing is big business but if you talk to IT workers you are left wondering how?

The IT outsourcing sector in the UK was worth £41.7bn in 2009, according to research from Oxford Economics. This was about 20% of the total UK business outsourcing sector which was worth £207bn. In total outsourcing accounted for 8% of UK GDP that year.

But if IT workers had anything to do with it the sector would not be that big. I was at a housewarming party yesterday (22nd May) and I met three IT professionals. They wern’t drunk by the way and neither was I.

One of the IT professionals, who actually works for a service provider, said he doesn’t understand why businesses outsource so much. He said he doesn’t think an outsourced worker will ever give you the commitment of an insourced worker.

He said workers from suppliers will not go the extra mile for the client. He used an analogy of a broken TV to get his point across.

“OK, see that TV. The client asks me to put a new plug on it. So I do just that. Although I notice that the wire is faulty I just do what is requested. It is not in my interest to do it at the same time because that will be another job later. But if I was an in-house worker I would do both jobs in one go,” he told me.

A survey recently carried out at the recent Infosecurity Europe event, by automation software maker Lieberman Software, found that not only were IT outsourcing contracts costing more than expected but three quarters of those interviewed think that outsourced service providers were creating work unnecessarily.

Then there were two IT professionals from a major corporate at the party. They said they would not outsource any core business IT work. This also made me think of a meeting I recently had with Cognizant’s global head of business consultancy. He said as a result of technology advances a lot of processes are no longer core and having a unique system is not necessarily a real advantage.

So outsourcing suppliers have to be able to demonstrate to their potential customers why certain elements of their business are not core. This is potentially where business consultancy arms within IT service providers could add value.

But back to the point of this post. How has IT outsourcing become so big despite clear doubts about its effectiveness.

Source:http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/inside-outsourcing/2011/05/views-of-it-outsourcing-and-broken-tv-connections-from-the-house-warming-party.html

Breaking news from ihotdesk, delivering IT Support and IT Outsourcing in London

Individuals working in IT support should ensure they formulate a smooth transition to outsourced services, it has been stated.

According to OMC Partners, businesses should be sure to outline the “control points” that are most important to them when making the move towards IT outsourcing projects.

David Ellis, partner at the firm, said organisations might make the transition easier for users by sending out an IT support worker to help with any obstacles encountered.

“Some organisations are relaxed about certain controls – other organisations want to be right on top of that until they are more comfortable,” Mr Ellis noted.

In other news, Gartner recently stated that many IT managers are failing to identify key risks when evaluating cloud computing contracts.

According to the firm, while cloud hosted services can save money, there can also be hidden costs which must be taken into account in order to produce an accurate prediction of their overall value.

Source:http://www.ihotdesk.com/article/800552676/IT-outsourcing-requires-transition-plans

VE recently launched its new IT domain outsourcing blog to cater to IT-specific requirements from a global market that has been keenly eying the burgeoning IT market in India.

VE’s USP lies in its highly successful business model that has at its core the unique and unparalleled concept of remote staffing. By outsourcing their IT-specific needs to VE, companies across the US, UK and Europe get a sure competitive edge over their business rivals, dramatically cut down on costs and get highly skilled and low-cost employees to do the job.

The purpose behind launching this blog is to give viewers an idea of VE’s extensive IT-related outsourcing services. Details of all sorts of IT-centric support can be found here. Whether the requirement is for a Web/ Graphic Designer, SEO, PHP, Java, dot NET, mobile phone development or any other IT-related service, you may be assured that VE will provide the best possible candidate for the job.

Read testimonials from grateful clients who found VE to be immensely helpful in receiving specialised skills at a fraction of the cost they would have to normally pay in their own country.

VE’s latest IT-specific blog also helps you stay abreast of the latest developments in the world of information technology by highlighting all the recent happenings and trends in the IT sector.

VE’s remote staffing model is absolutely unique in the sense that when a company decides to outsource it gets all the benefits of a dedicated employee without the headache of the accompanying managerial and administrative logistics that are usually involved whenever anyone is hired. The daily nitty-gritty of running a full-fledged office, handling employee issues, Read why it makes sense to outsource to India SEO, software programming, content, and even engineering services. And, in India, let’s narrow down the focus to VirtualEmployee.com, a growing giant in the outsourcing market.

Source:http://www.pr.com/press-release/326107