Cognizant quadruples global revenue over last decade
Global technology services provider Cognizant has seen its annual revenue grow by 266% over the last decade, according to the firm’s previous 10 years of results releases. The firm reports that its annual revenue was nearly $17 billion in 2019, rising by more than 4% on 2018’s figures.
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation is one of the world's leading professional services companies, and is one of the best examples of just how the demand for digital transformations expertise is buoying the advisory and services sector. According to the firm’s latest global results, it enjoyed a 4.1% boost on 2018’s figures, reaching a total revenue of $16.8 billion in 2019. While that represents a climb-down on the 8.9% leap its revenue it made the year before, that only tells part of the story.
Looking back over Cognizant’s announced results since the start of the last decade, the firm’s global revenues have been catapulted upward by around 266%. While most firms tend to recalibrate how they measure their results every so often, that would only partially account for the fact Cognizant’s global revenue seems to have almost quadrupled over the last 10 years.
Speaking on the last decade’s worth of growth, Cognizant Chief Executive Officer Brian Humphries said of the results, “Our steady progress against key initiatives is increasingly evident in our commercial and financial performance. We enter 2020 with renewed vigour and optimism."
The global digital transformation market has grown exponentially over the last decade. With the increasing effectiveness and falling price of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) technologies allowing businesses to drive up productivity and cut costs at faster rates than ever before, demand for digital business models saw the global digital transformation market explode to a value of $261.94 billion in 2018. This is expected to reach $1,051.12 billion by 2026, meaning services firms positioned to help clients with their digital transformation efforts are benefitting from something of a gold rush at present.
Alongside the fact this trend has clearly benefitted demand for Cognizant’s services, the company is also in the midst of a multi-year project aiming is to reposition the company to realise a greater growth potential. This has seen the firm complete a number of purchases over the last year, including the acquisitions of FinTech innovator Meritsoft, life sciences firm Zenith Technologies, and consultancy Contino to beef up its multifaceted services offering. As the company enters 2020, Cognizant hopes to build on this with a two-pronged strategy that aims to expose it to faster-growing market categories.
According to a release from the firm, in order to sharpen its strategic posture to align directly with clients’ needs, it will first look to protect and optimise the core business while scaling internationally. Second, Cognizant will continue to invest to compete in four key digital battlegrounds – data, digital engineering, cloud computing, and Internet of Things.
