Vorwerk Selects Cognizant for a Wide Range of IT Services

Direct-sales specialist to optimize its IT investments and adopt a flexible yet standardized IT environment

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Oct 24, 2014, 03:00 ET

FRANKFURT, Germany, Oct. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH), a global leader in information technology, consulting and business process services, today announced that it has been selected by the Vorwerk Group to transform its IT infrastructure and provide application services. Vorwerk, an international direct-sales company with subsidiaries in 24 countries around the world, will achieve higher levels of business agility and service quality. Through this transition, Vorwerk Group will be able to standardize and centralize its IT environment to a higher degree while driving down costs.

As part of the six-year engagement, Cognizant will provide Vorwerk with integrated service management, data center, network and application management services. Cognizant will also deliver end-user computing services and field services as well as manage a new service desk, providing help to Vorwerk's employees in a variety of languages. The services desk will be a central point of contact for the company, assisting staff in German, Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech and Polish.

By partnering with Cognizant, Vorwerk will focus more strongly and efficiently on its core competencies. Increased centralization will also make the Group's IT environment more transparent, enabling Vorwerk to proactively monitor, manage, and improve its IT infrastructure even further.

"As an expanding business, customer orientation and time-to-market are top priorities for us," said Reiner Strecker, Managing Partner at Vorwerk. "We chose Cognizant as our strategic partner because of the company's ability to understand our needs and provide the best support to meet them. Our sophisticated IT environment doesn't just need to be run if we want to satisfy market requirements, it also has to be continuously enhanced and managed. Cognizant's IT and infrastructure transformation offering has been tailored to meet our own needs, and supports our global strategy. We found a suitable partner in Cognizant with strong customer orientation, corporate culture, and innovative strength."

"Our aim is to improve the quality of the services we provide to our end users and to globalize and support our new strategic orientation in the IT sector. We chose Cognizant to not just reorganize our IT infrastructure, but also to introduce an IT operating model based on ITIL," said Axel Scarponi, CIO of the Vorwerk Group.

"Our end-to-end capabilities in IT Infrastructure services, coupled with our deep understanding of Vorwerk's business, will help us establish best-in-class service delivery processes. This puts us in a great position to support the Vorwerk Group in maximizing further growth opportunities in their key business areas," said Debashis Chatterjee, President of Technology Solutions at Cognizant. "Cognizant is committed to helping Vorwerk build a simpler, more scalable and globally unified IT environment that will provide an ideal platform for the Group's various divisions to conduct their daily business. As such, Vorwerk will be able to concentrate more on developing products and implementing effective sales and marketing activities, thus strengthening the Group's position in the market."

About Vorwerk

The Vorwerk & Co. KG family enterprise was founded in 1883. The holding company's registered office is located in Wuppertal, Germany. At the head of the corporate group are Managing Partners Walter Muyres, Reiner Strecker and Frank van Oers. Vorwerk's core business is the worldwide direct sale of high-quality products (Kobold vacuum cleaners, Thermomix kitchen appliances, Lux Asia Pacific products) and cosmetics (JAFRA Cosmetics).

The Vorwerk family also includes akf bank, Vorwerk Carpets, and the HECTAS Group sister organization. Vorwerk employs more than 622,000 people worldwide, 610,000 of which as independent advisers. Vorwerk generates Group sales of EUR 2.6 billion (2013) and operates in over 70 countries.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 75 development and delivery centers worldwide and approximately 187,400 employees as of June 30, 2014, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions and the factors discussed in our most recent Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognizant undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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SOURCE Cognizant