Cognizant was established in 1994 inChennai, India, as Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (DBSS), a 76:24joint venture betweenDun & Bradstreet andSatyam Computers, withKumar Mahadeva, andSrini Raju as the founding CEOs and MDs.[9][10] It began with 50 employees in Chennai asDun & Bradstreet's in-house technology unit focused on implementing large-scale IT projects for Dun & Bradstreet businesses.[11] In 1996, the company started pursuing customers beyond Dun & Bradstreet.[12]
In 1996, Dun & Bradstreet spun off several of its subsidiaries, including Erisco, IMS International,Nielsen Media Research,Pilot Software, Strategic Technologies and DBSS, to form a new company called Cognizant Corporation, headquartered in Chennai, India. Three months later, in 1997, DBSS renamed itself Cognizant Technology Solutions.
In July 1997, Dun & Bradstreet boughtSatyam's 24% stake in DBSS for $3.4 million.[13][14] Headquarters were moved to the United States, and in March 1998,Kumar Mahadeva was named CEO.[15] Operating as a division of the Cognizant Corporation, the company focused on Y2K-related projects and web development.[16]
In 1998, the parent company, Cognizant Corporation, split into two companies:IMS Health andNielsen Media Research.[17] After this restructuring, Cognizant Technology Solutions became a public subsidiary of IMS Health. In June 1998, IMS Health partially spun off the company, conducting aninitial public offering of the Cognizant stock.
Cognizant's old logoCognizant's logo from 2018 until March 2022
In September 2014, Cognizant acquired healthcare IT services provider TriZetto Corp for $2.7 billion.[20] Cognizant shares rose nearly 3 percent in pre-market trading.[21]
On 24 June 2015, the company signed a multimillion-dollar agreement withEscorts Group in India to help Escorts' businesses in digital transformation and modernize its operations across all business segments.[22]
On 30 June 2015, it partnered withSingapore-based supermarket retailerNTUC FairPrice to perform digital transformation in NTUC's business to improve personalized and consistent customer service across multiple channels.[23]
In January 2022, Cognizant sold its acquisition Oy Samlink toKyndryl and Mustache to DJE Holdings.[25]
In 2023, Ravi Kumar S was named as CEO of Cognizant.[26]
On 22 April 2024, Cognizant announced its partnership with Microsoft Corporation to extend its reach of Generative AI and Copilots, also to enhance experiences of employee and speed up their cross-industry innovation.[27]
btconsult GmbH [process and technology consulting, SAP]; C:1 Solutions GmbH [consulting and enterprise solutions: SAP, BPM, ECM, ERM]; psc Management Consulting GmbH [process and technology consulting]; C:1 SetCon GmbH [software engineering and testing]; Enterprise Services AG [a Swiss company focused on process and IT consulting]; C:1 Holding GmbH
As of December 2023, the company had over 347,700 employees globally, of which about 254,000 were in India across 13 cities.[110][111] By 2024, Cognizant's largest employee bases were inChennai andHyderabad, each with more than 50,000 employees,[112] followed byBengaluru with nearly 40,000.[113] The company has local, regional, and global delivery centers in other countries like the UK, Australia, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, China, Philippines, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica.[114][115][116][117]
Cognizant is organized into severalverticals andhorizontal units. The vertical units focus on specific industries such as Banking & Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Retail. The horizontal units focus on specific technologies or process areas such as Analytics, mobile computing, BPO and Testing. Both horizontal and vertical units havebusiness consultants, who form the organization-wide Cognizant Consulting team together. Cognizant is among the largest recruiters of MBAs in the industry; they are involved inbusiness development andbusiness analysis for IT services projects.
Cognizant is led by Ravi Kumar S (CEO) as of 12 January 2023[update]. Jatin Dalal (CFO)[118] a, Surya Gummadi[119] and Rajesh Nambiar (President, Digital Business & Technology)[120] are some of the others in the leadership team.
Cognizant was listed on NASDAQ in 1998, and added to theNASDAQ-100 Index in 2004. After the close of trading on 16 November 2006, Cognizant moved from the mid capS&P 400 to theS&P 500.[135] Cognizant became aFortune 500 company in 2011.[136]
Cognizant's philanthropic andcorporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are conducted through the Cognizant employees for the financial and administrative support of the Cognizant Foundation.[137][138] Registered in March 2005 as a "Charitable Company" under the Indian Companies Act, the Cognizant Foundation aims to help "unprivileged members of society gain access to quality education and healthcare by providing financial and technical support; designing and implementing educational and healthcare improvement programs; and partnering withNon-Government Organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, healthcare institutions, government agencies and corporations".
Cognizant has a grassroots corporate social responsibility project calledOutreach, through which the volunteer employees lend their expertise for devising skill-building and workforce programs to improve the operations of NGOs.[139][140]
Later in the same year, in April, Cognizant signed an agreement to beSailGP's digital transformation partner.[144] In June, Cognizant also became the Presenting Partner of THE JOHN SHIPPEN Shoot-Out Inaugural Golf Event.[145][146][147]
Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) paid $3.64 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 illicit payments and Cognizant reimbursed the money by disguising it as compensation for cost overruns.[149]
In March 2019, significant publicity was raised because Cognizant repetitively violated the directives of theRegistrar of Companies. The Company "has moved [sic] theMadras High Court fearing possibility of criminal prosecution being launched against it by [the] Registrar of Companies for alleged violation of the provisions of theCompanies Act of 2013 and the Companies (Appointment and Disqualification of Directors) Rules of 2014." One of those questions was as to why the company had not disclosed complete information on stock options of its parent holding company — CTS Corporation in the United States — having been given to the employees, including its directors, and the payments running to several hundred crores of rupees (approx US $40 million) having been paid to the parent company in the US towards stock compensating recharge.[150]
In 2018, a race discrimination suit was brought: "Three former employees claim they were forced out of their jobs and replaced with 'less qualified' Indians after being poorly treated by their Indian supervisors and colleagues, given unjustifiably low performance ratings and denied promotions." Cognizant said it was "national origin" and not race.[151] In a 2024 retrial, a jury found the company had discriminated and should pay damages.[152]
200 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.[153]
In 2017, eight employees filed petitions with the labor department, complaining Cognizant forced them to resign as part of a performance-based review. The labor department closed the case in favor of employees and advised company management to give one more opportunity for the petitioners to prove themselves. At the time Cognizant had also rolled out a ‘voluntary separation program’ for directors, associate vice-presidents and senior VP's which compensated them with 6–9 months of their salary.[154]
In 2017, approximately 6000 Cognizant employees in Hyderabad/Bangalore/Chennai lost their job as a part of company's annual performance review process.[155]
On July 1, 2023, Cognizant acquired the Microsoft/Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience US medical scribes division. On January 8, 2024, Cognizant laid off over 700 of those US medical scribes and managers to migrate the US hospital accounts to their Indian scribes division in a rolling/tiered fashion with termination dates at the end of February and March 2024. In addition, approximately 40 of the US employees (thus not triggering the WARN Act, which stipulates a minimum of 50 employees) were terminated immediately on January 8, 2024, with only 1 month's severance pay instead of the 2 months' severance that would have been required by the WARN Act.
TheIncome Tax department has frozen Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp's bank accounts and deposits inChennai andMumbai for allegedly evading a dividend distribution tax (DDT). A Cognizant spokesman confirmed the report and said in a statement that a court has instructed the tax department not to take further action pending further hearings. Cognizant failed to pay the tax of more than 25 billion rupees ($385 million) in the 2016–17 financial year, according toThe Hindu, citing officials from the tax department.[156]
The court asked the company to deposit 15 percent of the disputed tax, amounting to 4.9 billion rupees ($75 million) as security deposit till it decides on the case.[157]
In February 2018 the UK and Irish press expressed concerns about contractors employed by Cognizant inDublin as part of the outsourcing contract withGoogle about the conditions of employment in relationship to compensation and basic employment allowances like sick leave.[158]
In 2016, Cognizant announced that it was cooperating with US authorities in an investigation related to theForeign Corrupt Practices Act, and carrying out its own probe to determine whether some payments made in India breached the law. The company also said President Gordon Coburn had resigned and would be replaced by Rajeev Mehta.[159]
Cognizant has been sued byCrawford & Company, the US-based independent providers of insurance claims-handling services, for alleged breach of contract. Cognizant had been mandated by Crawford to implementPeopleSoft Financials software as part of an ERP project called Project Atlas that it was critical to Crawford's operations. Project Atlas included components for both internal operations and client-facing services.[160]
Cognizant leads the ranks ofcompanies receiving H-1B visas from the United States. The company has been steadily increasing its U.S. work force. In January 2011, the company announced plans to expand its U.S. delivery centers, including a new 1,000-person (0.4% of worldwide workforce) facility inPhoenix, Arizona.[161]
In 2009, an investigation by theUS Department of Labor (DoL) found Cognizant in violation of the H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Administrative Act. The DoL discovered that the company had stolen wages and benefits from 67 of its workers, for which they demanded they repay $509,607 in back wages. Joseph Petrecca, the director of the Wage and Hour Division's Northern New Jersey District Office noted that the company took immediate steps to correct the violations, saying the "level of cooperation sets a standard for others in the industry."[162]
In 2016, the company was the subject of a lawsuit by workers forWalt Disney World who said workers from India were brought into the United States on H-1B visas in order to replace them.[163] However, in October 2016, federal Judge Gregory A. Presnel of the United States District Court in Orlando dismissed the lawsuits, stating "none of the allegedly false statements put at issue in the complaint are adequate."[164]
Cognizant was also required to pay $5.7 million in back pay and fines in a U.S. District Court ruling for a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed that Cognizant did not provide quality assurance analysts the full value of their overtime pay.[165]
The Verge published a follow-up investigation of Cognizant'sTampa, Florida, office in June 2019.[169][170] Employees in the Tampa location described working conditions that were worse than the conditions in the Phoenix office.[169][171] Content moderator Keith Utley suffered aheart attack while working for Cognizant in March 2018 and died in a hospital; the Tampa office lacked an on-sitedefibrillator.[169][172] Moderators were required to signnon-disclosure agreements with Cognizant to obtain the job, although three former workers broke the agreements to provide information toThe Verge.[169][173] In the Tampa office, workers reportedbed bugs,unsanitary work conditions, inadequate mental health resources,sexual harassment,workplace violence, andtheft.[169][174] As a result of exposure to videos depicting graphic violence,animal abuse, andchild sexual abuse, some employees developedpsychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder.[169][175] Cognizant sanitized the office beforeThe Verge's visit, a practice the publication described as a "dog-and-pony-show phenomenon".[169] In response to negative coverage related to its content moderation contracts, a Facebook director indicated that Facebook is in the process of developing a "global resiliency team" that would assist its contractors.[169]
On October 30, 2019, Cognizant announced that it would phase out a portion of its content moderation contracts in 2020.[176][177]
US$19.736 billion (2024)[4]
USA
UK
Germany
Australia
France
Ireland
Finland
India
Belgium
Switzerland
Japan
Netherlands
Norway
Canada
El Salvador
Denmark
Lithuania
Philippines
Media related toCognizant Technology Solutions at Wikimedia Commons
