Sapient Corporation

Sapient Corporation

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Type	Public
Industry	Capital markets, Commodity Markets, Government Services and Digital Media
Founded	1990
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Key people	Alan J. Herrick (Co-Chairman and CEO)
Services	Business consulting and integrated marketing services
Revenue	$ 1.305 billion (2013)
Operating income	$125.22 million (2013)
Number of employees	11,900+ (December 31, 2013)
Parent	Publicis
Website	www.sapient.com

Sapient is a marketing and consulting company that provides business, marketing, and technology services to clients. The company operates three divisions, SapientNitro, Sapient Global Markets and Sapient Government Services.

On February 5, 2015, Sapient became a fully owned division of French advertising giant Publicis, in a deal valued at $3.7bn (£2.3bn).

History

Early Years

Sapient was founded on November 6, 1990. The two founders, Jerry Greenberg and Stuart Moore, met at Cambridge Technology Partners, an IT services company located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The co-founders recognized the need for a different type of firm in the IT consulting world. Rather than charge on a time and materials basis like other firms, Sapient chose to use a fixed-term, fixed-price model for pricing projects. In addition, Greenberg and Moore relied on their own money instead of venture capital to fund the company’s operations. This allowed them to keep control of the organization and set long-term strategic goals. Within a few years, Sapient gained a reputation for completing complex projects to the satisfaction of its clients. During this period, Sapient was also an early adopter of internet-based technology, and internet-based work grew to over 70% of total revenue by 1999. Both client satisfaction and the pioneering use of the internet led to rapid growth in the period from 1992 to 2000, with revenue growing from $950,000 in 1992 to $503 million in 2000.

International Expansion

After a period of contraction during the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s, Sapient looked overseas to grow a substantial portion of revenue, rising over 30% in only 3 years. This growth was driven by a strategy called “Global Distributed Delivery,” which sought to capitalize on the quickly growing tech market in India to grow Sapient’s software development capabilities. The operations in India would supplement project teams globally, helping Sapient provide more efficient and economical development solutions for clients. As Sapient has sought to expand its business as a leader in an emerging market, the company has made several strategic acquisitions in its history. Sapient’s first high-profile acquisition was of Planning Group International (PGI) in 2006, which greatly expanded Sapient’s experiential marketing and UX capabilities. Another important acquisition was DCG group in 2008, which augmented its existing capital markets offerings. In 2009, Sapient announced its largest acquisition; the $50 mil acquisition of The Nitro Group, which added 300 employees. This acquisition also helped define three separate business units within Sapient.

History of Sapient Acquisitions

Year	Name	Division	Refs
2014	Campfire	SapientNitro
2014	OnPoint	Government Services
2014	La Comunidad	SapientNitro
2013	iThink	SapientNitro
2013	(m)PHASIZE	SapientNitro
2012	SecondStory	SapientNitro
2011	DAD	SapientNitro
2011	CLANMO	SapientNitro
2009	Nitro	SapientNitro
2008	Derivatives Consulting Group (DCG)	Global Markets
2008	iChameleon	Sapient
2006	Planning Group International (PGI)	Sapient
2005	Business Information Solutions	Sapient
2000	Human Code	Sapient
1999	Adjacency	Sapient
1999	E-Lab	Sapient
1998	Studio Archetype	Sapient

Divisions

Sapient is divided into three business units. SapientNitro is an integrated digital marketing agency. Sapient Global Markets provides business and technology services and solutions to firms in the Capital Markets and Commodity industries. Sapient Government Services offers strategic, digital, and creative services to public sector clients.

SapientNitro

SapientNitro’s capabilities include integrated marketing and creative services, web and interactive development, traditional advertising, media planning and buying, strategic planning and marketing analytics, multi-channel commerce strategy and solutions including focus on mobile, and content and asset management strategies and solutions. It integrates marketing concepts with technology tools and platforms to build brand experiences. It conceives designs, and develops and delivers integrated, multi-channel marketing and commerce experiences. Its marketing and creative services consist of visual concept, design and implementation through multiple media, brand building and direct response programs, audience segmentation and profiling strategies, customer loyalty strategies, customer relationship strategy and implementation, customer lead generation and management and integrated advertising campaigns.

Sapient Global Markets

Sapient Global Markets provides business and technology services and solutions to firms in the Capital Markets and Commodity industries. It provides clients with services to help respond to new and changing regulations, achieve operational efficiencies, improve the user experience, and manage enterprise risk. Its practice areas include buy-side investment processes, commodities trading and risk management, derivatives platforms, clearing and collateral, data management, operational risk, pipeline and shipping, portfolio accounting, trade documentation, regulatory reporting, and valuation and risk analytics.

Sapient Government Services

Sapient Government Services provides United States government clients, nonprofits, NGOs, and higher education clients with digital strategy and execution, program management, IT and security services, creative communications and outreach solutions. The Q1 2014, Sapient Government Services’ acquisition of OnPoint Consulting enhanced the company’s cyber-security capabilities.

Corporate Affairs

In April 1996, Sapient went public with a price of $21 a share. In the subsequent four years, share prices in the technology sector increased substantially. Sapient was no exception and its shares soared to a split-adjusted price of $550. However, the dot-com bust in late 2000 hit Sapient shares hard and they declined to a low of $0.75/share. Over the next few years, growth picked up and the share price recovered accordingly, hitting a high of $17.95 in 2014.

Culture

Sapient's office in Gurgaon (SEZ), India.

Sapient’s culture has been profiled by case studies within the Harvard and Yale Business Schools as an example of leadership and organizational behavior. Sapient’s culture is built upon six core values. These values are meant to guide employee behavior and decision making. They are used in Sapient’s interview process, and form an important part of the company’s week-long initiation program called “Sapient Start.”

Office Space

All Sapient offices have open layouts, where it is difficult to decipher any hierarchy. Whiteboards dominate the office space and are used frequently for meetings and work plans. These two characteristics of Sapient office spaces are considered a way to support the core values of the company. Sapient’s offices have received global recognition for their innovative and collaborative work spaces, including the IIDA Gold Award for Corporate Office Design (Arlington, VA office).

Awards

Year	Name	Division	Refs
2014	SGS Named a Best Place to Work in the DC area by the Washington Post	Government Services
2014	Teresa Bozzelli named the Industry Executive Leader of the Year by AFFIRM	Government Services
2014	Parkinson’s Disease Biomarkers Program named overall winner of the Excellence.Gov awards by ACT-IAC	Government Services
2012	NHSC Jobs Board named a finalist for the HHSInnovates award	Government Services
2013	Ad Age 2013 Agency Report : #1 Largest Digital Agency, US	Nitro
2013	Ad Age 2013 Agency Report : #4 Largest Digital Agency, Worldwide	Nitro
2013	Ad Age 2013 Agency Report : #2 Largest Mobile Marketing Agency, US	Nitro
2013	Ad Age's Agency A-List: 2013 Agency to Watch	Nitro
2014	Laura A. Rugarber, named by Consulting magazine as one of its “35 Under 35”	Global Markets
2014	Best for Project Delivery Within Budget, 2014 Energy Risk Technology Rankings	Global Markets
2013	Financial Technologies Forum News Technology Innovation Awards 2014: Best Consultancy for Operations, Best Regulatory Compliance Solution for Operations (CMRS)	Global Markets
2012	Banking Technology Awards 2012, Best Industry Infrastructure Initiative: European DataWarehouse	Global Markets

External links

• Official website

• Khurana, Rakesh, and Joel Podolny. "Sapient Corporation." Harvard Business School Case 405-045, September 2004. (Revised October 2005)
• Nagy, Andrea, Jaan Elias and Joel Podolny. "Sapient: Defining Success was both the Challenge and the Opportunity." Yale Case 06-017, November 17, 2006.