WE SPEND SO LITTLE TIME AT EACH ASSIGNMENT THAT EMPLOYERS ARE CONSIDERING A DRIVE-THROUGH WINDOW FOR EXECUTIVES.

by Jay Whitehead

For those of us who have been in the American HRO market since 1998 or before, there have always been at least six constants:

First, ADP has dominated the payroll sector.

Second, Fidelity has remained resolute about getting its fair share of the market, somehow, some way.

Third, Hewitt has continued to refine its business model to fit market conditions, morphing steadily from a consultant into an outsourcer.

Fourth, Accenture has used its massive reservoir of relationships to innovate its way in.

Fifth, Towers Perrin has been big but behind the scenes, running thousands of companies private employee benefits programs.

And sixth, Kevin Campbell.

The past couple of months have provided us more of the same, only faster and more unpredictable than ever. Executive changes have been rapid-fire and speedy acquisition activities have reminded us that we do, indeed, live in the land where everything moves at drive-through speed.

In mid-January, Towers Perrin showed that it will remain an engine of HRO growth by announcing that data processing giant EDS would pay $420 million to buy 85 percent of Towers Perrins gem of a consulting business. Towers Perrin will continue to own 15 percent of the business. The purchase creates the new joint venture ExcellerateHRO that will bring EDSs marquis clients CIBC and Germanys Infineon together with Towers Perrins thousands of benefits clients.

The joint ventures new CEO is Steve Bohannon, who has been running EDSs HRO business for the past year. Steve picked the top executives from each company to help him run the new ship. It just so happened, Steve told me, that the new management team has equal representation from each firm. Im taking that to mean that its a pretty even match.

One week later in January, Fidelity showed everyone that the Boston-based investment management giant still has its eyes on HRO. It had won a five-year HRO contract from BASF, the $9 billion American affiliate of BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany. The contract involves payroll operations, health and welfare benefit programs, and retirement plans for BASFs 20,000 U.S. employees and retirees. The BASF account will be transitioning from Mellon. We first covered Mellon and the BASF account back in November 2002, in the second issue of this magazines North American sister publication, HRO Today. Mellon originally acquired the BASF account with the Unifi portfolio of HRO businesses some years before.

Then on February 24, 2005, an announcement came that made the headhunting community drop to its knees and bow in awe. Accenture told us that Exult founder and Hewitt market strategy leader, Kevin Campbell, had rejoined the company as Global Managing Director-Business Process Outsourcing, a new position.

In his new role, we understand, Kevin will manage Accenture Finance Solutions, Accenture Learning, and Accenture Procurement Solutions, as well as the companys industry-specific BPO businesses, which include Accenture Insurance Services, among others. His eyes will also be set on identifying and pursuing new areas of opportunity for Accentures growing BPO capabilities. Of course, venturing outside HRO is nothing new to Kevin. While at HRO pioneer Exult, Campbell ventured into providing finance and accounting, or FAO services to Vivendi Universal.

From 1982 to 1999, Kevin was at Accenture, going back to the days when it was called Andersen Consulting. Back then, he was the partner who pioneered Accentures BPO activities. After Accenture, Kevin joined Exult founder Jim Madden, president and COO, helping that pioneering firm gather more than one dozen Global 100 HRO clients. Kevin was even a founding board member of the HRO Association. Then he helped architect Exults merger with Hewitt in October 2004, in the HRO industrys most-important provider merger to date.

Sadly, this move will take Kevin out of the HRO space, at least for a while until his HRO non-compete agreement with Hewitt runs out. At Accenture, Kevin reports to Joellin Comerford, Accentures group chief executive---Outsourcing and BPO Businesses, who will retain all responsibility for Accenture HR Services.

These changes are all quintessentially American. They have been fast, for sure. But since they involve familiar brands and people, the rapid changes seem somehow, well, normal.