News for Public sector
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Outsourcing Yearbook eBook launched
sourcingfocus.com is proud to announce the launch of The Outsourcing Yearbook 2012.
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Training for Mobile Developers sees Demand Hike
81% of IT professionals plan to bolster their skills in mobile computing – an area widely seen to be a growth area.
About one-fifth of the IT professional polled by CWJobs.co.uk said they are plan to completely re-skill and become mobile computing experts.
Businesses and public sector agencies see mobile apps as a way to serve their customers more effectively and also now allow workers to use internal business applications on their phones.
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Department of Health Awards potential £30m Contract to SME
The Department of Health has signed a deal that could be worth up to £30m with UK SME, Methods Consulting, to give the NHS an electronic recruitment service.
Methods will provide a web based portal that can be accessed through a variety of current and future web enabled devices.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Over Half of Civil Servants Do Not Know About Public Sector Network
56% of civil servants working in IT or commercial functions are unaware of their organisations position on the all-important Public Sector Network. The problem is worse is central government (69% are unaware) compared to local government (31% unaware).
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Friday, February 24, 2012
Wakefield Council Looks to Slash Costs through Flexible Working
Wakefield Council hopes to save £1m in property costs and a further £100,000 annually in telephony related costs through technology deployments which will promote flexible working.
It is working with Siemens Enterprise Communications to support telephony mobility for hot-desk environments and unified communication.
Alan Kirkham, Wakefield Council service director of ICT at “We still have quite a long way to go with flexible working. We want to look at all other services to see which ones could benefit the most from taking a more flexible approach.”
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Capita Starts to Feel Benefit of Coalition Cuts
Capita shares lifted by over 4% as long-negoiated government contracts finally pop up on the balance sheet.
Capita increased revenues 7% to £2.93bn last year, while pre-tax profits fell £309.8m to £302.9m following £82.3m of write-downs pertaining to acquisitions made during the period.
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Thursday, February 23, 2012
CIA Up for the Cloud
US Central Intelligence Agency top technology officer Ira "Gus" Hunt," the agency wants to buy software services on a "metered," pay-as-you-go basis,” rather than continue with more traditional deals, that ‘inhibits flexibility’ which means that it cannot take advantage of emerging software early, as well as surmounting the challenges that federal agencies regarding budgetary cuts.
This strongly hints that the CIA is ready to make the leap into the cloud. Details of proposed provider offerings are, of course, classified.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012
As ‘Virtual Council’ goes Social, Suffolk Libraries go Social Enterprise.
Suffolk County Council has shelved plans to focus wholly on outsourcing. Yet Suffolk’s central government funding has been cut by 28% and needs to save around 50m over the next two years, in addition to the 43m cuts already made.
It was planning to on closing two-thirds of its libraries, but the Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) plans to save 44 of them. The council-formed social enterprise aims to have lower overheads, and its charitable status will allow it tax breaks and potentially grant funding.
Suffolk County Council will retain statutory responsibility for library services and will remain accountable for the county wide network.
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Teachers Should Get Shares in Schools, says Policy Exchange Think Tank
Schools should be run for a profit, and teachers given shares, says the conservative Policy Exchange.
The report advocates pilot schemes social enterprise schools in some of the most deprived parts of the UK. Schools would be permitted to distribute 50% of any surplus as a dividend to shareholders. The remaining 50% would be required to be reinvested in the school.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Atos Gives Barcelona Citizen Friendly Solution
Atos has introduced the MyCity, which will allow the people of Barcelona to interact with their city via their mobile phones. The app is developed by Atos and hosted on its servers.
Services are set to include: FixThis for reporting geo-located photo incidences with smartphones, Next2Me to look up nearby services, City Transport and iBiking, City Agenda for leisure and culture events based in geo-location search, City Traffic, M-Parking, and City Beaches.
Barcelona City Council CIO Manel Sanromà said he has received positive feedback from citizens that “clearly demonstrates that we have filled a need, a need of more connectivity and facilitate access to municipal services for the citizen at any time and from anywhere," Sanromà said.
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