HP confirms 27,000 job losses

Thursday, May 24, 2012

HP has confirmed plans to reduce its workforce by 27,000 which would amount to eight percent of the companies staff by 2014 in order to make savings of £1.9 billion. 

The move will come as part of long term restructuring and cost cutting by the company, which began at the end of October. The cuts will come in the form of both retirement offers and redundancies.

The move comes as HP announce a reduction of the company’s net income by 31 percent in the third quarter from the same time last year.

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BAE secures £1.6 billion Saudi contract

BAE Systems has secured a contract worth £1.6 billion to provide Hawk and Pilatus aircraft to Saudi Arabia.

The move will secure 200 jobs and will see the defence giant supply 55 Pilatus turboprop and 22 Hawk jet trainer aircraft as well as technical support to the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF).

BAE’s group managing director, Guy Griffiths, said: “We have a long history in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and, working with Pilatus, we will provide the RSAF with the best training platforms to meet their requirements.”

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De Vere partner with Claranet for private cloud

De Vere had the challenge of trying to join two separate Wide Area Network (WAN) services using an interconnect which was proving costly and inefficient. They chose Claranet to design a WAN that would connect 60 locations to a single platform.

The aquisition and merge of Initial Style Conferences Ltd and De Vere Group plc, meant that both companies had seperate WAN providers, which was not practical or cost effective. With the two separate WAN contracts coming to an end almost simultaneously, De Vere began planning for a new networking solution that would unify the Group and provide a higher performing and more reliable platform.

Jo Stanford, De Vere Group IT Director, said: “We invited Claranet to pitch, but were unsure how they would compare to some of the larger players. Yet, without a doubt, they gave us the most confidence, and proved that they had the right team in place to deliver a better performing WAN that would unify our business. Thanks to the strength of their relations, expertise and experience, Claranet pulled the rabbit out of the hat – more than once – to make sure our WAN was delivered smoothly and on time.”

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Dell Reports Disappointing Drop in Profits

Dell has reported a 33 percent drop in profits in a disappointing quarterly report for former market leader.

The company, which has slipped to third place in the global PC market, said its profit in the first fiscal quarter fell to $635 million. Revenue in the quarter was $14.4 billion, a four percent decrease from the same period the previous year.
Dell said however the firm was moving away from its traditional PC base to services. “We continued to shift the mix of our business during a challenging environment,” said Brian Gladden, Dell’s chief financial officer.

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Oracle acquires Vitrue

Oracle has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Vitrue, a leading cloud-based social marketing and engagement platform that enables marketers to centrally create, publish, moderate, manage, measure and report on their social marketing campaigns.

The transaction is expected to close in the summer of 2012 and until the transaction closes, Oracle and Vitrue will continue to operate independently, and it is business as usual.

“The proliferation of social media and an increased demand by consumers to engage with brands across multiple social channels is driving chief marketing officers to look for an integrated social marketing platform,” said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Development. “Vitrue’s leading social marketing and engagement platform coupled with Oracle’s leading sales, service, and commerce products offers a complete social experience solution to our customers.”

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Aldermore Bank and Experian deal expanded

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Aldermore Bank has signed a £1.8 million extension to a data and analytics deal agreed with Experian back in 2011, with the new updated contract totalling £4.1 million.

Aldermore Bank will increase its use of the TransactSM application processing system as well as Hunter fraud prevention software throughout the organisation. In addition to incorporating Experian’s Delphi for Customer Management service to track changes in the credit risk profile of existing customers and to identify opportunities for up-selling additional products.

Paul Myers, COO at Aldermore Bank, says: “Experian’s analytics and data expertise have enabled us to effectively control both credit and fraud risk, and to run a fast and efficient process at the point of application. This partnership extension will enable further improvements in these areas, extend the positive experience we provide to new customers across all areas of the business and to spot opportunities to strengthen and deepen relationships with our best customers.”

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SAP secures Ariba for $4.3bn

SAP and cloud-based e-commerce vendor Ariba announced yesterday a deal worth $4.3bn, which is set to close in the third calendar quarter of this year.

Once finalised the deal will see the Ariba transaction substantially grow SAP’s presence in cloud software, following on from its recent $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors, a company focused on human resources applications.

SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott said during a conference call with media and analysts that Ariba’s network will grow to more than 1 million companies this year, and emphasised the huge growth potential it offered.

Ariba’s trading network and procurement applications would also complement SAP’s cloud-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite Business ByDesign, as well as the Business One application for smaller companies, McDermott said.

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Open Data Institute launched by Government

The government has announced the launch on the Open Data Institute (ODI), marking a significant step forward in their Open Data policy.

The institute aims to provide an environment in which business, the public sector, academic institutions and developers can come together and maximise the commercial potential of open data, whilst making advances towards sustainable policy.

Plans for the ODI strategy were revealed in November 2011, however,  the embryo organisation secured funding from the government’s Technology Strategy Board last month, which may amount to £10m over the next five years.

The project will be headed up by data experts Professors Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt. “The institute will connect together lots of people excited about open data,” said Berners-Lee. “Those who produce it, with those who want to put it to use in all sorts of fields and every kind of industry.”

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Google acquires Motorola Mobility for £13bn

Google has completed its deal with Motorola Mobility for $40 a share, totalling approximately $12.5bn.

The deal marks Google’s biggest acquisition to date. However, for some the deals comes with fears that Google will use Motorola Mobility’s hardware to vertically integrate its Google’s Android OS product ecosystem (similar to Apple’s iPhone and iPad) to the detriment of other hardware suppliers.

Google CEO Larry Page said “I’m happy to announce the deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation. It’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and I’m confident that the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.”

Google’s Dennis Woodside, who will take over from Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha, said “Motorola literally invented the entire mobile industry with the first-ever commercial cell phone in 1983. Thirty years later, mobile devices are at the center of the computing revolution. Our aim is simple: to focus Motorola Mobility’s remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world.”

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Lansley reveals NHS Information Strategy

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has released the new NHS Information Strategy. Patients will be able to book GP appointments and see test results online under the new strategy which Lansley believes will give individuals more “power”.

Under the new strategy, smartphone apps are to be established to help patients choose between services, while medical records will be accessible online within the next three years.

Lansley said: “The internet has revolutionised how people shop, bank and travel, and for too long the NHS has not been part of that.These proposals will ensure that the NHS will become easier to understand, easier to access and will drive up standards of care”.

He continued: “If people are going to be able to choose, with their doctor, which hospital will provide them with the best care, they will need all the latest information.”
A new website will be developed in order to help patients choose the best care, covering NHS hospitals, community services and social care, as well as providing information on charities and voluntary groups.

Lansley also believes that online booking for GP appointments will end the “8am rush” of people phoning in. Repeat prescriptions and test results will also be accessible online.

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Atos set to deliver new IT Services to Historic Scotland

Atos, an international IT services company, has signed a contract with Historic Scotland, which will provide support to the agency in the delivery of their key IT programmes including a new Visitor Attraction System.

Atos, whose Scottish headquarters are based in Livingston, will provide service desk, desktop and data centre services to Historic Scotland – the Scottish Government’s agency responsible for safeguarding the country’s historic environment - to enable their IT modernisation programmes.

Atos will deliver IT services to over 70 locations across Scotland including Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness, as well as Orkney’s Skara Brae Prehistoric Village and Linlithgow Palace.

The initial three-year agreement represents the first time Atos has worked with the Scottish Government agency and Atos’ Senior Vice President in Scotland, Gavin Thomson, believes the relationship will have significant benefits for all involved.

“This contract win is incredibly good news for our business growth in Scotland. We look forward to developing a long term relationship with Historic Scotland, focussing on delivering their key business objectives and utilising our experience in delivering critical IT services within the public sector.” said Mr Thomson.

“From Summer 2012, Historic Scotland will start to use the new service. The renewal of the organisation’s IT and how it is delivered, is vital to their success in delivering their corporate plan and championing Scotland’s historic environment.”

The contract represents Atos’ first win as an approved supplier on the national framework placed on behalf of the Scottish Public Sector by Scottish Procurement, which provides all Scottish Public and Third sector bodies access to leading IT managed services organisations, allowing a more streamlined procurement process, and access to the most competitive prices.

The framework includes Atos and other service providers that are capable of meeting a diverse range of services to meet the requirements of public sector bodies including service desk, desktop support, server support, application and website hosting, application and website support, and disaster recovery services.

“With 1,500 employees in Scotland, serving customers in over 100 locations across Scotland from Dumfries and Galloway to the Highlands and Islands, Atos is well equipped to meet the evolving needs of Historic Scotland,” added Mr Thomson.

“Our shared service delivery model will make it easier to scale-up and down services based on Historic Scotland’s needs, to meet seasonal demands and business change. “

Jimmy Budge, Historic Scotland’s Head of IT, said: “This contract is an important step towards delivering a more modern, robust and efficient IT system for Historic Scotland. This will enable us to provide IT systems across the business and a number of key visitor sites that will deliver a better service to customers and more effective ways of working across the agency.”

In March, Atos was announced as an Official Supporter of Glasgow 2014 for Games Management Systems and Games Information Systems. The company is already the Worldwide IT Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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HP implements T-Mobile SAP database

HP has implemented new AppSystem for the SAP HANA database to T-Mobile US. The venture aims to reduce the time required to analyse information from more than one week to less than a day.

HP AppSystems for SAP HANA is a portfolio of solutions that are preconfigured with HP Services to address the varying needs of customer-database environments. The portfolio includes HP ProLiant servers, HP Storage and HP Networking. Together, HP and SAP offer customers high availability and storage capacity for mission-critical workloads running SAP application software.

T-Mobile, the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG, provides more than 33 million mobile customers with customized wireless plans, depending on smartphone and data needs. It conducts highly targeted customer communications about mobile phone services and offers, but its previous analytics solution was too complex and could not track customer offers in a timely way.

The solution—built on HP Converged Infrastructure in collaboration with SAP AG and deployed in just two weeks—enhances T-Mobile’s ability to deliver targeted marketing campaigns to customers by transforming the way it delivers, manages and measures its wireless plan offers.

“T-Mobile wanted to accelerate the timing and precision of our marketing campaigns to increase customer and shareholder value,” said Erez Yarkoni, chief information officer, T-Mobile US, Inc. Yarkoni said: “We selected SAP HANA running on HP Converged Infrastructure to achieve this result.”

To assist T-Mobile in the implementation and configuration of an HP AppSystem for SAP HANA, HP provided services to preintegrate the hardware and software, on-site startup for quick integration into T-Mobile’s environment, and support services.

“T-Mobile needed faster and better customer insight from its varied data systems,” said Paul Miller, vice president, Converged Systems, HP. He continued: “HP and SAP quickly delivered a turnkey solution that provides simplicity, performance and faster time to value.”

Miller continued: “SAP, in cooperation with HP, worked to support the creation and delivery of a unique and differentiated customer-tracking solution for T-Mobile,” said Steve Lucas, executive vice president and general manager, Global Database and Technology, SAP. “With SAP HANA, T-Mobile can more effectively track its marketing campaigns’ success.”

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Cognizant growth driven by life sciences analytics

Demand for analytics services from users in the life sciences industry has helped drive growth in the UK and Europe, according to Cognizant.

The outsourcing giant posted a 3.5% increase in European revenue for its first quarter earnings for 2012 (an 11 percent increase year-on-year), despite a difficult economic climate.

Paul Roehrig, assistant VP of corporate strategy at Cognizant, said: “Primarily our focus is on banking and the financial services in the UK, as well as life sciences and pharmaceuticals. We are seeing good demand in those industries, for example, in life sciences there is demand around clinical data management and commercial analytics.”

Cognizant believe that users are focusing more on core business functions and outsourcing the periphery consequences of the process or what Roehrig describes as the “contextual”.
Roehrig exemplified in that the core goal of business analytics might be to analyse data and extract insight, while the “contextual” will be the management and cleaning of the information: “More focus on what is core will help create a more lean organisation and enable more business-efficient decisions.”

Cognizant have also benefitted from increased demand for cloud, social and mobile services.

Roehrig said: “We are also having lots of good interest in business process services. [Businesses] are looking for end-to-end business process solutions.”

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Millstream win Noway procurement contract

Millstream, a procurement services provider, has secured a £4.8million deal to run Norway’s national procurement database.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond has praised the contract win, citing it as an excellent example of Scottish companies developing strong ties with Norway, a key export partner.

The Aberdeen-based company has provided the Doffin portal for the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi) in Norway since the end of 2005 and won the renewal following a competitive tendering process.

The seven-year contract, which is one of the largest won by Millstream, will start later this year and has the option to be extended for a further five years.

Millstream is the only company providing national public procurement websites for several European member states and currently operates similar websites in Ireland and Scotland, where it runs the Public Contracts Scotland portal.

The Doffin portal was set up to help Norwegian public bodies to create and publish tender notices in accordance with Norwegian regulations, and all public contracts must be advertised on the site.

Since Millstream was first awarded the contract, it has saved the public purse around £2million a year by cutting the cost of publishing public sector notices from £2.7 million to £625,000.

Tim Williams, managing director of Millstream, said: “This is a significant win for us and the fact we have been reappointed underlines Difi’s confidence in the portal we provide for all procurement notices in Norway, as well as demonstrating that UK businesses can still win business overseas.

He continued: “Millstream’s main objective is to provide an easy and efficient procurement service to people who are buying or providing services in the public sector.”

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ITO spending up by 7.8% in 2011

Worldwide IT outsourcing (ITO) grew 7.8% in 2011. In a report by analyst firm Gartner, spending on ITO in 2011 reached $246 billion, compared to $228.7 billion in the previous year. Forty three ITO businesses sold more than $1 billion worth of services individually.

“Indian-based IT services providers and providers rooted in cloud-based services delivered the highest growth rates in 2011,” said the report.

IBM maintained its status as the number one IT service provider, with a 7.8% growth in revenue to $26.9 billion, accounting for 10.9% of the world ITO market. HP grew by only 2%, but retained its position as number two in the market with a 6.1% share. Fujitsu, helped by currency gains, leapfrogged CSC into third place. Accenture experienced the biggest growth out of the top five suppliers, with an 18% increase.

India-based ITO firms showed the highest levels of growth. Wipro ITO revenue grew by 12.3%, Infosys by 17.9%, HCL by 26.0%, TCS by 29.8%, and Cognizant by a huge 32.2% during 2011.

Bryan Britz, research director at Gartner, said:  “Revenue cannibalisation resulting from client adoption of industrialised, and often cloud-based, services risks muting the growth opportunities for the ITO providers that are heavily weighted in infrastructure outsourcing.”

He continued: “Strategies will vary as clients are likely to pursue hybrid cloud strategies requiring providers to deliver some asset-light and some asset-heavy offerings — which will result in varying growth trajectories among competitors over the next several years.”

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HP looks to cut 25,000 jobs

Monday, May 21, 2012

HP is planning to cut their workforce by as many as 25,000-30,000 in the coming months attributed to a source close to the company according to the Financial Times.

The move would rank as one of the biggest mass lay-offs from a US company in the last decade and would take the form in part from an early retirement offer focused within service divisions.

The cuts would represent one of the largest measures by the company to achieve savings and reverse the companies falling value from increased competition.

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CSC’s new CEO moves to take direct control of turbulent NHS negotiations

Mike Lawrie the new CEO of CSC has directly taken control of protracted negotiations with the NHS in a bid to draw the line under the failed patent records contract.

Mike Lawrie took over as chief executive of CSC in March and has rapidly moved to turn around the company after publishing heavy losses, in part stemming from $1.5 billion in losses from tendering the NHS contract.

Mr Lawrie commented that ““There’s no question both parties want to get to an agreement. Now on a weekly basis the head of the NHS and myself are getting together. We are hopeful the NHS agreement will get completed in the not too distant future”. 

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Facebook floats 400 million shares at $38 each

Facebook has floated 400 million shares on the Nasdaq at €38 each which could provide as much as $16 billion in revenue and the third-largest IPO in US history.

A report by the Wall Street Journal has reported that the planned share price will see the validation of Facebook between $93 billion and $104 billion.

Facebook has also been hit by setbacks including the announcement by General Motors last week that the company was withdrawing $10 million in revue from advertising on Facebook after claiming that the site advertising failed to warrant the investment.   

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Tech city start-up gains £2 million investment

Cloud.IQ have won £2 million in funding from ventures capital company, Bridges Ventures. Cloud.IQ located close to Silicon Roundabout provides services allowing companies to use text, phone, social media and email to manage their marketing.

The secured funding will allow Cloud.IQ to expand personal as well as supporting customer recruitment. 

Cloud.IQ was only created in February this year but the platform has been deployed since 2002 and has provided services to over 12,000 campaigns and 40 million B2C interactions.

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Atos secures £140 million outsourcing contract

IT services company Atos has announced today that it has secured a five year contract valued at £140 million to the Shared Services Alliance (SSA). The contract will see Atos supplying IT services to the SSA, part of a procurement initiative with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

The contract will cover IT services with all four members of the SSA, covering networking, desktop applications, hosting-services and service integration. The contract will see the consolidation and modernisation of the existing IT infrastructure of the SSA as well as improving services to over 18,000 users, in order deliver 30 percent savings at the end of the five years.

SSA Award Project Manager, Keith Gibson, said: “It will reduce costs by simplifying IT support arrangements and provides a solid platform for future developments.”

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CloudStore 2.0 goes live

The delayed second iteration of the Government CloudStore has gone live, providing a list of 1,700 cloud-based products and services from over 250 vendors.

The new build adds the function to make purchases through the store as well as improved SEO and the ability to filter G-Cloud attributes, compare services and carry out faster payments. The new version of CloudStore backtracks however on Cabinet Office comments that the service would be open source, requiring that users register to use the government’s eMarketplace.

Eleanor Stewart, engagement manager for the G-Cloud programme, said: “We’re going to focus on improving access to the CloudStore catalogue data so others can create stores tailored to different audiences and look at putting in place ratings and reviews”.

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CSC reports poor yearly profits due to NHS contract

Friday, May 18, 2012

CSC has released a statement pointing to losses from NHS write-offs as being partly due for a full year-revenue of $15.88 billion, down from $16.04 billion last year.

CSC announced in December of 2011 that the Lorenzo patient record system was expected to cost the company $1.5 billion. The company has announced over 1,000 job cuts in Britian earlier this year, with about half coming from within the NHS team in order to provide cost-savings.

CSC chief executive Mike Lawrie, said “We consider these results to be very poor as the company is executing well below an acceptable level for CSC and its investors,”

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Reductions of Cisco’s growth plans creates ripples in the technology sector

Reductions in Cisco’s growth plans have impacted through the Cloud services market as the technology sector reacts to comments from CEO John Chambers. Chambers downgraded revenue growth expectations to between two and five percent , this comes after Cisco had previously revised growth expectations from 12 to 17 percent to 5 and 7.

Cisco is a major provider of the key components of Cloud services and the announcement saw concern from Cloud businesses as more than 70 percent of Cloud providers currently use Cisco technology in providing services.

Chambers commented “We continue to see the impact of the areas of concern we have discussed for the last few quarters,-Those were Europe and the global economy, public sector, India and conservative IT spend as reflected in the commentary of our peers. Each of these areas has proven to be a challenge as we anticipated, and several, Europe and customer conservatism, have gotten worse.”

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The technology sector continues to fail in attracting women

Female talent in the IT industry has continued to stay at low levels with male dominance of top positions remaining at the same high levels seen five years ago.

The Harvey Nash CIO survey found that more than 30 percent of respondents had no women in either technology or leadership roles within their company, while 81 percent responded that women held less than a quarter of management roles.

Chief executive officer of Harvey Nash Group, Albert Ellis, said “In the past, female graduates have not aspired to be tech geeks and a career in IT has not been seen as attractive. Technology companies and groups will miss out in the future and this makes the skills shortage even more acute.”

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SMEs moving to the Cloud due to flexibility not cost

UK SMEs are looking to Cloud services and software because of the flexibility that the platforms offer rather than cost-savings, according to YouGov research.The low cost application of the Cloud is no longer the major reason for the adoption of Cloud services by SMEs, the focus has shifted to increasing strategic value.

The research showed that Cloud services were being adopted at a rapid rate with 67 percent of UK SMEs having already employed cloud services or plan to do so in the future.

Simon Porter, vice president for mid market sales at IBM, said “Businesses are beginning to realise that the full potential of cloud goes far beyond a cost-focused ROI model.”

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Social media remains underused by Global business

International companies are failing to gain the full potential from social media and exploit the business opportunities presented.  Research carried out by software maker Satmetrix pointed at the B2B sector as being particularly poor in identifying the advantages of social media as well as the risks in using the medium.

The research showed that over half of B2B businesses had no means of identifying conservations about their business on social media while 75 percent did not analyse social media activity surrounding their brand. B2C performed only slightly better with 55 percent failing to respond back to customer feedback on social platforms.

Richard Owen, CEO at Satmetrix, said “companies running the risk of losing customers by not addressing their issues shared online, but they are also walking past the opportunity to capitalise on positive comments made on the social web.”

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Randstad Managed Services and SourceRight Solutions become Randstad Sourceright

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Randstad Managed Services and SourceRight Solutions have combined as part of a rebranding strategy to become Randstad Sourceright. Randstad procured SourceRight Solutions having purchased their parent company SFN Group in 2011.

The combined brand will provide core services in recruitment business outsourcing (RPO), Managed Service Provider (MSP) solutions and in advising clients in formulating a talent strategy. The amalgamation will see the two services’ combine resources in order to achieve client expansion.
Sebastian O’Connell, UK director at Randstad Sourceright, commented: “This is an incredible evolution of our MSP and RPO services as we combine two leading brands to support our client’s growth and agility plans. 

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100% of UK banks view big data as a significant problem

Research carried out by Quartet FS found that 100 percent of UK banks saw big data as a significant problem. The research has 20 percent of IT managers placing big data as a ‘extremely significant’ problem.

The research comes as investment banks are increasingly predicting that in-memory analytics will come to the fore as the standard architecture in solving big data within the next three years.

Georges Bory, co-founder and managing director of Quartet FS, said “With the majority of the UK’s investment banks still relying on spreadsheets to analyse their data, it’s no surprise that they are struggling with the ‘Three Vs’ of big data: Volume, Velocity and Variety.”

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Scottish contact centre expands to meet Olympic demand

Contact centre operator Journeycall based is Aberdeenshire and Angus is preparing to expand including hiring 50 new staff members in preparation for meeting increased demand from Olympics-related customer calls.

The centre will increase its workforce in hiring both full-time and part-time workers as well as temporary and permanent advisors. Journeycall which handles business for rail and bus clients is looking at massively increased demand for its services as the 2012 Olympic Games impact on transportation.

Trisha Pirie, Journeycall MD, said “We’re gearing up for an exceptionally busy few months when many of our rail and bus clients may experience unprecedented demand both before, during and after the Olympics and Paralympics events.”

 

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CSC and HP open global cybersecurity research centre

CSC and HP have joined together in a global collaboration with Fraunhofer FOKUS, EMC, RSA, McAfee and Sourcefire to open the Cybersecurity Demonstration Center (CDC).

The site located in Berlin will be used to create new defences against cyber attacks by researching and testing multiple and varied types of attacks on IT infrastructure. The research gained from testing is intended to safeguard and educate the security industry against vulnerabilities.

Head of Fraunhofer FOKUS, Professor Radu Popescu-Zeletin, said “The base for trust, data protection and security are constantly changing. It is important that there are systems that are able to react effectively on danger”.

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Outsourcing firm Atos enters into final test phase for the Olympics

Outsourcing company Atos is set to enter into the final test phase of its Olympic Games support systems. The company will have 3,500 staff deployed during the Games to cover more than 140 sites and 10,000 end user devices.

The systems including the Games management system, data distribution services and workforce management systems, and these will be tested in rehearsal throughout next week before the whole support system goes live at the beginning of June.

Atos will oversee the IT operations of the Games and co-ordinate with third-party IT suppliers to the Games including BT, Panasonic, Acer and Samsung as well as supporting the Olympic media partners.

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General Motors saves 2,100 jobs at UK Vauxhall factory

GM will save 2,100 jobs and create hundreds more after the company announced that it has chosen Ellesmere Port car factory to create the next-generation Astra. The Ellesmere Port complex had been highlighted by GM as being likely to face closure in part of the company’s efforts to cut European losses.

The deal is expected to be announced after workers at the Ellesmere factory accepted the terms of the deal offered by GM.  The turnaround comes as the UK car manufacturing industry enjoys growth after the downturn years of 2008-09, seeing a six percent increase in growth from 2010.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, said “Today’s decision to ballot the workforce signals a very strong vote of confidence by General Motors in the UK automotive industry. “

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KMPG suggest motives for outsourcing change

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Speaking at the Shared Services Outsourcing Network conference in Amsterdam, KPMG’s director, Claudio Altini, said the decision to outsource is no longer simply about reducing costs or headcount.

Research from KPMG shows that more than two-thirds of service providers polled were cautiously optimistic about pipeline growth for the next quarter and KPMG would expect that key areas of interest will be customer demand for IT services to increase between now and the end of June.

Altini summarised the key reasons behind changes in outsourcing: “too often, in the past, outsourcing relationships have broken down because of mixed messages around the three Rs – rates, results and responsibilities. Now, however, businesses are no longer prepared to accept standard terms and conditions for outsourcing their core services. They want proof that service delivery arrangements are flexible, can move with the strategic needs of an organisation and will meet the targets demanded by stakeholders.”

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HML announces deal with Arrow Global

Financial outsourcer HML has secured a contract with Arrow Global, the debt purchase solutions provider which will see Arrow Global acquire a portfolio of loans serviced by HML.

Andrew Jones, HML’s chief executive, said: “HML’s role as a servicer means we’re in a unique position to drive value for clients and buyers. We have access to the contacts to facilitate these deals and can reduce migration and on-boarding costs if we continue to service the portfolio, or migrate them onto our platform against a strict deadline if they are currently being serviced elsewhere.”

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G4S revenue growth boosted by Olympics deal

G4S, the world’s largest security firm has revealed a 7.5% rise in first quarter revenue growth. The company has cited a thriving resources sector across developing markets and a contract to protect punters at the Olympic Games in London as reasons for growth.

The figure was up from 4.5 per cent in its last quarter and in line with expectations. Shares in the firm – the world’s second largest private employer behind Wal-Mart – rose 3 per cent to 275.2p. A representative from G4S said: “based on recent contract awards, outsourcing trends and the group’s bid pipeline, the organic growth rate is expected to continue to improve during 2012.”

The contract for the Olympic games will see G4S as the official security provider for the 2012 Games, supplying 10,000 personnel for the event in a contract worth £200m to the company and will earn G4S £150m of revenue in 2012.

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SAP mobile device management available on Amazon cloud

Many enterprises do not want to have their own device management infrastructure in-house; as a solution SAP’s Afaria mobile device management tool is now available on the Amazon Web Services cloud.

“We have a number of customers that don’t want to deal with and implement their own device management infrastructure in-house, because they view it as non-core, and instead they want a cloud-based offering,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, senior vice president, Ecosystem and Channels at SAP.

One of the selling points of SAP’s Afaria is simplicity. It requires users to log on via Amazon Marketplace and can now be used on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari, in addition to Internet Explorer.

SAP sees the outsourcing of mobile device management as an emerging trend that will continue to grow, and the company is also working with telecommunications operators and system integrators on other offerings, according to Ichhpurani.

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UK cloud adoption chasing the US

Despite the UK being behind the US on cloud adoption, recent times have seen that gap diminish as the UK trend for the cloud continues.

A survey from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) shows that current cloud adoption in the UK is at around 53% of organisations, compared with 76% in the US, however the UK cloud adoption is up 48% from this time a year ago.

Andy Burton, chair of the CIF said: “The most rapid growth in the UK is in the public sector as it catches up with the private sector, although it is still lagging at around 52% adoption compared with 54% in the private sector.”

The continuing trend could have something to do with consistently high satisfaction rates, with the UK coming in with 96% just behind the US’ 98%.
Burton also referenced private clouds and developing models of cloud, predicting that most organisations are likely to pursue a hybrid model in the near future, which means a mix of on-premise, online, in-house and outsourced.

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Daisy Group unveils ‘bomb proof’ data centre

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Unified business communications provider Daisy Group have opened the 12 tonne bomb proof door to its Manchester data centre.
The company has recently completed a £1m investment programme in the subterranean facility, situated within a former Bank of England bullion vault.
This investment has been used to improve Daisy’s infrastructure, increase network capacity and launch its CloudSelect, computing-on-demand offering.
Will Kennedy, Corporate Sales Director at Daisy, said: “We’ve been hosting data for more than 13 years and have seen the market and the demand for secure storage increase dramatically in that time. The new facilities and space that we have created in our Manchester data centre mean that we’re able to open up our world-class hosting solutions to any kind of business, large or small, that require secure and instant access to their data and applications.”
In addition to being 25 feet below ground, the data centre’s raft of security features also includes two metre thick granite walls and a 60 centimetre bomb blast corridor surrounding the data storage area. It is continuously monitored by 70 CCTV cameras and access is granted only to authorised personnel.

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Huawei wins O2 contract

Huawei has won a contract to oversee managed services for O2’s managed services.

Huawei provide “planning and implementation” of O2′s network over five years. This will include building out new network infrastructure and handling broadcasts between the operator’s network and other UK communication infrastructure.

It will result in 56 staff currently involved in overseeing O2′s network moving as part of a TUPE transfer from O2 to Huawei, as well as a further 62 servicers.
Huawei UK CEO Victor Zhang said: “We are very pleased to announce our first major managed services agreement in the UK Huawei works with Telefónica in a number of markets around the world and today’s agreement means we are extending our relationship to the UK. Today’s announcement is an important first step in building a world-class managed services capability in the UK. The agreement is a long-term strategic commitment from both Huawei and Telefónica UK to deliver the best in class management of a core network.”

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O2 to crowdsource deals for customers

O2 has announced a new initiative whereby customers will help define their crowdsourcing strategy.

Using its social media platforms O2 will be inviting shoppers across the UK to tell them which brands they would most like to receive experiences and money saving offers from. O2 will use these suggestions to campaign on behalf of customers to create deals from the top brands via Priority Moments. The campaign marks the first time a major brand has used crowdsourcing to secure deals from other companies, on behalf of its customers.

Launched in July 2011, Priority Moments delivers money saving deals and enhanced everyday experiences from leading brands to O2’s 22 million customers across the UK. Since launch Priority Moments has provided O2 customers with access to over 3,400 offers from more than 300 brands across the UK, providing a total saving of over £7.5m. Recent offers have included some of the UKs best loved brands such as Ocado, HMV, Odeon, BHS, Toni & Guy and Accessorize.

O2 Marketing and Consumer Director, Sally Cowdry said: “Priority Moments is all about creating great experiences and adding value for our customers. Now we want to take that a step further by asking them to tell us what brands they would like us to approach for new offers via Priority Moments. We recognize that times are tough and budgets are tight across many UK households so this is a further demonstration of how we’re listening to our customers and promising to deliver on their behalf. So whether it’s helping towards a family day out or providing extra value for a shopping trip we’ll be campaigning to provide more great offers for O2 customers.”

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Lincolnshire County Council saves £2.5m per year with PSN

Lincolnshire County and District Councils are set to save over £2.5m per year after signing up to a new public services network.

The savings come after the Council joined the East Midlands Public Services Network (emPSN), an organisation that allows local public sector bodies in the East Midlands to bulk buy a range of IT services including Access and Application Services and connection to a core network infrastructure, supplied by Kcom. This has allowed the Council to replace IT contracts that are about to expire for less than half the previous price.

Councillor Kelly Smith, Executive Member for Finance and HR, said: “Like any modern organisation, the County Council needs certain IT services in order to operate effectively. This includes a large-scale computer network to link our different offices and a high-speed internet connection. Under this new arrangement we’ll not only see improvements to these services, but we’ve also reduced the associated costs by more than 50 per cent. The end result is a much better deal for taxpayers.”

The new contract also covers the seven district councils in Lincolnshire and broadband services for 349 county schools. The emPSN contract was awarded to Kcom as a result of its successful bid in a recent EU procurement process and its track record in establishing the current embc network, which supplies connectivity to all the schools in the East Midlands and which will be transferred over to the emPSN. The contract win also builds on Kcom’s success in implementing PSNs for Staffordshire and Dorset County Councils.

Afshin Attari, Kcom’s Director of Public Sector and PSN, added, “We are very pleased to have been given this opportunity to work with Lincolnshire County Council in delivering cost-effective IT services to their offices, schools and partners. This approach to purchasing services through a central partnership organisation, such as emPSN, provides economies of scale for all parties involved and as such is a good investment for the residents of Lincolnshire.”

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Amazon launches hosting service CloudFront

Amazon Web Services today launched support for dynamic content in Amazon CloudFront. The CloudFront aims to improve the performance, reliability and global reach of their website to deliver all their content, including the dynamic portions of their site that change for each end-user.

Amazon CloudFront works with dynamic applications running in Amazon EC2, without any custom coding or proprietary configurations, making the service simple to deploy and manage.
Previously, developers who wanted to improve the performance and reliability of their dynamic content had limited options, as the solutions offered by traditional CDNs are expensive, hard to configure and difficult to manage. This often requires custom code on their websites, and configuration can take days or weeks.

“With this release, we are continuing on the same path we started when we launched CloudFront: iterating based on customer feedback and making premium and innovative content delivery features that other CDNs sell at high prices much less expensive and much easier to use,” said Tal Saraf, AWS’s General Manager for Amazon CloudFront.

“In 2008, CloudFront showed customers that they didn’t need to pay premium prices and sign long term contracts to get great performance and reliability for static content. In 2009, we did the same for video on demand, offering RTMP streaming at the same low prices we were already charging for static object delivery. In 2011, we did the same for live events. Now, with this release, customers can use CloudFront to accelerate their dynamic content, and again, customers don’t have to pay any more than our already low rates. No up-front fees, no requirement to make a long term commitment, no monthly platform fees, no need to hire expensive consultants to help with configuration, no more being over-charged by traditional CDNs that used to be the only ones who could provide this important feature for customers.”

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80 percent of the public do not believe outsourcing helps the British economy

Monday, May 14, 2012

Research commissioned by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has revealed that 80 percent of the UK general public do not believe that outsourcing contributes to the economy.

This perception has stemmed from the connotations of outsourcing with cost cutting (67 percent), job losses (53 percent) and offshoring to India (45 percent). Commonly cited examples of outsourcing by the public included a major bank opening a call centre in India and a sports brand setting up a factory in China to manufacture trainers, despite the fact neither involve outsourcing, instead being examples of captive offshoring projects.

The research showed that nearly one in four people do not like outsources. While the profession is not disliked to the same extent as politicians at 67 percent or bankers at 47 percent, only 19 percent of the public believe that outsourcing can help the UK out of recession.

The research demonstrated that the public did not understand the role of outsourcing and that only 14 percent understood that the use of an accountancy firm was an example of outsourcing. Only 27% recognised a local computer company providing IT support to small businesses represented another example of outsourcing. The research shows that the UK public dislike outsourcing and do not perceive value in it, despite the majority failing to understand what outsourcing actually involves and its use throughout the high-street.
 
Martyn Hart, Chairman, National Outsourcing Association said: “The National Outsourcing Association’s Outsourcing Works campaign aims to tackle misconceptions and highlight the sterling contribution outsourcing makes to UK PLC. The NOA is confident that we can prove to the public the value that outsourcing brings to businesses, and the nation as a whole. Outsourcing is not just about offshoring and job losses, although the public currently thinks that it is. Most of the IT industry is outsourcing, in one way or another. This is not being recognised currently. The Public Perception of Outsourcing research shows that although the public is adamant that they don’t like outsourcing, for the most part, they do not properly understand what it is. The NOA knows that Outsourcing Works. The next wave of NOA research will prove empirically that Outsourcing Works, and then we’ll shout it from the rooftops.”

All of the key findings from this research are published this week in Outsourcing Yearbook 2012. It is available from sourcingfocus.com and noa.co.uk

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Cognizant tops satisfaction study

Cognizant has topped the customer satisfaction and recommendation rankings in the four-country region (Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden) in KPMG’s Outsourcing 2012 study of service provider performance in the Nordic region.

While Cognizant topped the general satisfaction ranking with a score of 80 percent (industry average satisfaction rate of 68%) and client recommendation ranking with a like score of 80 percent (industry average client recommendation rate of 67%), notably, all Cognizant clients among those surveyed were satisfied with its services. Further, the company secured high scores on all major performance indicators, including customer satisfaction, recommendation, relationship management, innovation, service quality, price, flexibility, transition, and governance.

This independent study evaluated 28 global and local service providers based on an assessment of more than 900 unique client-provider relationships. As part of the study, CFOs, CIOs or their direct reports at over 340 of the top IT spending organisations in the region were interviewed.

“We are proud to have topped KPMG’s overall customer satisfaction rankings across the Nordics region in a very short period of time since we began our operations here,” said Jayajyoti Sengupta, Cognizant’s Country Manager for the Nordics. “This recognition validates the significant investments we have made in bringing our industry-leading, client-focused processes to the Nordics. Our high-touch relationship model, deep domain expertise and consulting skills, unique reinvestment philosophy, and our ability to build strong multicultural teams around the globe have helped our customers navigate structural changes in the economy and their industries, enabling them to stay efficient, effective, and innovative. As a result, we have become one of the fastest growing companies in the region, while maintaining the highest client satisfaction and recommendation levels in our industry.”

“Cognizant received excellent feedback from their clients and high scores for all key performance indicators,” said Carl-Henrik Hallstrom, Head of Business Effectiveness and People and Change at KPMG.  “Cognizant also had not one dissatisfied client, which makes the company the top performer among the top 28 global, regional, and local IT outsourcing service providers that we evaluated.”

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IT legacy still holding Banks back

A survey sponsored by Finacle, the banking system division of Infosys, and carried out by Ovum questioned 65 senior executives at banks in Europe and found that 3/4 of banks in Europe are using out-dated core systems which are holding the banks back and restricting growth.

The research also found that 79% of the banks questioned blamed the complexity of IT and a shortage of the right in-house skills for complicating the replacement of legacy core banking systems.

Daniel Mayo, practice leader financial services technology at Ovum said: “There is a clear disconnect between market needs and market capabilities when it comes to core banking systems. Many banks are trying to restore revenue and drive growth through better servicing and cross-selling to their existing customer base.”

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Serco on track for 2012 as UK improves

Serco wins over 3 billion in contracts in the first half of 2012

Serco is set to meet their 2012 targets having won nearly 4 billion in contracts in the first half of the year.

The company is expecting to reach growth of 6 percent in revenue for the first half of the year after strong acquisitions at the end of last year and further growth in 2012.

Large UK contracts with the Royal Air Force, Navy and NHS providing training services and back office services.

In a statement from Serco Chief Executive Christopher Hyman, he said:  “The start of the year has been pleasing. For the year as a whole we anticipate that further strong growth in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australisia (AMEAA), the improving UK outlook, and the delivery of cost efficiencies will see us meet expectations.”

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UK outsourcing sales plummets 80% for Logica

Logica have reported a plummet of 80 percent in first quarter results in UK outsourcing compared to last year. Logica’s overall sales remained stationary for the first three months of the financial year at £974 million as global orders fell by 24 percent. The quarterly results could foreshadow a large reduction in annual sales next year. 

Logica commented that low UK orders had resulted from two huge deals with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and Shell, and that excluding these deals Logica’s performance had only fell by 5 percent in 2011.

Anthony Miller, co-founder of analyst firm TechMarketView, said: “I see this as an even tougher marketplace for the outsourcing industry than last year. Perhaps even more so from Logica, as to win smaller deals it has to be more price competitive.”

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80% of public believes outsourcing hinders businesses

A public misconception of what outsourcing is has led to a view by the majority of the UK public that outsourcing does not help the Bristish economy, according to a survey commissioned by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA).

The survey’s findings showed that public opinion diverged wildly from evidence from a survey carried out by the Business Services Association (BSA)  in 2011 which showed that outsourcing contributed eight percent of the UK’s GDP, standing at £14 billion in business taxes and £21 billion in income tax.

NOA chairman, Martyn Hart, said “The research shows that although the public is adamant that they don’t like outsourcing, for the most part, they do not properly understand what it is.”

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IT budgets increase under SMBs

IT budgets have risen as small and medium businesses spend increased finances growing their IT infrastructure, according to a data from Spiceworks State of SMB IT survey.

SMBs with less than 1,000 employees have increased by 15 percent year-on-year with last year seeing a six percent rise from the second half of 2011 to the first half of 2012.

This growth equals an average current annual budget of £94,000, a rise of 5,500 from the second half of last year as SMB increase spending on new technologies including tablets and smart phone applications, as well standard technologies and IT services.

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HP makes cloud available as public beta

Friday, May 11, 2012

Advancing the company’s Converged Cloud portfolio, HP Cloud Services deliver an open-source-based public cloud infrastructure with business-oriented features that enable developers, independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprises of all sizes to build the next generation of web applications.

Starting today, HP’s first publicly available beta services, HP Cloud Compute, HP Cloud Object Storage and HP Cloud Content Delivery Network, will be offered through a pay-as-you-go model.

“Whether you are an independent developer, ISV or the CIO of a major organization, the priority is to design your applications for today’s cloud economy,” said Zorawar ‘Biri’ Singh, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Services, HP. “We will continue to build, integrate and deploy developer-focused features, designed to support a world-class cloud that enables our customers and partners to run and operate web services at scale, on a global basis.”

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European firms spend a third of IT budget on cloud

European businesses plan to spend around a third of their IT budgets on cloud software over the next 18 months, according to new research.

The study by software firm VMware looked at IT leaders involved in the purchase process for cloud systems across seven countries, as well as the UK. It found that 31% of IT budgets are allocated to cloud software, an increase of 5% since the last study in 2010.

Chief cloud technologist at VMware EMEA, Joe Baguley said: “Cloud is no longer just about cost cutting and peripheral applications. We’re seeing a significant shift in the way enterprises think about their IT infrastructures, and cloud is at the absolute heart of that.”

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Logica posts impressive results

Logica has reported impressive new figures. The technology firm posted new orders totalling £1.057bn in the latest quarter, 23% of the 2011 record of £4.6bn.

Income was stable at 2011 level and the firm are on track to deliver 2012 objectives and complete their restructuring programme.

Andy Green, CEO, said: “This is a solid performance underpinning our full year guidance. We have made good progress with clients in delivering against current contracts as well as winning and implementing new business. Our restructuring actions are fully on track and will help drive improvement in profitability in the second half.”

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Shop Direct contracts Serco for BPO

Shop Direct has awarded a new BPO contract to Serco. The ten-year contract will start on 1 July 2012 and has a total estimated value to Serco of approximately £430m.

Under the contract, Serco will assume responsibility for managing customer contact across Shop Direct’s brands. The partnership will work together to enhance service levels and efficiency through the investment in the latest technology, such as web chat and mobile digital services, which are designed to seamlessly integrate online and mobile into customer contact management.

Mark Newton-Jones, Group Chief Executive of Shop Direct, said: “The ways in which customers are shopping with us, contacting us and servicing their accounts have changed rapidly, driven by revolutionary advances in digital and interactive technology. We have chosen to work with Serco as they are an acknowledged leader in this field. Serco’s expertise, coupled with their investment in technological innovation, will ensure that we have a customer contact programme that is flexible and adaptable for the increasingly online and mobile world that we live in.”

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Open source in government could save taxpayers hundreds of millions

A Canadian advocacy group has said that open source software could save government hundreds of millions of pounds. Getting Open Source Logic Into Government (GOSLING) say proprietary software is wasteful and disadvantageous to governmental transparency.

They say that the Canadian government is spending $1.5 billion (£930 million) buying software when it should only cost a third of that. According to GOSLING, the disjointed and unnecessary development in governmental departments causes the waste.

Co-founder of GOSLING Russell McOrmond believes the issue is not one of adopting open source platforms, but using a shared services platform between different governmental departments. He also believes that procurement processes can favour large suppliers.

McOrmond stated: “Say the government of Canada decided, ‘let’s do an open-bidding process on support contracts for LibreOffice or OpenOffice. How do you do an open bidding process for licences for Microsoft Office? There’s only one copyright holder. So you can’t do three bids from three competing companies offering that code. But you can do three competing companies offering full source to support contracts to training, on free software equivalents.”

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The National Outsourcing Association joins the National Business Awards campaign

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has entered into a strategic alliance with the National Business Awards (NBA) in a campaign to find the UK’s Business Enabler of the year.

The award is designed to highlight outsourcing organisations in public, private and third sectors that have made a significant contribution to economic and business growth within the UK.

Martyn Hart, Chairman of the NOA and a Shortlist Judge for the Business Enabler of the Year award said: “The Business Enabler of the Year award highlights the important contribution of the outsourcing industry to the British economy, and demonstrates how outsourcing has evolved to enable enterprise. 

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Sainsbury’s looks to develop online growth

Sainsbury’s looks to increase efficiency while investing in support for growing online platforms. The companies online services currently represent the fastest growing online UK grocery business.

The supermarket chain currently makes around £800 million in annual turnover from its online platform. This year the company invested £163 million, up from £121 million last year. 

Sainsbury, commented: “we have recently introduced new warehouse technology, which enables colleagues to work more efficiently, help improve product availability and reduce waste.”

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UK IT salaries rise by almost double the national average

UK IT salaries have risen by 4.3 percent on average over the last year, according to IT recruitment firm ReThink, almost double the national average of 2.3 percent.

According to the Office of National Statistics the average wage in the IT industry has risen from £38,500 in 2010 to £40,140 in 2011. ReThink surveyed IT directors and discovered that 54 percent of directors had increased staff pay last year.

Director at ReThink, Michael Bennett, said: “Salaries for many IT staff have actually fallen in real terms over the last year. However when compared with the average UK worker IT staff salaries are still ahead of the game.”

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Atos won £24 million in 2011 from government contracts

French outsourcing firm Atos, tendered £24 million worth of contracts from the Department for Work and Pensions in 2011 it has been revealed in Parliament.

The sum comes from four contracts last year including online identity checking service, a bereavement declaration service, occupational health services and medical services.

Atos will continue to tend the contracts in the coming years with contyatcts such as online identity service worth £47 million set to continue up until 2014.

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100 UK apprenticeships created by Indian IT firm

Indian IT company Infosys has moved to create 100 apprenticeships within the UK in partnerships with the National Apprenticeship Scheme (NAS) in a five year scheme.

Infosys employs 150,000 people globally in a industry that has seen criticism for the employment of lower cost Indian workers in IT services at the expense of UK employees. 

The apprenticeship will be created in marketing and human resources and comes on the back of a similar scheme earlier this year from Wipro which offered IT training internships to UK students.

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Google boosts cloud spending to contest with Amazon

Google has increased spending in order to compete against Amazon in offering cloud services. Google will be playing catch up against Amazon Web Services with its high user-base in over 190 countries since its beginnings six years ago.

Google has placed focus on cloud-services as a means to move revenue away from dependence on online advertising which currently contributes 96 percent of Googles income. Google has recently increased the numbers of marketing, customer support and engineering roles as it looks to promote its web services.

Adam Selipsky, vice president of Amazon Web Services, said: “We’ve actually maintained and, in many cases, extended that early lead.” Amit Singh, vice president of enterprise at Mountain View, California-based Google, admitted that “We missed it,” in gaining an early lead.

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New Award Categories announced for National Outsourcing Association Awards

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

In response to the changing landscape of the outsourcing industry, the NOA have introduced five new categories for the NOA Awards in association with Wipro Technologies. The Awards which is in its 9th year will take place in London on the 25th October 2012. The new awards, for which entries are now open, are:

• In-house Outsourcing Professional of the Year -sponsored by Olswang

• Shared Services Centre of the Year

• Outsourcing Rising Star

• Skills Development Programme of the Year

• The Outsourcing Works Award for Best Delivery of Business Value

Martyn Hart, Chairman, National Outsourcing Association said “Outsourcing evolves non-stop, and the awards categories have been supplemented this year to account for that. It’s a chance to reward the best efforts of those at the cutting edge – those improving services, saving the government money and improving business prospects.  Suppliers, end-users, advisories, destinations, projects and professionals all covet these awards.  Last year, we received more entries than ever before – a record we’re expecting to be broken this year. ”

As well as the five new categories, the following categories are also up for grabs:

• Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year
• Outsourcing Advisory of the Year
• BPO Contract of the Year
• IT Outsourcing Project of the Year
• Financial Services Outsourcing Project of the Year
• Public Sector Outsourcing Project of the Year
• Telecommunications, Utilities and High Tech Project of the Year
• Offshoring Project of the Year
• Offshoring Destination of the Year
• Outsourcing Contact Centre Provider of the Year
• Outsourcing End-User of the Year
• Award for Innovation in Outsourcing
• Award for Corporate Social Responsibility
• Award for Academic Achievement

The closing date for entries is Friday 27th July 2012, when the NOA’s panel of outsourcing experts will commence the judging process. Entering is free and straightforward – for details of the entry process download the entry pack at http://www.noa.co.uk . The shortlist will be announced in September. 

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Greenwich to trial host Smart City technologies

Smart City Technology is to be trialled in Greenwich Peninsular, a 190 acre riverfront area by the surrounding the Dome which is up for redevelopment.

Greenwich will play witness to the co-operation between five tech firms and an outfit called Living Plan IT, which markets a so-say ‘urban operating system,’ with UK HMG present to give its blessing to the plan and with the local council, Greenwich, also promising support.

The firms involved are Hitachi Consulting, Philips, McLaren Electronic Systems, engineering consultancy Buro Happold, Critical Software and contract management specialist 8over8. The aim is to develop and regenerate urban spaces like this part of London with new tech-based approaches.

The hope is Smart City technologies is to facilitate smarter, sustainable and intelligent-living which will lead to more efficient use of energy and other resources, providing the basis for innovative services for residents, businesses and governments as well as new jobs and exports.

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Firstsource suggests ‘misunderstanding’ over Cardiff job call centre

Indian-owned call-centre, Firstsource, has said that the first minister’s announcement of 600 new jobs back in March of 600 jobs was a ‘misunderstanding’. A new call centre will be opened creating 600 job roles, many of these, however, will be filled by existing members of staff who will be transferred to the new call-centre.

Staff at the new operation run by Firstsource in Cardiff Bay will deal with call centre enquiries for the satellite television company BskyB, work is currently being carried out in Cardiff by the outsourcing call centre operator Conduit. The vast majority of the 600 people working at Firstsource will be transferred over from Conduit.

When asked whether the first minister’s comments had been premature, a spokeswoman for Firstsource said: “We have never said that we were going to take on new jobs.”

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Cognizant announces first quarter 2012 results

Cognizant announces first quarter 2012 results.

Highlights from the financials announcement include:

• First quarter revenue up 2.9% sequentially and 24.8% year-over-year;
• Revises guidance for 2012 revenue growth to at least 20%;
• Net headcount addition for the quarter was approximately 2,800

Revenue for the first quarter of 2012 rose to $1.71 billion, up 24.8% from $1.37 billion in the first quarter of 2011. GAAP net income was $243.7 million, or $0.79 per diluted share, compared to $208.3 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2011. Diluted earnings per share on a non-GAAP basis was $0.86. GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 18.6%. Excluding stock-based compensation expense of $31.4 million, non-GAAP operating margin was 20.4%, slightly higher than the Company’s targeted 19-20% range.

“Due to a slower than anticipated acceleration in demand as we entered the second quarter, we are adopting a more conservative stance for the remainder of the year and revising our guidance to at least 20% revenue growth for 2012,” said Francisco D’Souza, Chief Executive Officer of Cognizant. “We continue to believe that we have the right portfolio of services to sustain our industry leading growth and also meet the changing demands in the market as clients continue to grapple with their dual mandates of cost containment and innovation/business transformation.”

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Telefonica reveals Tu Me – a data-based communication app

Telefonica has unveiled its new app to rival Skype, Whats App and Viber. The app allows smartphone users to communicate and send messages using their data allowance rather than using their minutes or text allowance.

Tu Me will be free to download and will be promoted to members of Telefonica’s O2, Movistar and Vivo networks, which totals 300 million customers across the world.

The app will allow users to send messages, pictures, and voice messages with others who also have the app. Messages will be encrypted when transmitted and Telefonica has vowed not to analyse or provide third-party access to the contents unless required to do so by the courts.

“We’ve seen the growing popularity of communication apps on smartphones but we believe we’ve gone one better with Tu Me using our knowledge and insights of how people use their devices,” said Telefonica Digital’s chief commercial officer Stephen Shurrock.

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TfL looking for £2m contract for RTI screens

Transport for London (TfL) is looking to sign a contract with a supplier for their coming roll out of real-time information (RTI) screens, which will improve services for customers by allowing them to view real-time information of service availability at stations.

The electronic service update boards (ESUBs) which will be situated in front of station gate lines will provide an overview of services at a glance for customers entering the station.

The £2m contract with a single supplier is set to last 4 years, and covers the manufacture and supply of the ESUB units.

TfL currently has 340 ESUBs across its underground network and intends to roll out further ESUB units for the Docklands Light Railway, the overground network, cable car and some train operating company sites. 100 of the oldest units of the existing 340 ESUBs, are now obsolete and cannot cope with the advanced software required to meet demands.

“Transport for London is committed to providing information to customers that allows them to make the most effective use of the network. Real-time information provided at stations is key to this, and is delivered through a number of channels and formats,” TfL said in the tender notice.

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SAP to create 250 jobs in Ireland

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

SAP has announced plans to create 250 jobs in Ireland over the next three years. The software giant will be employing staff with skills in computer science, engineering, physics, maths, information systems and business.

150 of the new posts will be based in Citywest, Dublin - SAP’s centre for services, sales and global support functions. The remaining 100 positions will be based at SAP’s recently founded cloud services and support centre in Galway. SAP currently has 1,200 employees in Ireland.

Barry O’Leary, CEO of IDA Ireland, said: “This expansion drive will help support major growth in customer demand in the emerging technology areas of cloud computing, mobile applications and high-performing database technology.”

SAP began operations in Ireland 15 years ago and claims that 30,000 people in the country use SAP software every day. The company also delivers services to many Irish global firms such as Ryanair, Bank of Ireland and Guinness.

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Government set to miss broadband targets

The government is unlikely to meet targets of installing superfast broadband to 90% of the UK by 2015. According to a new report from the London School of Economics (LSE), the current levels of funding will not suffice.

The report estimated that for the target to be met, the public funds set aside, around £1.3 billion for the scheme would need to nearly double. The remaining funding could come from the private sector. It was also stated that the £50 million set aside for the scheme in the latest Budget would not come close to the funding required.

The report, ‘Costs and Benefits of Superfast Broadband in the UK’, stated: “The government’s universal service commitment for basic broadband to reach the whole country by 2015 is on course.

“However, meeting the government targets of 100% fast broadband coverage and 90% superfast broadband coverage in 2015 will absorb not only the funding from public sources but also roughly equal funding from private sources.”

The report also noted that it was unclear whether the £50 million fund for a “wave of 10 smaller super-connected cities” would be for ‘superfast’ or ‘ultrafast’ broadband.

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NASDAQ OMX acquires BWise

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. has announced that it has agreed to acquire BWise, a global leader in enterprise governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) software.

With this acquisition, NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions now offers companies the ability to track, measure and manage key organizational risks – including the risk of non-compliance – with industry leading governance, management and compliance software and services.

Established in 1994, BWise provides companies with a single software platform designed to cover all aspects of a company’s GRC needs.

Bruce Aust, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX: “With increasing regulations and, subsequently, greater exposure to risk, GRC is seen as a key indicator of business performance and stability. At NASDAQ OMX, we continue to be motivated by a strong desire to help our companies be more transparent, strategic and efficient.  We are excited to align BWise’s best-in-industry GRC solutions with our premium board portal, Directors Desk, as we continue to look for innovative ways to provide C-level executives and boards with relevant, integrated services. We also look forward to continuing to promote the fairness, efficiency and integrity of the global marketplace with the integration of BWise and SMARTS.”

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WNS and GT Nexusenter strategic partnership

WNS (Holdings) Limited has announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with GT Nexus to deliver platform-based BPO services and solutions to the Shipping and Logistics industry.

According to the agreement, WNS and GT Nexus will jointly work towards providing shippers, forwarders, 3PLs and carriers with improved quality of service for their end-customers and reduced costs in areas such as documentation, freight management, contracts, pricing and analytics.

“The shipping and logistics industry has been facing multiple pressures created by unfavorable economic conditions,” said Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS. “There is a strong need within the industry for managed services to help shift inefficient and manual transactions onto a global digital platform. We believe that the integration of GT Nexus’s proven cloud-based technology platform with WNS’ deep domain knowledge and operational process excellence will help companies effectively manage this transition.”

“One of the big opportunities for BPO providers is to build entire practices and services around existing, mature cloud technology platforms,” said Aaron Sasson, CEO of GT Nexus.  “Through this partnership, WNS is taking advantage of our cloud supply chain platform and offering a much needed new service for the international logistics industry. WNS has made it simple for companies in shipping and logistics to move to a complete digital transaction business process.”

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Gemalto wins DVLA contract as IBM misses out

Gemalto has been awarded has been awarded the contract for the management of UK drivers’ licences by The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). IBM had previously held the contract, believed to be worth £60 million to £300 million.

The supplier responsibilities will include providing between 40 and 80 million secure permit documents, digital tachograph cards and biometric residence permits.

“The DVLA is recognised as a centre of excellence for the issue of high security national documents like the Driving Licence and Biometric Residence Permit,” commented Simon Tse, Chief Executive Officer of DVLA.

“The new contract we have signed today delivers millions of pounds of saving for the UK taxpayer and allows DVLA to issue even more secure driving licences, and provide the next generation of high security smart cards for other parts of UK government. We look forward to working with Gemalto to ensure the UK’s cards remain among the most secure in the world.”

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IBM acquires analytics firm

Friday, May 04, 2012

IBM has announced an agreement to acquire analytics software firm Tealeaf Technology. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearance, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012.

With this agreement, IBM extends its Smarter Commerce initiative by adding qualitative analytics capabilities that provide chief marketing officers (CMOs), e-commerce and customer service professionals with real-time and automated insights into online customer buying experiences across online and mobile devices.

“Tealeaf’s patented technology can be deployed into a business’s current environment with no needed modifications so they begin capturing customer data and delivering optimal experiences immediately,” said Rebecca Ward, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tealeaf. “IBM Smarter Commerce is the perfect fit for Tealeaf and further establishes IBM as the leading partner for businesses looking to succeed in today’s fast evolving environment.”

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MasterCard certifies NFC for major brands

MasterCard today announced several near field communications (NFC) enabled smartphones have been certified for use with MasterCard PayPass technology.

The technology will provide consumers with devices capable of making fast, secure contactless payments at PayPass merchant locations around the globe.

The new MasterCard-certified devices include the BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung and Nokia phones.

The MasterCard PayPass Ready identifier will signify a device is available for commercial deployment of PayPass, and can be included as a sticker on the approved device. Nokia and BlackBerry-maker RIM are among the first handset manufacturers committed to supporting the brand mark.

“Nokia is honored that the Nokia Lumia 610 NFC will be one the world’s first smartphones to include MasterCard’s PayPass Ready brand mark,” said Andrea Bacioccola, NFC Lead Program Manager, Nokia. “This sends a clear message to operators, banks and other service providers that Nokia is able to quickly enable their payment services on this smartphone.”

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Serious Organised Crime Agency hit by hackers

The website of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has been taken offline following a cyber-attack.

Soca confirmed to the BBC that soca.gov.uk had suffered a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

A spokesman said the site was taken offline at 22:30 on Wednesday, but that the attack did not “pose a security risk to the organisation”.

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Government plans £200 million mobile coverage project

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has released further information regarding its Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP).

The government has released an online tender for a single vendor, which aims to extend mobile coverage to 60,000 homes and businesses in rural parts of the UK.

The project aims to deliver the coverage to areas that have been ignored by market driven private investment, due to a lack of business opportunities.

The contract is estimated to be worth up to £200 million.

The MIP was first announced in released in the latest budget, which stated that the plans were being executed “support technological innovation and help the digital, creative and other high technology industries”.

Suppliers have until the end of May to register their interest.

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Amazon wins mobile management contract with SAP

Thursday, May 03, 2012

German based SAP, the largest producer of enterprise software have tendered a contract to provide mobile marketing to Amazon.

The mobile market software called Afaria will provide customers with an economic way of managing smartphone and tablet devices. 

SAP intends to double revenue from mobile products during the year from last year’s $145 million turnover. Yesterday the New York close saw Amazon fall stock fall by 0.1 percent while SAP fell 0.2 percent in Frankfurt. 

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NAO says Government major projects need greater transparency

The National Audit Office (NAO) has criticised Government transparency regarding work carried out by the Major Project Authority (MPA) worth £376 billion, while praising improvements carried out.

Of 205 projects under the MPA only 39 had confidence ratings in the red of amber/red, yet the MPA reported this year that only half of the 205 projects had been delivered effectively within budget.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: “If the new system is to be ‘built to last’, the Major Projects Authority needs to carry out the initial commitments to public reporting and be part of a more fully integrated assurance across government.”

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arvato secures benefits contract with Derby City Council

arvato has won a contract to provide benefits assessment services for Derby City Council. The contract was won based on Arvato’s flexible approach and from the results of an initial contract set up in 2011.

The contract was tendered in order to combat the rise in benefits application seen by Derby Council of 14 percent in the past four years.

Kath Gruber, director of customer management, Derby City Council, said: “We were impressed with the close working relationship and best practice shared by arvato in our initial contract.”

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BSkyB enters into a three year contract with Firstsource

BSkyB extends there partnership with global BPO outsourcing company, Firstsource Solutions, in a three year contract to provide and increase customer service management support.

The contract will cover Sky’s customers of more than 10 million across its TV and broadband services, and will include the expansion of customer service sites to Belfast and Cardiff which will together employ over 900 staff.

Matthew Vallance, Firstsource’s CEO and Managing Director, said: “Our addition of new facilities to support the expansion of Sky’s business marks an exciting juncture in our relationship, and provides us with a platform for a wider and deeper partnership.”

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Google beats Microsoft for US government contract

Google has successfully defeated Microsoft in competing for the US Department of the Interior (DOI) contract worth $35 million to supply email and cloud apps.

The seven year contract which had originally placed Microsoft as the preferred vendor has been won by Google after a lawsuit claiming bias towards Microsoft. The Google proposal was $14 million less than the proposal offered by Microsoft according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Microsoft have said: “Although we are disappointed by this award, we will engage with our partners and DoI to review and understand the reasons for this decision.”

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Boeing signs with Xerox Managed Print Services

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Xerox is to deploy a managed print services (MPS) strategy for Boeing, providing the aerospace leader and innovator with a streamlined approach to managing documents on the ground in Boeing’s U.S. offices.

The Enterprise Print Services contract is to last 6 years and will see Xerox consolidate devices and develop a strategy for the most cost-effective, environmentally friendly approach to help meet environmental sustainability goals to reduce paper use, power use and landfill waste.

Ted Colbert, vice president, Boeing IT Infrastructure said “This partnership will strengthen our ability to provide best-in-class print services to our employees and customers. Additionally, the newer technologies and improved services Xerox provides will help reduce IT costs while maintaining our commitment to an environmentally friendly workplace.”

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Obama ad accuses Romney of outsourcing US jobs

A new ad released yesterday for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign condemns Republican candidate Mitt Romney of outsourcing jobs and slams him for keeping money in foreign bank accounts.

The ad asserts that Romney “shipped American jobs to places like Mexico and China” whilst lead at the investment firm Bain Capital, as well as stating that Romney “outsourced state jobs to a call center in India” when he was governor of Massachusetts.

The campaign has spent the considerable sum of $780,000 to place the ad in the three crucial swing states Virginia, Ohio and Iowa. 

The Obama ad is in response to a spot released last week by the conservative political group Americans for Prosperity which suggested money from Obama’s $814 billion economic stimulus package went to overseas green-energy companies.

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The NOA responds to NAO report

The National Audit Office today published its report on assurance for major government projects, including the introduction of large IT systems, the construction of ships and helicopters and major changes to how services are delivered in support of government changes to the central assurance system.

The report details 205 projects in the Government Major Project Portfolio, totalling a combined whole-life cost of £376 billion, and annual cost of £14.6 billion- 39 of those projects have a delivery confidence rating of ‘red’ or ‘amber/red’.

Martyn Hart, Chairman National Outsourcing Association said: “With the stakes of £376bn at stake the government needs to quickly prioritise its focus, as an alarming 1/5 of its major projects are in grave danger. Collecting and sharing information on what makes major projects go wrong – and what makes them go right – would be an enormous step to the government saving taxpayer’s cash. Knowing which deals are working is one thing, but government departments still need to do more in terms of sharing learnings with each other. Studying the BS11000 standard in Collaboration would be a good place to start eradicating a culture of persistent ‘wheel reinvention.”

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NOA announces association with Wipro Technologies for NOAAs

The National Outsourcing Association has announced Wipro Technologies’ association with the National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs) which is taking place in London in October.

This is the 9th year of the NOAAs, the only annual UK awards ceremony for the outsourcing industry, and is set to take place on Thursday 25th of October 2012 at Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel, London.

The NOAAs are firmly established as the highlight of the outsourcing industry calendar, attracting over 500 delegates annually and recognise the efforts of companies and individuals, demonstrating world-class technology and outsourcing best practices, and this year has a record number of categories.

Martyn Hart, NOA Chairman said:  “The NOAAs are growing year on year. They are one of the most prestigious awards within the IT and Outsourcing Industry. Last year’s awards had more entrants than ever. We are delighted that Wipro have decided to come on board with their support for the awards this year. It is clear evidence that companies recognise the value of being associated with the NOA.”

Rahul Kadavakolu, Head – Global Field Marketing & Branding said: “Wipro are delighted to be part of the NOAAs 2012. The Awards bring together the entire IT and Outsourcing industry and provides a great platform for both clients and service providers to showcase the best in class consulting and technology solutions. Our aim is to recognise the best in the business through our support for these awards.”

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Maude estimates £340m saving from £4.93m G-Cloud framework

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has stated that the £4.93m G-Cloud framework stands to save the public sector a substantial £340m. The saving estimation came in a written response from Maude to an enquiry about the costs from Michael Dugher, MP for Barnsley East.

CloudStore, a catalogue of public cloud services for the public sector’s use, was launched in February of this year. The catalogue comprises of 257 suppliers, 50% of which are SMEs – in keeping with the government’s pledge to move away from the major vendors and enter into more contracts with SMEs.

However, newly appointed director of the G-Cloud, Denise McDonagh said that the second iteration of the contract will also include some bigger names such as Amazon and Salesforce.

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Cisco and IDA fund R&D jobs to the tune of €26m

Cisco’s Research and Development centre located in Galway, Ireland is to be expanded thanks to the Industrial Development Agency’s investment. The exact breakdown of funding has not been revealed, but together Cisco and IDA will put €26m forward.

Following the investment 115 R&D jobs will be created, in addition to a more comprehensive range of research topics.

The Taoiseach – Ireland’s head of government – Enda Kenny said “The decision by Cisco to expand its research and development capabilities here in Galway demonstrates the value of economic stability and Ireland’s position in Europe when it comes to our ability to attract the overseas operations of world-leading multinational companies such as Cisco.”

Senior Vice President of the global collaboration business for Cisco, Barry O’Sullivan, said the talent pool in Ireland had a major part to play in the decision to extend the R&D capabilities. Cisco is not the only company who has expanded operations to Ireland, major players such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have also set up data centres in Ireland.

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First government mutual pension scheme launched

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

A new pension scheme for Britain’s civil servants has been launched today. My Civil Service Pension (MyCSP). MyCSP “the first ‘John Lewis style’ business created from a central government service”, according to the Cabinet Office.

The scheme has been launched by Francis Maude MP and former Cabinet Minister Lord Hutton will become the first chairman of the scheme. MyCSP will provide employees with a 25% ownership stake, board level representation and profit share.

Maude said: “We no longer face a binary choice between public services delivered by state monopoly and straight privatisation. That is why I am a passionate supporter of mutual, which will help Britain grow a more diverse economy.

“As a mutual, MyCSP will deliver better services for its pension scheme members, millions of pounds of savings for the taxpayer and a real sense of ownership for employees over what they do.

“We are transforming a neglected back-office operation into a new competitive and responsible business - the rest of the world is watching.”

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Microsoft invests $300m in eReader firm

Microsoft has invested $300 million in eReader firm Barnes and Noble, ushering the beginning of a new ‘strategic partnership’. The partnership consists of a 17.6 percent equity stake for Microsoft and will ‘accelerate the transition to e-reading’. 

The investment will be primarily used to set up a new subsidiary currently known as Newco, aiming to bring together the digital and College businesses of Barnes & Noble. According to Microsoft, one of the first benefits for customers will be a NOOK application for Windows 8, which will extend the reach of Barnes & Noble’s digital bookstore by providing one of the world’s largest digital catalogues of e-Books, magazines and newspapers to hundreds of millions of Windows customers.

“The formation of Newco and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments,” said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble. “Microsoft’s investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business.”

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Welsh NHS group fined by ICO

A Welsh health board has become the first NHS organisation to be issued a monetary penalty by the The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) following a serious data breach.

The Aneurin Bevan Health Board (ABHB) has been hit with a penalty of £70,000 after sensitive data - containing explicit details relating to a patient’s health - was sent to the wrong person in March last year.

The error occurred when a consultant emailed a letter to a secretary for formatting, but did not include enough information and also misspelt the patient name. The errors led to the report being sent to a former patient with a very similar name.

Stephen Eckersley, the ICO’s Head of Enforcement said: “The health service holds some of the most sensitive information available. The damage and distress caused by the loss of a patient’s medical record is obvious, therefore it is vital that organisations across this sector make sure their data protection practices are adequate.
“Aneurin Bevan Health Board failed to have suitable checks in place to keep the sensitive information they handled secure. This case could have been extremely distressing to the individual and their family and may have been prevented if the information had been checked prior to it being sent. 

“We are pleased that the Health Board has now committed to taking action to address the problems highlighted by our investigation; however organisations across the health service must stand up and take notice of this decision if they want to avoid future enforcement action from the ICO.”

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SAP replaces UK Managing Director

SAP has replaced its UK Managing Director. Fred Hessabi will act as the interim MD after predecessor Steve Winter occupied the position for just six months.

Hessabi, based in Paris, also serves as General Manager of Continental Europe and is responsible for all SAP operations in the continent. Winter is still with SAP and will now be in charge of a new business HR operations team.

“We will continue to structure our business around the five market categories that are critical to our combined success: mobile, database and technology, analytics, cloud and applications,” said an SAP spokesperson.

“As part of this structure and market focus, we have recognised the incredible opportunity available to us regarding SAP’s line of business HR solutions and as a result, Steve Winter has been appointed to lead the newly created line of business human resources sales team.”

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Visa’s V.me service to hit UK by autumn

Visa has confirmed that its new digital wallet service, V.me, will launch to an initial group of consumers in the UK by autumn 2012. The announcement by Visa is the latest in a number of contactless payment systems.

Visa will be using WorldPay as a key development partner in the delivery of the V.me service in the UK. Further development and launch partners in each market, including banks and retailers, are to be announced soon.

The service will be made available through Visa’s member banks and will initially be accessed through the internet browser on a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Consumers will be able to put multiple cards into the wallet.

Mariano Dima, Executive Vice President of Product and Marketing Solutions at Visa Europe, said: “V.me sits at the heart of Visa’s future of payments. For the first time, consumers and retailers will have a streamlined online checkout experience through an acceptance mark that offers industry-leading security and, when a Visa card is used in a V.me wallet, the same protection and rights that come with any Visa card transaction.”

The news follows Barclays move to extend the Pingit service to non-Barclays customers and O2’s Wallet application allowing users to shop or send money via their mobile.

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Amazon Cloud reaches $500 million in sales

Monday, April 30, 2012

Amazon’s cloud (AWS) made $500 million from sales in the first quarter 2012. The cloud service has grown significantly year-on-year with 2012’s first quarter up by $189 million from the same time last year.

The Amazon cloud has proven to be the fastest rising area of business in the company, with growth accounting for 61 percent compared to areas such as media at 19 percent and electronic business at 43 percent.

Werner Vogels, chief technology officer at Amazon, said: “Hundreds of thousands of businesses are using AWS today. The US federal government has a cloud first strategy and over 100 US agencies are using AWS.” 

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Atos selected by KBC to provide e-payments

Atos, the payment transaction service will collaborate with KBC to deliver electronics payment transactions for the bank insurance group and its clients until 2016.

The contract will see Atos provide processing of payment relating to transactions between cardholders and merchants.

Bart Guns, KBC Group Payments senior general manager, said: “With this contract, KBC is opting for the continuation of the services by a very robust and reliable supplier of transaction services and a partner who is constantly striving for innovation.”

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2012 IT Olympic challenges

IT polices will need to adapt to the challenges and changes presented by the 2012 Olympics, from increased demands on IT infrastructure to outside factors such as travel.

Analyst group Forrester have advised that IT must be focus on social media as well as remote access in the run up to and arrival of the 2012 Olympics. Forrester also referred to the Beijing Olympics as an example of how social media must be harnessed in order to avoid disruption.

Andrew Rose, Forrester principal analyst, said: “The controls many firms will implement to mitigate the risks associated with the summer of 2012 will form a legacy that will remain for many years to come”.

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iCloud reaches 125 million users

Apple has revealed in the release of second quarter earnings last week, that the icloud has reached over 125 million users.

The iCloud was launched back in October 2011 as a service to provide wireless backup and synchronisation of Apple products. The paid-for service has been used in increasing numbers as a platform for document and media storage as Apple seeks to increase customer satisfaction with the product.

Peter Oppenheimer, chief financial officer at Apple, said: “Customers are using all the features of iCloud, response has been terrific, feedback has been terrific.” 

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China set to become largest m-payments market

China’s mobile market is expected to grow to be the largest in the world by 2012 according to research from Kapronasia. The research points to the Chinese market growing to reach 441 million users and worth over $80 billion.

China has already over grown the US to be the largest smartphone market globally, even though less than 10 percent of the domestic mobile market are currently using smartphones.

With the potential for strong growth in an under-saturated market and the release of new regulations, the Chinese m-payments market is set to rapidly accelerate in next year. Zennon Kapron, managing director at Kapronasia, said: “2012 will prove to be a crucial year for the mobile payments industry as Chinese authorities establish final technology standards.”

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Recruitment services firm AMS moves global IT to Cloud architecture

Friday, April 27, 2012

The recruitment services firm, Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), has transferred its IT services onto a Cloud based platform in order to cut costs by 25 percent.

The recruitment firm employed Moldavian and Romanian based Endava to provide a cost reducing programme, while focusing on increasing the quality of services provided, which led to the Eastern European firm promoting Cloud based hosting.

John Wainwright, head of global IT at AMS, said: “We now receive service levels that deliver over 80% service call resolution at first point of support.”

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AstraZeneca chief quits as stocks fall

David Brennan, chief executive at the pharmaceutical company announced his resignation hours before a shareholder meeting. AstraZeneca has been hit by losses from a limited pipeline of new drugs on the market after poor drug trials and heavy competition from rival firms.

First-quarter profits dropped 40 percent, well under market expectation in addition to future negative predictions on AstraZeneca’s profits for the year.   

Mr Brennan said: “I have decided that now is the right time to step down and allow a new leader to take the reins.”

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CRM software enters into the top 10 of CIOs priorities

Technology research group Gartner have released a survey that demonstrates that Customer relationship management (CRM) software has become a top priority for CIOs. The survey placed CRM software as the eighth most important consideration for CIOs in 2012.

CRM software has had greater focus placed on its application and that of social media, as customer experience becomes a key consideration in times of shrinking IT budgets and increased competition.

Gartner vice-president Ed Thompson commented that “In 2012, CRM executives are faced with the challenge of taking ‘social’ more seriously – not as ‘just another channel’. but as a whole new way of doing business.”

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HSBC announces 2,217 UK job losses

2,217 employees at HSBC are to be made redundant as part of the companies measure to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

In total 3,167 jobs will go but the creation of new roles will mitigate the permanent loss in job numbers to 2,217. The move comes from an announcement last year, detailing that the company planned to reduce its workforce by 30,000 jobs by 2013. This new announcement of job cuts come on the back of 700 jobs losses announced in June 2011.

A spokesman from HSBC said: “We will now be working with the individuals concerned to help them find alternative roles either within the wider group structure, or outside the organisation.”

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