Industry news

Retail Sales in the UK are showing a rather contrasting picture as growth slows and becomes focused upon food. Buoyant sales in food have helped sales rise by 0.3%, offsetting falls across the board in other sectors as consumers feel the squeeze on their wallets. The slowdown in growth adds to a murky picture of the UK economy, as the country struggles to find strong underlying statistics after the Brexit vote. It feels like the UK economy is bumping along, trying to discover what will happen in negotiations with the European Union, as business puts major decisions on hold and consumers bunker down to prepare for any inflationary pressure in the coming years.

Full story here.

Forrester's latest European tech market forecast projects that growth will be sluggish but steady in the coming few years. Purchases of technology software, hardware, and services by European businesses and government measured in Euros will hold steady at 1.6 percent in 2017, and increase to 2.2 percent in 2018 while spending on software and tech consulting services will do better, with software spending rising by 2.5 percent in 2017 and 3.5 percent in 2018. Three main factors have contributed to the figures, sluggish growth in the Eurozone, slow adoption of cloud technology and services and strong adoption of business technology contributed to the steady pace of growth.

Full story here.

A recent study by IT World Canada found that CIO's in Canada are losing satisfaction in IT Outsourcing as part of a shift away from conventional outsourcing. The study does not reveal a slowdown in spending but suggests that businesses would be less likely rush into outsourcing their IT infrastructure in the next two years. In the survey, about 28% of respondents said their outsourcing experience had “fallen below” expectations, the findings do not necessarily mean that Canadian firms dislike outsourcing, as they still expect external IT firms to help them increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve employee productivity.

Full story here.

Synopsys, Inc, a global high-tech leader enabling companies to innovate from Silicon to Software, this week announced plans to invest in R&D capabilities in its Sri Lanka operations. To extend its local R&D capabilities, Synopsys is working with the University of Moratuwa, the University of Peradeniya and the University of Ruhuna to build very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and electronic design automation (EDA) skill sets to help graduating engineers meet ever-evolving challenges in semiconductor design, EDA, semiconductor IP and software security and quality, the company said in a media release. Synopsys established its operations in Colombo in 2015, and since then the R&D team has grown to approximately 100 engineers involved in the research, design and development of key EDA technologies and products that enable “Smart, Secure Everything from Silicon to Software” in the global electronics market. The Sri Lanka operation is engaged in R&D activities across core EDA, and its objective is to grow in advanced technology areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to embrace the era of “smart everything,”, the release said.

The moment a relevant RFP or invitation to tender (ITT) document arrives in your inbox, you need to act fast. Unfortunately, the bidding process is complex and resource-heavy. Large bid management situations can involve dozens of people across the business. With multi-million-pound tenders and lucrative multi-year contracts in the balance, teams must be able to access bid documents and information at anytime, anywhere. But as many service providers have seen all too frequently, the major road block to this is legacy collaboration technology.

A successful bid is often won on subject matter expertise, which means tapping into many different sources of knowledge - sales, finance, operations, legal counsel, etc - to raise the quality of the bid. However, the bid team is unlikely to be working in a single, stationary location. What is more likely is that the team will be separated by location and time zones, often working from hotels, airport lounges or even at home – throwing another logistical spanner into the works.

On top of battling dispersed teams, many businesses are still unaware of just how costly the inefficiencies during a bid process can be. One of the hidden costs of the bid management process is ensuring staff stay efficient. According to recent research into the UK professional services sector, at least seven people are typically involved in a new business bid, with each senior member of the team dedicating approx. 12.6 hours to the process. This equates to an average of 84 senior hours per bid. A costly endeavour, which can escalate if the team is repeatedly working on the wrong version of a document or spending precious hours trying to catch up with the latest feedback.

With as much risk as potential value to the business, bid management teams must make sure that the process is as efficient as possible. With this in mind, here are the top three ways in which upgrading collaboration technology can deliver savings in both resources and bottom line revenue when pursuing new business:

Controlling ‘versionitis’

Everyone who’s been involved within the bid management process understands it’s inherently a document-intensive process. As such, managers find themselves dealing with many document-related challenges including maintaining audit trails and retaining version control. In fact, when surveyed, 68% of all professional services respondents admitted that, within the last six months, they had spent substantial time working on a document only to discover it wasn’t the latest version.

Without proper document processes in place, mistakes and wasted efforts are more than likely. This may mean spending wasted time on editing content that has already been changed, or worse still, compounding the error by sharing the wrong version of a document for feedback.

To take control of document processes, bid managers must step away from legacy technologies like email and opt for cloud-based collaboration platforms. The Go-Ahead Group, an operator for a significant proportion of UK public transport franchises in the UK, deployed Huddle for exactly this reason. With large teams working on a single bid document, version control problems were common, and proving inefficient and costly, and had the potential to jeopardise bid success.

Being able to track content and version changes, create clear approval and review processes and revert to previous versions if necessary can save the team time and money and dramatically reduce the inefficiency and otherwise wasted time in creating each bid.

Locking down security threats

Security is non-negotiable when it comes to preparing a bid response.

But typical collaboration “work arounds” are often inherently insecure. Email is too uncontrolled; USB sticks are inherently and notoriously easy to lose; consumer-grade file-sharing services are exactly that – consumer-grade.

In many cases, participation in a bid requires signing confidentiality agreements and acknowledgements that your systems and processes comply with the latest in security and access management regulations. Without a cloud-based collaboration platform it can become an uphill struggle to prove your organisation can adhere to the strict security procedure. And yet, fewer than half of our professional services survey respondents (46%) said that they used robust file-sharing systems.

Without central control of the document and its accessibility, Intellectual Property can easily leak to inappropriate third parties, and even to competitors. For many opportunities, data security is mission-critical, especially for the public sector – any leak during the bid phase will be fatal and taken as a sign of likely future non-compliance.

Reinventing the wheel

Many opportunities are won or lost based on the subject matter expertise displayed during the bidding process.

Yet, when surveyed, the largest portion of professional services respondents (33%) confirmed that collecting information and evidence of expertise from within the business was the primary time drain in bid construction – with 24% spending more than five minutes to retrieve every document. It is a cruel irony that the most important part of the bid is the hardest to deliver.

Many tender writers fall into the trap of starting the knowledge gathering process from scratch with every new bid. Within large and diverse organisations, creating repeatable, universal processes and learning from previous projects is simply too difficult – especially where there are multiple teams performing similar roles within different geographies or divisions. What the UK bid team is learning and developing as a consistently successful process may never be seen by the US team, and vice versa.

But if a bid is built within a secure cloud-based collaborative space that maintains a digital audit trail of version changes, comments and approval workflows, then the entire process remains transparent and examinable. This then becomes the start of the creation of a bid library, filled with collateral, graphics, templates and processes, with teams learning from what has worked well before. The organisation-wide availability of this material not only removes the complexity of the bid construction, but it also removes the dangers of duplicating work, brand inconsistencies and the omission of specialist input.

Conclusion

There are many common frustrations felt by bid management teams during the bidding process; access to expertise, duplication of effort, security and managing the division of labour. For most, these frustrations will be traced back to inefficient technology and poor collaboration processes.

Controlling the root causes of potential inefficiency in bid management with secure, cloud-based workspaces will increase efficiency, save costs and ensure data and Intellectual Propert security. Even more importantly, these improvements will do more than remove the burden of the process – they will increase the chances of the bid’s success.

By Morten Brøgger, CEO, Huddle

The MoU is signed between FITIS and SLASSCOM to achieve collaborative efforts in developing the information and communication (ICT), knowledge services and innovation sectors of Sri Lanka recently. This will enable better cooperation between the two organisations that combined represent Sri Lanka’s domestic ICT industry and the export ICT industry. 

The MoU will ensure an environment where sustainable and rapid development of the ICT, knowledge services and innovation will be the primary focus. It is an industry that cuts across traditional industry verticals with the ability to transform businesses models, challenging the productivity, efficiency and margins enjoyed. This has the potential to add tremendous value to the Sri Lankan economy, and become core to Sri Lanka’s economic transformation.

The ICT industry also has the potential to provide the highest employment to youth of Sri Lanka in the coming years with its high growth rate, and is able add up to 95% direct value additions in foreign earnings back to Sri Lanka. This revenue is easily retained in Sri Lanka as the industry itself does not incur material import costs or high capital expenses. It is also one of the key industries that promote entrepreneurship as it provides an opportunity for anyone with a brilliant idea and perseverance to create a solution, and achieve financial success with limited capital.

The economic health of the Eurozone is improving as growth and employment rise. The Eurozone GDP grew by 0.6% in the second quarter and unemployment in the bloc is at its lowest since 2009, indicating a steady and stable current of economic stability in the bloc which has been blighted by the Eurozone crisis. Many of the established Eurozone economies (France, Spain and Germany) have had an upward re-evaluation of future growth from the IMF.

More news from Sourcingfocus here.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer says that there will be no tax breaks after Brexit. After Brexit the UK will not try to undercut European economies with low tax rates and lax regulation as it may start a trade war. Many might see the chancellors announcement in a French newspaper to be conciliatory tones before fresh negotiations however it raises questions as to what the government will offer to incentivise companies to remain in the UK after it leaves the much larger market of the customs union. Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said the move was "an extremely risky strategy" although Labours strategy on Brexit remains undefined.

More recent news from Sourcing Focus.

Deloitte's auditing of outsourcing firm Mitie Group's accounts is to be probed by the UK's accountancy watchdog. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said its investigation related to Mitie's financial statements for the years ending 31 March 2015 and 2016. Deloitte said it took the investigation "very seriously" and would co-operate fully. Last month, Mitie reported a full-year loss after being hit by charges stemming from an accounting review. One-off costs of £88.3m meant the company - which provides pest control, cleaning, security and healthcare services - posted an operating loss of £42.9m for the year to March. The accounting review, which was carried out by KPMG, found the company's accounting was "less conservative" than its peers.

More news from Sourcing Focus.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday assured more economic growth was likely next year as against an estimated range of 4.5-5% this year. He said that the original forecast for 2017 was 6% growth but drought, followed by floods, is likely to reduce it to 4.5-5%. He said that as opposed to some individuals’ perceptions, the twin natural disasters experienced are unlikely to cause a major impact as the country was resilient. “The floods and drought should have had a negative impact on the economy. Already our agriculture has suffered and our growth should have come down from the 4.4% we had in 2016. This is not the case. We have stablised, despite all these issues,” the Prime Minister said. To support his view, Wickremesinghe quoted the IMF’s mid-July statement which said: “Macroeconomic and financial conditions have been stable, despite severe weather events and global market volatility.” However, he said Sri Lanka has to get ready if this climate pattern continues impacting the economy. The Prime Minister also reiterated the country has been placed on the “right track.” “We are accumulating reserves to create non-debt inflows, particularly through exports and FDI. We are entering into bilateral economic partnerships,” he added. He said the Government took strong decisions early to reduce fiscal deficit, to rebuild foreign reserves and introduce a more equitable tax system to restore macroeconomic stability. “Fiscal consolidation has been the key macro concern for all of us,” he added. “We are now navigating a period of transformation amidst global turbulence. Our country has enormous potential,” the Prime Minister emphasised.

More news on Sri Lanka.