Industry news

The GSA UK award winners have been announced at the awards event last night at the Intercontinental Hotel at Park Lane in London. The Awards highlighted the forward strides made by the industry over the past year and celebrated the new global brand of the association. Best practice and sourcing excellence was recognised and celebrated by representatives of the global sourcing community at the 5 star hotel, with 18 awards in a wide variety of topics being awarded. Kerry Hallard CEO of the GSA UK said "This was without a doubt the most competitive year ever in terms of submissions. Those who attended the awards ceremony were given the inside track on the very best examples of technology in outsourcing, but also relationship and contract management, innovation, service delivery and collaboration." On the 1st of December there will be an awards showcase in London, a great opportunity to learn more about the winning submissions.

Find out more here.

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are set to sign a free trade accord next year to boost trade and pave the way for a huge-cross border trans-shipment via the port of Colombo. “The Shipping Ministry of Bangladesh is also cooperating in this. We decided to use Colombo port in our future trans-shipments as we feel other regional ports to be expensive." said Bangladesh's Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed. Total bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which stood at $48 million in 2010, has grown to $131 million by 2015.

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The Prime Minister Theresa May has promised a ‘golden age’ in the relationship between the UK and China after she met the China’s vice-premier in London. Speaking before the eighth UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue got under way, Mrs May said: "I'm determined that as we leave the European Union, we build a truly global Britain that is open for business. There will be an announcement that the Chinese contractor CITIC Construction is to invest £200m in the first phase of the £1.7bn London Royal Albert Docks project, headed by the Chinese developer ABP. Investment from Chinese companies in the UK has become a major part of investment programmes, despite the thaw in relations after the delayed confirmation of Hinckley Point C.

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Well, what can you say. The polls and pundits were wrong, or at least the clear majority of them. Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States of America after beating Hillary Clinton in the race to White House. Theresa May, the UK Prime Minister congratulated Mr. Trump this morning in a statement from Downing Street, “I would like to congratulate Donald Trump on being elected the next President of the United States, following a hard-fought campaign.” What will a Trump Presidency mean to the world economy and to the Sourcing industry? HSBC analysts have predicted “Trump will throw US economy into recession 'after a year or two'. Contraction in the labor force and disruption to world trade”.

The victory achieved by Donald Trump has left many in shock, markets tumbled on the news this morning as investors and business leaders tried to understand what a Trump presidency would look like, the sad truth is we don’t know. Much of what is said on the election is forgotten in office and therefore many outlandish policies Mr. Trump campaigned are unlikely to gain traction. Ricardo Reis, an economist at the London School of Economics said “For sure, this is a huge increase in uncertainty. And for the most part what certainty is available seems bad. Like the Brexit vote, this raises the likelihood that trade deals will be repudiated and borders will be closed.” His attacks on trade and on the loss of American jobs may see a more protectionist America, which could see a fall in outsourcing and offshoring contracts but it is too early to know.

Over the coming days, weeks and months we will gain a more comprehensive picture of the new Presidents regime. Already over 1000 CEO’s of US companies have written an open letter to Mr. Trump warning of “an urgent need to restore faith in our vital economic and government institutions” (However the letter was written pre-election result for whoever won). Business uncertainty is high and a President Trump must act to maintain economic and business confidence. Otherwise the American dream may be a footnote in history.

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As the news sinks in we are beginning to get a clearer picture of the response of the worlds politician’s and companies to the prospect of a Trump presidency. Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the communications service, says the election was "effectively a second Brexit that leaves many very surprised, including the markets and me. It's going to take a significant amount of time to assess the implications beyond the short term. Increased levels of uncertainty will mean more hesitation to make important decisions in the short term, both by people and governments. But it may accelerate implementation of helpful reforms in the medium term to reduce uncertainty and stimulate investment as a result.”

Jo Sellick, managing director of Sellick Partnership says “Thanks to our special relationship with the US, we must take the result incredibly seriously in the UK and decide whether we really want to be so closely associated with our friends across the pond moving forward. we must hope that Congress is able to water down some of the outrageous ideas that won Trump the vote in the first place. UK business leaders will most likely join me in their concern for the future relationship between the UK and US, especially those involved in trade deals between the two nations.”

HfS have reacted to the election, calling the result the death-knell for traditional offshore outsourcing... as we know it. The article (link here) describes the first thoughts of the outsourcing industry to the election of Trump.

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The UK trade deficit widened in the month of September as exports decreased by £0.2 billion and imports grew by £1.2 billion, emphasised by the fall in the value of the pound. The Government had hoped that the depreciation of the pound in recent months may have spurred exports and reduced imports but it appears to have had little effect per the Office of National Statistics. "So far there is little evidence in the data of the lower pound feeding through into trade volume or prices” said ONS statistician Hannah Finselbach.

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Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies worldwide could benefit from a victory by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said COL Financial. Donald Trump plans to place tariffs on BPO activity if he were to win the race to the Whitehouse, damaging many south Asian countries that specialize in in the sector. “I think one of the reasons why people believe that Asia will not benefit from a possible Trump victory is his talk against trade between other countries and the US, like he would impose tariffs,” said April Lee Tan, head of research at COL Financial.

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Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, a provider of information technology, consulting, and business process services, today announced its third quarter 2016 financial results. Revenue for the third quarter of 2016 was $3.45 billion, up 8.4% from $3.19 billion in the third quarter of 2015. “We see ongoing client demand for our services across industries and geographies,” said Francisco D’Souza, Chief Executive Officer. Fourth quarter 2016 revenue is expected to be in the range of $3.45 billion to $3.51 billion.

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Related news: Cognizant and Centrica Tie Up Deal

Scicom is on track to be the largest business process outsourcing (BPO) provider in Sri Lanka by March 2017, according to group executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Leo Ariyanayakam. Scicom recently became the call centre provider for SriLankan Airlines, according to local reports. In addition to strengthening its BPO presence in Sri Lanka, Scicom also expressed interest in moving into e-government services in Nepal, Cambodia and Laos. There's more opportunity in these markets because they're quite constrained in terms of their budgets”.

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Check out our report on Sri Lanka: SRI LANKA – A HIDDEN OUTSOURCING GEM

Yesterday, Tesco Bank froze over 20,000 accounts after suspicious activity was reported including money being taken from accounts. About 40,000 accounts saw suspicious transactions over the weekend. Chief Executive, Benny Higgins blamed "a systematic, sophisticated attack" which would be unprecedented on a UK bank. The bank has described the incident as a hack, days after Mr Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a £1.9 billion scheme for cyber protection.

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Related news: UK Government to Boost Cyber Security