Industry news

Intelenet Global Partners, a leading business process service provider, launched its newest facility in Manila, Philippines to consolidate its presence and support its growth in the region. The facility located in the south-east of Metro Manila in Taguig, will provide a world class platform to the growing Intelenet Global Services team, replete with state-of-the-art technology, next generation business process solutions and global best practices to draw from. The expansion will enable Intelenet Global Services to increase its seating capacity by 100% from the existing capacity. The “Philippines is a key delivery location for Intelenet Global Services. Our new facility here will serve the growing demand from our clients to get serviced out of this region” said Susir Kumar, Executive Chairman of Intelenet Global Services.

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Southern Rail owner Govia has billed Network Rail for nearly £50 million during the last fiscal year for disruption to the network that was not the fault of the operator. In cases where delays and disruption are caused by failures in the track infrastructure, Network Rail are considered responsible and are open to fines from operating companies. A spokesperson for Govia Thameslink, a subsidiary of Govia said “These payments reflect the large number of delays caused to passenger services by Network Rail, including faults with signals and power suppliers”.

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European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, failed to provide any clues as to the future of the ECB’s monetary policy yesterday causing volatility in the value of the Euro. On the day, the ECB held its negative interest rate and didn’t change its quantitative easing programme but Mr Draghi didn’t give any hint as to the future of the programme. The QE is supposed to end in March 2017 and markets are keen to learn what the future direction of the bank will be. After some frenzied volatility during the interview with Mr Draghi, the Euro settled exactly where it started but the erratic movements hint at uncertainty as to what the ECB will do in the coming months.

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Read more: Eurozone Growth to Weaken

It is always nice to make new friends, maybe not so if you are about to begin a bitter (and probably long) divorce from their union. At her first EU summit, PM May tried to reassure EU leaders that Britain will remain a strong partner after leaving the union in areas such as security and economic cooperation, "The UK is leaving the EU but we will continue to play a full role until we leave and we'll be a strong and dependable partner after we have left." she said. The reception of Mrs May was not the ‘nest of doves’ Mr Tusk promised, Mr Hollande of France commented "the negotiations will be hard". With many aspects of Brexit still unknown, Mrs May should probably get used to a chilly reception in Brussels.

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More about Brexit: Brexit News Round-Up

In an event that marked the opening of the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Professor Stephen Hawking reiterated the warnings he made over two years ago about the dangers of AI. Professor Hawking noted the potential achievements of AI such as disease eradication and maybe sorting out climate change but many dangers will be associated to the technology. Autonomous weapons, economic turmoil and machines creating their own free will were mentioned as potential side effects of the technology. It is difficult to deny that AI opens up many possibilities, both good and bad. Maybe the new Centre for the Future of Intelligence will find ways to harness the good of the technology, or maybe humanities future mirrors the Terminator films.

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For more on the advance of AI: Automation to Approach the Bar

The Guardian has reported that a Whitehall outsourcing scheme is costing more than the savings it was supposed to generate. The public accounts committee warned ministers they must act to improve leadership and governance to prevent more money being wasted. The idea was that 26 organisations would use two shared service centres to provide back office functions, however it was far too easy for departments to leave the scheme with no penalty. It would be fair to say that government targets were a bit off on this case and maybe tighter controls would be useful in the future.

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After a four-year absence from the UK market, Dutch bank ING is back with an app that allows customers to access all bank accounts (from all banks) in the same place. The app is called Yolt allows users to access all their accounts through one dashboard and even predicts their bank balance based on their direct debits and points out any significant changes in their spending patterns. Yolt will be coming to iOS in the coming months. ING CEO Ralph Hamers recently said the bank has the ambition to be a leader in digital banking, including moving to open platforms and new ecosystems according to computerweekly.com.

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For more about Fintech: Insurance Tech Sector Gaining Investment

Wipro Limited, an information technology, consulting and business process services company, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Appirio, a global cloud services company. Once completed, Wipro’s acquisition of Appirio will create one of the world’s largest cloud transformation practices. “In an increasingly digital world, as consumer behaviors and expectations continue to be reshaped by experiences, companies are recognizing that they need to transform how they engage with customers and employees by leveraging the power of Cloud.” said Abidali Neemuchwala, chief executive officer and member of the board, Wipro Limited. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to be closed in the quarter ending December 31, 2016.

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Atos, a global leader in digital services, announced its revenue for the third quarter of 2016. Revenue was € 2,777 million, up +1.8% organically and +6.3% at constant exchange rates. Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO said: “During the last quarter, the Group continued to grow organically in all of its businesses with in particular a solid performance in the UK post Brexit and in North America, as well as in continental Europe. We continue to experience dynamic commercial activity delivering a high level of new bookings, in particular with strong momentum in defence and security.” During the third quarter of 2016, revenue grew in most of the large Business Units, in North America thanks to increased volumes and new contracts with private cloud components and in Europe thanks to strong activity in the Public and Telco & Media sectors the continuous momentum of Big Data & Cybersecurity.

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Prodapt Solutions, a leading provider of consulting, transformation, and outsourcing services entered into a strategic alliance with Blue Prism, a leading enterprise-class Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software provider, and launched its Telebots framework, which provides pre-built process automation for consumer and digital service provider back-office operations. Blue Prism’s RPA software provides end-to-end process virtualization, making business operations agile, accurate, and cost-effective. To strengthen the partnership and support Telebots, Prodapt established a dedicated RPA center of excellence to provide expert consulting, process automation, and transformation services. “I’m excited about this strategic partnership with Blue Prism. Our center provides lean process consulting and RPA implementation services” said Prakash Ramakaimal, VP of Prodapt. “We’re pleased that Prodapt has chosen to deliver Blue Prism’s enterprise-class RPA software to its carrier clients” commented Michael Laurenson, Global Head of Alliances and Channels at Blue Prism.

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