Industry news

Despite the total value of UK outsourcing deals signed in the first quarter of 2015 dropping year-on-year, the value of outsourcing contracts in the local government sector reached a five-quarter high at the end of March 2015, according to analysis conducted by arvato and NelsonHall.

arvato also reported that new deals signed with the public sector totalled £350 million in Q1 2015, meaning that the public sector accounted for 65 per cent of total contracts agreed in the UK.

It is likely that private sector outsourcing slowed at the beginning of 2015 due to uncertainty surrounding the general election. Kerry Hallard, CEO of the National Outsourcing Association, has since suggested that the UK will see a “plethora of new outsourcing deals in the coming months” now that a stable Conservative government has been confirmed.

You can find the full UK Outsourcing Index on arvato’s website.

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Related: HR Outsourcing isn’t just Growing. It’s Evolving.

The NOA’s Professional Awards took place 21st May at the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal FC. The glittering evening was a celebration of the individuals and teams that add significant value to their companies, their partners and the global outsourcing industry.

Kerry Hallard, CEO at the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) said:

“Now in its third year the NOA’s Professional Awards bought together 200 members of the outsourcing industry. It was an outstanding event highlighting the best in outsourcing. I was delighted to see the variety of organisations represented, how well they networked and their willingness to share learning and experience. The Awards showed the immense depth and range of talent and capability in the outsourcing industry. Thank you again to our sponsors: Capgemini, Capita and Sykes.”

The winners were as follows:

———————————————————————————-

Rising Star of the Year

Bryan McGovern, Head of MI & Dialler Support Services Private Sector, Serco Global Services

Manager of the Year

Gavin Cox, Head of Operations/Operations Manager, Serco Global Services

Advisor of the Year

Paul Silver, Senior Associate, CMS

Strategic Leader of the Year

Rosaleen Blair, CEO and Founder, Alexander Mann Solutions

Award for Professional Development (Individuals)

Alison Haigh, Head of Procurement, UKAR

Award for Excellence in Supplier Management

NHS Blood and Transplant

Award for Excellence in IT Delivery

Cognizant

Award for Excellence in FAO

Tata Consultancy Services and National Grid

Award for Excellence in Outsourced Customer Service

Teleperformance and E.ON

Award for Excellence in BPO

Xchanging and Federal-Mogul

Best Offshore Team

Serco Offshore Mortgage Services Team

Best Shared Services Team

CGI

Skills Development Programme of the Year (Corporate)

Capita’s Regulatory Solutions, Active Manager Programme

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The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has awarded Capita their end user computing tower contract. The three year contract is valued at £6.6 million. Capita will be installing and maintaining the new devices as well as providing the core software which underpins the entire strategy. The DVSA and the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) are planning on merging their end user computing requirements into a joint tower model. Their full tower model includes SIAM, applications, end user computing, hosting, networking and communications.

The NOA’s Professional Awards took place last night (21st May) at the Emirates Stadium, Home of Arsenal FC. The glittering evening was a celebration of the individuals and teams that add significant value to their companies, their partners and the global outsourcing industry.

Kerry Hallard, CEO at the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) said:

“Now in its third year the NOA’s Professional Awards bought together 200 members of the outsourcing industry. It was an outstanding event highlighting the best in outsourcing. I was delighted to see the variety of organisations represented and how well they networked and their willingness to share learning and experience. The Awards showed the immense depth and range of talent and capability in the outsourcing industry. Thank you again to our sponsors: Capgemini, Capita and Sykes.”

The winners is as follows:

-------------------------------------------------------

Rising Star of the Year

Bryan McGovern, Head of MI & Dialler Support Services Private Sector, Serco Global Services

Manager of the Year

Gavin Cox, Head of Operations/Operations Manager, Serco Global Services

Advisor of the Year

Paul Silver, Senior Associate, CMS

Strategic Leader of the Year

Rosaleen Blair, CEO and Founder, Alexander Mann Solutions

Award for Professional Development (Individuals)

Alison Haigh, Head of Procurement, UKAR

Award for Excellence in Supplier Management

NHS Blood and Transplant

Award for Excellence in IT Delivery

Cognizant

Award for Excellence in FAO

Tata Consultancy Services and National Grid

Award for Excellence in Outsourced Customer Service

Teleperformance and E.ON

Award for Excellence in BPO

Xchanging and Federal-Mogul

Best Offshore Team

Serco Offshore Mortgage Services Team

Best Shared Services Team

CGI

Skills Development Programme of the Year (Corporate)

Capita’s Regulatory Solutions, Active Manager Programme

The Indian Economic Times (ET) has reported that the sale of Serco India BPO has hit a “stumbling block”, with private equity firms involved in the bidding process dropping out due to the price being too high.

However, sources close to the ET have suggested that Blackstone Group, a frontrunner in the race to buy Serco India for months now, is still interested in acquiring the company.

Serco India was put up for sale late last year along with the rest of Serco’s BPO portfolio, in order to help fill a £1.5 billion hole in the Group’s balance sheet.

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Related: CVC Bids for $400 Million Serco India, with a Final Decision Imminent

When addressing the South Carolina Freedom Summit, Donald Trump made bold claims that he would impose a 35 per cent tariff on multinational corporations that look to outsource offshore, in order to prevent American business going to China and elsewhere.

These claims come as a surprise considering Trump’s extensive business background. It is likely that Trump is trying to garner support after Obama’s unpopular decision to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal with Asia.

Trump told his audience: “China is ripping us off and abusing us because we have leaders that don’t know what they’re doing, and the new trade pact is a disaster because they don’t talk about currency manipulation.”

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Related: Government Outsources Britain’s Armed Nuclear Police to Capita

Amid an internal IT system revamp, Capita has taken the opportunity to roll out a “mobile-first” game-based reward and recognition system among its staff which went live at the start of April 2015.

The system is a cross between an in-house social network and a points-based voluntary benefits platform, where employees are able to acknowledge the good work of their colleagues.

According to Alex Tullet, head of benefits strategy at Capita’s Employee Benefits Group, the system is “changing the way [they] interface with employees… creating a more vibrant brand.”

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Related: Government Outsources Britain’s Armed Nuclear Police to Capita

Sourcing research and advisory firm Aecus has revealed the winners for its 2015 Innovation Awards.

The awards cover sectors such as telecoms, banking, insurance, transportation, consumer goods and the public sector. Innovations delivered include digital process transformation, customer service re-engineering, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and even predictive burglary analytics.

Here are 2015’s winners:

American Express Global Business Travel / EXL - Contract Term Optimizer and Analytics led transformation of profiling operations

Aviva / Wipro - Unisure Tech Refresh

Avon & Somerset Police / IBM - Risk-based predictive modelling to assist in the tackling of burglary

Blackberry / UST-Global - Telemedicine for Mobile Devices

Boots / UST-Global - Boots Flagship App

British Gas / EXL - Implementing Customer Outcome Assurance Model

CapitalOne / Wipro - Reducing 'Inquires as Defects'

Du Telecom / Wipro - NextGen Managed Security Intelligence Centre

Gatwick Airport / Fujitsu,Xchanging,Cisco - Unified Communications, Cloud, Connect, Collaborate

Guardian Life Insurance Company of America / EXL - Transforming New Business Case Installation

Hanover Insurance Group / EXL - A Step Ahead, Transforming New Business Process

Healthcare Service Corporation / Dell - Healthcare goes social

NEST / TCS - Enabling UK’s National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) scheme to deliver a national pensions scheme

Network Rail / CSC - My Work Application

Smith & Nephew / HP - Innovative invoice processing and collections process redesign

TalkTalk / Wipro - Sales through Service Transformation Project

Telstra / Wipro - Robotics Process Automation

UCB / Genpact - Finance Optimisation

Unilever / HCL - Unilever Operational Control Center

Virgin Trains / Celaton - Customer service improvement with AI

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Related: HP and Aecus Release ‘The Innovation Agenda’

Indian service provider Wipro plans to open a “technology innovation centre” in the highly-coveted Silicon Valley by the end of December 2015.

This move is thought to be a fundamental part of Wipro’s plan to build on its automation and artificial intelligence capabilities. Earlier this year, Wipro publically announced its intention to reduce its company headcount by 30 per cent through the use of robotic automation.

Wipro CTO K.R. Sanjiy commented on this development: “Why Mountain View? Bay Area represents that right area where we can bring together a lot of start-ups [to work with our] customers. We are working with lots of start-ups in the automation space.” The firm currently plans to have roughly 100-150 people working out of the facility.

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Related: Wipro Aims to Reduce Headcount by 30% through Automation

Honda Motor Europe Limited has confirmed a deal Raytheon Professional Services (RPS); Raytheon will be responsible for the development of Honda’s Europe-based dealer training, along with domestic training delivery operations in the UK and Germany.

RPS’s training services will span Honda’s entire product range, including cars, motorcycles and power products. They will extend to all sales, post-sales, technical and personnel management services.

"Honda Motor Europe Limited has aggressive goals to deliver increasingly innovative training and learning services to their dealers to drive performance," said Mark Oliver, managing director of Raytheon Professional Services EMEA.

"RPS has been successfully providing similar services around the globe, and we'll use the skills and expertise gained from other engagements and regions to implement industry-leading solutions that are aligned with Honda's key business requirements."

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Related: Hercules Offshore Outsourcing Training