Industry news

The National Outsourcing Association (NOA), the industry association and professional body for outsourcing, today launches the outsourcing industry’s first Level 2 qualification with founding client Capita. The qualification, 75% of which is achieved through work-based learning, provides the first broad-based standard for the UK’s 3.1 million employees in organisations which deliver outsourced services to the public and private sectors.

Capita, the UK’s leading outsourcing service provider, is the NOA’s first Learning Centre and founding client for the Level 2 Award following a three-month pilot across 60 employees within Capita Insurance and Regulatory Services.

The NOA has also been working closely with Capita on the development of the qualification to ensure that it is aligned with the real needs of service providers and their clients.

Kerry Hallard, CEO, National Outsourcing Association, said: “This qualification is a game-changer for the outsourcing industry. Outsourcing has oft been viewed as the accidental profession – something people find themselves in. Additionally, staff development and retention is the number one issue for the outsourcing industry today, as it continues to evolve to consistently deliver value-add, business transformation and innovation. This qualification recognises excellence in outsourcing skills and helps position outsourcing as a professional career of choice. But more than that, this qualification can up-skill the three million plus people currently working in outsourcing in the UK today and further help grow and improve this dynamic industry’s performance within the UK economy”.

Andy Parker, Capita chief executive, said: "The qualification is centred around engaging, work-based learning and has successfully wrapped a framework, best practice, assessments and independent verification around the day job. Following the pilot, we now plan to embed the qualification within our employee learning and development programme across Capita. The qualification will serve as a differentiator for talent in the industry, provide assurance to customers of outsourcing services, bridge the skills gaps for people transferring into outsourcing companies from the public and private sector and recognise excellence across the industry."

Parseq have won a 5 year deal with Centrica the U.K’s largest energy supplier who’s businesses include British Gas. Parseq will manage legal and financial documentation, cheque processing, cash payment processing and handle 20,000 mail items per month for Centrica. The BPO provider currently process more than 100,000 documents a day and £2bn of electronic payments a month.

Labour hits back at Centrica ‘scaremongering’

According to a recent article in The Daily Star, Dhaka based service provider ServicEngineBPO is planning to increase its workforce to 1,000 over the next two years.

In an interview with The Daily Star, ASM Mohiuddin Monem, chairman of the company, said the US-Bangladesh joint venture company had registered 35-40% growth of revenue a year since its inception in 2006.

ServicEngineBPO checks backgrounds of customers for financial institutions and provides medical appointment assistance for US hospitals.

Teleperformance buy Aegis USA (AUI)

Bristol City Council is moving its ICT infrastructure to the cloud in order to reduce costs by 30%. The two year, £1.5m contract was procured via the governments G-Cloud framework. Eduserv was awarded the contract and will take over the day to day management of the councils ICT and transformation programme.

Think-tank reveals government could save £42 billion per year by 2020

In a recent PwC report “Claim to fame: Positioning the claims function for operational excellence”, the multinational professional services network has advised that to be successful in claims transformation, companies should create efficiencies from scale in an outsourced operating model.

They went on to advise that where appropriate insurance companies should outsource to deliver high-quality service to claims customers.

For the full report, please click here

Thomson Reuters, multinational media and information firm based in New York City, has announced it plans to use a technology service provider to manage its data systems.

The organisation chosen to run the contract will be chosen in Q4 and at the moment Thomson Reuters have not reported any job losses with most technology workers transferring over to the provider

Thomas Eggar overhauls business support function

In an exclusive news story from the Independent, Serco has been reported to be overcharging the NHS by millions.

The Independent reports that an internal document was leaked to Corporate Watch indicating that Britain’s biggest pathology services provider, which was established by Serco in partnership with Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals, overcharged the NHS for diagnostic tests.

Now trading under the name of Viapath, the article goes on to suggest that the firm has been hit by allegations of cost-cutting and clinical failings.

For more details please view the full article here.

NOA Calls for United Industry Response on the Ethics Question

The Department of Health (DH) has shortlisted three suppliers for the procurement of their Electronic Staff Record (ESR) contract worth between £200m - £400m. Up to six suppliers have been involved in the bidding process, including CSC, IBM, TCS, Steria, Atos and BT/Accenture. The three successful shortlisted companies have not been announced for commercial reasons. McKesson have had the ESR contract since 2001 and will see it through until August 2015.

SME to drive collaboration in NHS shared service programme

According to the CBI’s Service Sector Survey the pace of the recovery in the service sector slowed in the three months to August, but optimism continued to increase, with expectations for a return to growth in the coming quarter. The ease in growth and profitability came after multi-year highs in the previous quarter.

Growth in numbers employed in the business and professional services sector – which includes accountancy, legal and marketing firms – reached its highest rate in nearly seven years. However, the survey of 215 firms revealed there is increased concern that the availability of professional and clerical or other staff is likely to limit business expansion over the next year.

UK manufacturing sees slowdown in Jan but new orders rates rise

Jamba Inc. the parent company of Jamba Juice have reached an outsourcing deal with Capgemini to cut administrative expenses by 10% - 20% next year. Capgenmini will manage a number of administrative tasks including computer application maintenance and development and accounting support. Jamba are currently under pressure to slash costs and potentially exit the New York City market.

Capgemini awarded government ERP system upgrade