Industry news

The NAB wealth management arm, MLC, is reported to be investigating outsourcing its IT and back office services which would mean hundreds of those in internal teams get moved across to an external provider.

In a bid to restructure its operations, NAB has been reviewing options as the division has long been considered an underperformer since it was acquired in 2000 for $4.6 billion from Lend Lease.

Potential suppliers that have been sent the “expression of interest” include incumbent providers Accenture, Genpact, IBM and Tech Mahindra, plus another six additional companies have been identified including Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Wipro.

Poor management to blame for SME IT delivery issues in Whitehall?

The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that councils will be able to outsource children services functions but only to non-profit providers. Coming in to effect in Autumn this year, councils will be able to delegate certain functions excluding adoption and independent reviewing officer functions. The DfE hopes that this move will allow social workers to have the freedom to deliver services in a new way and allow time for specialist social work practices.

Can Outsourcing Children’s Services Innovate Approaches to Social Care?

According to the FT Vince Cable, BIS and Ed Davey, DECC, have told the Prime Minister that “shambolic IT provision by smaller firms has brought their departments to a virtual standstill in recent weeks”. However, looking past the deadline and contrasting views from all involved, it appears this could be another case of poor procurement and outsourcing management and Government departments yet again trying to pass on the blame for their own failings.

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DWP select SME firm Auriga

In a recent report conducted by Horses for Sources and supported by KPMG, results show that outsourcing is not dying. It’s just becoming part of a broader enterprise operations strategy: Integrated Global Services.

HfS surveyed 312 end-users (buyers of outsourcing services) to find out what their investment intentions were going to be over the next two years. The findings shows that 1 in 4 are reinvesting in their global shared served operations, and 7 out of 10 are continuing to make investments in their outsourcing delivery.

For full details on the 2014 State of Outsourcing study – click here.

Outsourcing is the norm

The Committee on standards in Public Life has told the prime minister that the same level of ethical standards expected from public services should also be apply when services are delivered by outsourcing providers. It warned that at present ethics were not taken seriously enough by providers. This advice comes from research conducted with polling firm Ipsos MORI which found the public feared providers would cut corners to deliver below par services in order to achieve value for money.

Outsourcing: “a live risk to ethical standards”

Several organisations and reports have illustrated that outsourcing can help alleviate poverty by deploying BPO services overseas.

According to an Outsourcing for Social Good report from Telus International and Impakt, BPOs can play a role to shift social landscapes in emerging economies around the world, which is a view also shared by The Rockefeller Foundation. This foundation has established a project that aims to improve one million lives in six African nations – called Digital Jobs Africa.

Similarly a company called Digital Divide Data (DDD), a New York-based nonprofit that operates for-profit data centers in Cambodia, Laos and Kenya, also advocates the concept of socially-responsible outsourcing. It also uses this approach to help differentiate itself from others in the market.

The Telus report goes on to predict that reputation-conscious brands will ask for more socially-responsible behaviour from outsourcing firms, just as they have from their other suppliers.

Out and Proud

The Department of Transport (DfT) has announced that Virgin Trains has been awarded the contract to continue operating the west coast mainline rail franchise until 2018. Virgin have agreed to providing thousands of extra standard seats, better Wi-Fi and station upgrades as part of this deal. Virgin have run this service since 1997, however nearly lost it in 2012 when the government initially awarded it to FirstGroup before the decision was disputed.

Virgin Trains starts West Coast court action

Amazon’s Chief Exec, Jeff Bezos, has sent smoke signals into the smartphone market with the launch of its new Fire smartphone. The device will be available before the end of June in the US, will cost $199 and will be on AT&T. The Fire will come pre-installed with the Firefly app which identifies over 100 million items, ranging from telephone numbers, songs, artwork to retail products, and is set to revolutionise the retail industry.

Amazon offers up public analytic services

A survey by YouGov for BNP Paribas Securities Services, has revealed that outsourcing back office functions by banks and brokers is now the norm. The survey of 50 senior figures states that price is not the deciding factor when picking an outsourcing provider with service and quality of products being more important. 78% of those that took part in this survey claims they outsource as a long term strategy leaving them to focus on their core activities while only 4% say the reason is cost savings.

Grant Thornton research finds 2 in 5 companies are open to outsourcing

According to a recent report called The Gap Years study, commissioned by Reconnix, 74% of UK business have faced difficulty hiring skilled IT staff. It also goes on to show a gap between graduate optimism and IT employer expectation.

IT leaders are finding it hard to recruit staff with the required skills and experience, the report showed that only 12% of those responsible for hiring technology-related position believed there were ample of surplus candidates skilled enough for the job available. However, the report highlighted that current technology students and graduates remain optimistic despite this.

The report surveyed 100 UK-based IT leaders and compared opinions against a further 200 technology students and graduates to aggregate their thoughts on the issues affecting the current IT job market in the UK.

Mentoring scheme receives backing from technology giants