Industry news

According to Atos, the turnover and recruitment of staff is likely to be an on-going issue for the successor of the disability claims system unless the government makes improvements.

Atos, who previously managed the outsourced contract and “quit” earlier this year warned the government that due to its staff suffering vilification for only doing their jobs, the next company managing the system will find it difficult to recruit staff.

At the time of the relationship ending between Atos and the government in regards to the delivery of work capability assessments, campaigners welcomed the withdrawal but felt this change should be used to “move away from a fundamentally flawed system”.

Atos bids for Bull

Steria have been selected by the National Nuclear Laboratory (NLL) to provide a bespoke information system. Steria were picked for this seven year contract because of their experience on working on critical infrastructure for defence and other secure clients across Europe. Costs for this contract are unavailable on the grounds of confidentiality.

Steria awarded £1 billion Cabinet Office contract

Vodafone have extended its relationship with Mitie to agree on a 5 year contract worth £250 million. The contract will see Mitie managing a wide range of services for its retail premises and offices from travel and energy management to cleaning and mail room facilities as well as help desk services.

Vodafone secures five-year communications contract with Premier Foods

Gloucester City Council have extended their relationship with Civica to agree on a six year deal to reform and manage IT operations. Although the total cost of the agreement has not been revealed the six year deal has targeted cost savings of £100,000 per annum.

Civica win £17 million outsourcing contract to support academy schools

Desmond Tutu is leading a protest today campaigning against G4S’s involvement in maintaining prisons in Israel over their alleged role in “Israel’s brutal occupation and abhorrent prison system” at G4S’s annual general meeting in London.

G4S help run prisons in Israel and the West Bank that hold prisoners from occupied Palestinian territory. Protesters claim that it has been documented that there has been ill treatment of Palestinian prisoners including systematic torture and children held in solitary confinement.

G4S loses another UK boss

According to a thank-tank report produced by Policy Exchange, the UK government could save as much as £24billion a year by 2020 if they used technology more efficiently.

The report recognised the recent progress in the use of IT to transform government services and process, such as the replacement of more than 300 departmental and agency websites plus the launch of G-Cloud. It also recommended that 150 highest-volume government transactions to be converted to the digital-by-default standard by the end of 2015, plus for the creation of an information marketplace. It went on to recommend several other activities the government should undertake and to encourage politicians and policymakers to put technology at the forefront of their thinking for the 2015 general election.

The manifesto set out three principal goals: to build the world’s most connected and digitally skilled society; to make Britain the most attractive place outside of Silicon Valley for technology entrepreneurs to start and grow a business; and to make government the smartest in the world.

G-Cloud procurement spend now over £175m

Grant Thornton’s International Business Report has revealed that South African businesses outsource more than the global average. They surveyed 150 businesses in South Africa with the results showing that 48% outsource back office services, with that figure being only 40% globally. Of those that do outsource only 3% offshore to another country, while 82% wouldn’t even consider offshoring there processes. The main reason from those that do not currently outsource is not wanting to lose control over a key process.

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

Frost & Sullivan have revealed that the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Contact Centre outsourcing services market in Brazil has dipped to $5.19 billion.

In its report, whilst it dipped in 2013 the market is expected to grow to $7.34 billion in 2018. The decrease in growth was due to the exit of Tellus and Vidax including a reduced performance in some important companies.

Frost & Sullivan went on to report that the revenue share of inbound services is expected to decline to make way for BPO and back-office services. However the Brazilian BPO market faces the issue of a lack of workforce and high competitiveness among outsourcing companies.

Telefonica moves ahead with joint offer for TIM Brasil

In a bid to help establish Nottingham Trent University in the UK ‘s top forty universities in the annual student satisfaction survey, they knew they had to change their software strategy. The software asset management (SAM) team at Nottingham Trent University were having a hard time keeping a close eye on their legacy management system and knowledge of their infrastructure, so NTU implemented a Snow SAM system hosted in the cloud, which created cost savings and improved student satisfaction. NTU aims to save a ¼ of a million through the new SAM.

Southampton University undertakes major infrastructure transformation programme

Liverpool have confirmed they will take complete ownership of their joint venture with BT, LDL. LDL started in 2001 and provides services including HR & Payroll, IT and web services and customer access. The decision for this transformation was due to a reduction in public spending and therefore left Liverpool looking for savings from existing suppliers such as BT, their aim is to save £156m over three years.

Liverpool Council ends BT joint venture