Industry news

Cabinet office minister, Francis Maude has pledged that the government will have purchased £100 million in IT services from SME by the 2015 general election.

The move to procure services from SMEs forms part of the government’s attempts to increase competition and reduce the dominance of large enterprise level suppliers.

The comments made during a London event showcasing digital innovation included the announcement of the launch CloudStore, a new cloud based procurement framework for the public sector which is intended to reduce administration times and increase the ease of use of shared services between departments.

Data centre provider Ark has been awarded a contract by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to provide flexible services with effective security.

Ark will provide a scalable solution with a cost plan based on usage.

The contract has been valued at almost £11.5 million and will see services delivered from two of Ark’s data centres.

The services provided meet a security level of IL 3 and 4 (IL 6 would represent top secret) with future services potentially covering IL 6.

MoJ rejects £24 million overcharge payment from G4S

MoJ tenders for £108 million ITO contract as part of future procurement strategy

Flat profits over the October-January period have resulted in Apple lowering its 2014 sales expectations resulting in a market drop from investor uncertainty.

Despite earnings beating expectations, Apple saw a near 9 per cent fall in shares value following the report of flat profits.

Despite the market uncertainty, Apple posted revenue growth of 29 per cent in the greater china region, with the company’s expansion in China contrasting with falls in sales in the U.S.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement that: “We are really happy with our record iPhone and iPad sales".

Apple hit by increased competition

Apple takes the cloud storage top spot

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has revealed plans for a specialist recruitment drive, aimed at hiring high-level digital talent in order to manage the transformation of the tax system.

The recruitment campaign will seek to find individuals to fill a variety of roles including developers, managers, designers and engineers, in order to increase the efficiency of the tax system, making the system according to HMRC, “clearer and faster for all of our customers to take control of their tax affairs”.

“We are building a team of outstanding people who will create and run these new and improved digital services. We will be using modern technology and agile development methods, and release as much our work as possible as open source software.”

A deadline of February 10th has been given for application submissions.

HMRC tenders for supplier for fraud prevention and credit check role

The Scottish government is moving to invest more funds in mobile services, after new technology displayed in recent trials provided strong benefits and increase patient care.

Staff at NHS Western Isles where able to achieve a 50 per cent increase in the time they spent with patients after the introduction of digital pens.

NHS Western Isles Chief Executive Gordon Jamieson, said: “The NHS Western Isles digital pen project has attracted a lot of attention nationally, and some other health boards have now taken our lead and have invested in the technology themselves.”

NHS health boards have been given access to a £1 million fund in order to employ technical equipment and services and achieve improved patient care.

NHS Scotland looks to replace legacy child health surveillance systems

Mobile solutions already have generated positive results, with increased efficiency, reducing time spent on paperwork and improving communications

The Health Secretary Alex Neil said: “Technology is invaluable for staff who work in community settings”.

“I am pleased to see so many examples of digital technology benefitting patients across Scotland and freeing up time for staff to spend with patients.”

The Scottish procurement consortium attempts to ‘maximise local impact’

The Government has announced a contract value limit of £100 million for IT services, with this limit only being lifted in exceptional circumstances.

The limits on contract size was announced by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, and is one of multiple red lines announced in order to increase completion, reduce the dominance of major suppliers and encourage SMEs to bid for more public sector work.

Other new stipulations include limitations on contract lengths, removing automatic extensions and preventing companies from providing services and integration in the same area of government.

Government moves to establish application framework

Francis Maude, said: “We are creating a more competitive and open market for technology that opens up opportunity for big and small firms. These red lines will ensure the government gets the best technology at the best price and we will be unashamedly militant about enforcing them to provide value for hard-working taxpayers.”

Suppliers call for G-Cloud changes

It failures at Lloyds Banking Group has resulted in customers at Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and TSB being left without access to ATMs and debit card services.

A TSB executive said that failures at Lloyds IT servers had resulted in the errors, with Lloyds Banking Group apologising: "We apologise that earlier today, between 3pm and 6pm, some customers were unable to complete their debit card transactions.

UK banks struggle to upgrade old IT systems

The IT banking failure follows glitches effecting NatWest, RSB and Ulster Bank customers throughout 2013 which prevented the use of online services, use cards or withdraw money.

NatWest hit by further IT failings

The Prime Minister has said, during a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), that 3,000 rules will be removed or changed in order to help SMEs prosper.

The changes in removing the impact of regulations are expected to save as much as £850 million per year.

Mr Cameron said that the changes would allow government to: “get out of the way of small business success”.

European SMEs buoyant about growth

The government have placed SMEs at the heart of its long-term economic plan, with local businesses being seen as the way forward to decreasing unemployment and increasing local investment.

FSB's policy chairman, Mike Cherry, said: “government must focus on how they can support these businesses in job creation and growth while the UK's large businesses need to play their part, too, in supporting ambitious small businesses”.

SMEs offered funding for superfast broadband upgrade

Microsoft has announced its plans to match Amazon’s Web Services’ (AWS) price reduction, as the AWS cloud provider prepares to reduce its prices for Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Book Store (EBS) by up to 22 per cent.

In addition Microsoft has revealed that it will reduce the cost of its Azure Storage platform by 50 per cent.

The Microsoft cuts are expected to come into form by March 13th, while the Amazon cuts are due to be in place by February 1st.

"We're also making the new prices effective worldwide, which means that Azure storage will be less expensive than AWS in many regions," stated Microsoft.

Research points to cloud skills shortage

Cloud market revenue to reach nearly $20 billion by 2016

Business process provider Genpact and automotive technologies suppliers Delphi have announced the launch of an operations centre in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

The operations centre will host Genpact’s Huaqiao Project, which will see the business process provider deliver finance and accounting services to Delphi, focusing on transforming and streamlining services through a shared services operation.

The centre currently employees 40 employees from Genpact and is set to expand to 100 staff by 2015.

Mudit Saxena, CEO of Genpact Asia, said: “The cooperation with Delphi is a milestone for us as we grow our facility in Huaqiao into a world-class shared services center to help more multinational companies establish and expand their operations in the region.”

Genpact partners with Markit to development screening checks