Industry news

Bangalore has held its position as the most popular outsourcing destination for the second year running in a rankings table created by consulting firm Tholons.

Bangalore was ranked as the number one outsourcing destination for IT services worldwide, with Manila and Mumbai ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.

In the report published in the Times of India, Vikrant Khanna, principal at Tholons, described how BPO was becoming increasingly popular in the Philippines. While the appearance of Indian cities other than large regional capitals, shows that tier-2 and tier-3 cities are benefiting from the continued popularity of ITO.

Indian IT market expands off exports

United Allergy Services (UAS) a U.S. based firm providing allergy testing services, has moved to employ Fairsail Recruit to provide a new HR and recruitment services, in order to cope with increasing business growth and nearly 60 million U.S. allergy sufferers.

Peter Gerard, VP of Human Resources at UAS, said: “We were keeping our HR and recruitment records in paper files, making any reporting or searching of data lengthy and inefficient”.

The contract will see Fairsail Recruit provide a service that can be integrated into existing services such as Salesforce.com, helping to reduce paperwork and administration time.

Mr Gerard added that; “Fairsail Recruit has made the process of finding and assessing applicants much easier, allowing us to search by applicant and vacancies online and automate the hiring and on-boarding process.”

MoD recruitment system behind schedule

Problems facing the rollout of Universal Credit have resulted in the implementation of the combined services program being described as being as “like banging your head against a brick wall” due to communication obstacles.

The comments from benefits manager at Rugby Council, David Wortley, came during the Civica Annual Conference in Manchester, who said: “I do support UC. But the administration leaves a lot to be desired."

Universal Credit faces skills shortage

The comments comes as the £2.4 billion programme to combine the six main benefit systems faces issues surrounding communications and overall support during the transition process.

Despite the comments surrounding the deployment of the scheme nationally, David Wortley described how Universal Credit had helped Rugby Council rebuild its relationship with the local Job Centre Plus and had helped to reduce benefit fraud abuse, saying that: "A lot of people have been hammering it, but for some customers UC is brilliant".

DWP defends Universal Credit IT

The UK Prime Minister, speaking during the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, described how shale gas fracking would be a key driver for future economic growth in the country.

Mr Cameron described how fracking would provide reduced energy prices, mirroring cost reductions seen in the U.S. from increased competition in the energy market.

The move to harness the 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale that the British Geological Survey has estimated is under the north of England would help to reduce the UK’s reliance on foreign energy sources.

Chancellor accused of driving off investment

Plans for UK fracking forms part of the Prime Minsters move to encourage increased re-shoring: “There is no doubt that when it comes to re-shoring in the US, one of the most important factors has been the development of shale gas, which is flooring US energy prices, with billions of dollars of energy cost-savings predicted over the next decade."

UK plans for fracking are unsustainable warns a new report

A private member’s bill which is being launched on the 29th January seeks to provide people with increased control on the privatisation of public services.

The bill which is being backed by a cross-selection of MPs would make public ownership of services the default option rather than seeking bids from the private sector.

The bill is a response to a number of poorly maintained following the privatisation of public sector sevices.

Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd, said: "Public opinion is strongly on the side of this bill, and so is the evidence. Public ownership needs to be the default option, outsourcing companies must be held to account and privatisation shouldn't go ahead unless the public supports it."

The increasing use of cloud services is changing who controls IT according to new research from Cisco and Intel.

The responsibility for those in charge of IT spending, procurement and planning is evolving due to the increasing employment of cloud services according to the research.

Within organisations, the IT responsibility and control is being moved to lines of business (LOBs) including HR, research & development and sales, and away from IT departments, as IT becomes a key business driver.

The report (The Impact of Cloud on IT Consumption Models) found that 59 per cent of IT decision makers who responded said that they expected that LOBs would increasingly control the IT spend, with 43 per cent saying that funding is already controlled by LOBs.

The research revealed that cloud currently represents nearly a quarter of total IT spend at 23 per cent, with expectations that this number will rise to 27 per cent by 2016.

Respondents said that the current shift in IT power dynamics is due mainly to the rise of BYOD programmes and the rise of the IT self-service model and IT as a service.

“This year looks to be the year that LOBs overtake IT departments in terms of spending. Almost every conceivable business function can now be delivered from the cloud as a service, empowering departments to seize control of their own spending instead of waiting for a nod from IT”, said Jo Laking, UK & Ireland cloud leader at Cisco.

Get ready for the launch the next Outsourcing Yearbook complete with the inclusion of the NOA's Supplier Directory! Now in it's 5th year, the Yearbook acts as a reference guide on the latest outsourcing thought leadership and a key tool for end users when searching for suppliers/support services in our industry.

New to 2014

The NOA's Supplier Directory will be replaced with a brand new fully searchable version, furthermore those listed will be able to update their company listings directly. Used by end users, this new version will allow them to filter suppliers according to their exact requirements

The NOA’s Supplier Directory is the year-long guide for end users to find new outsourcing suppliers and services. It is published within the Outsourcing Yearbook, and is also made available throughout the year as an online searchable tool. The online version allows end users to search for suppliers according to their specific outsourcing requirements. Plus, permits the listed company to update their profile anytime they wish! Only SME, Corporate or Premier Members of the NOA are entitled to a complimentary listing and have the option of upgrading.

View the Media Pack to find out more

National Outsourcing Association response to David Cameron speaking about reshoring at the World Economic Forum 2014 (Davos)

Kerry Hallard, National Outsourcing Association CEO, said: “We need to be more ambitious than be “the re-shoring nation”. We have long told Governments we are and should be recognised as the global strategic hub for outsourcing”.

“David Cameron is right to promote the exciting notion that Britain can become the reshoring nation, helping increase the number of well-paid jobs in the UK. He also said that this isn’t a race to the bottom, that globalisation is still good, and that continuing offshoring to lower cost locations is a fact of modern life. He mentioned that reshoring creates work for more people than those who actually fill the homeward-bound jobs…

“The Prime Minister stopped short of mentioning the vast amount of expertise that goes into moving operations around the world, and that Britain is a world leader in this area. Knowledge outsourcing is a growing export, a huge opportunity for the UK to boost jobs, wealth and foreign direct investment. This is because the UK business services community leads the world in terms of sourcing skills, experience and best practice. And when Mr Cameron makes speeches on the global stage about global economic matters, he’d do well to remember that.

“The trend for UK companies to bring back a chunk of their offshore work will continue, particularly in areas like customer service that benefit from the local touch. But David Cameron played down the chances of a reshoring rush. It is a percentage of work being brought back, by a relatively small number of companies - but with wage inflation in traditional offshore destinations, jobs continue to move around the world. It takes a network of people to make that happen. So if it’s not economically viable to move jobs home, we can still have skilled Brits assisting with the decision-making, transition and change management. And the tax they pay onshore can be put to good use creating jobs and providing skills programmes for young people, which in turn will support growth in areas where we’re strong and innovative but need more headcount, like IT.

“Globalisation is maturing as a concept and British people need to be orchestrating it, not complaining about it. The flow of jobs between countries offers well-paid sustainable jobs and exciting FDI opportunities. The NOA praises the Coalition for the UK’s flexible, entrepreneurial environment, congratulates it for making us the fastest growing G8 country - but asks convivially, give more support for the industry that is this country’s second biggest aggregate employer: outsourcing.”

We beseech David Cameron to speak out about how outsourcing works, and how it fits into his strategy for reducing costs and rejuvenating the economy. A little support would go a long way for this industry which is so oft castigated and so infrequently praised. The UK business services community leads the world in terms of sourcing skills, experience and best practice. We are the global strategic hub , help us maximise that opportunity.

While 2013 was the year that the term ‘big data’ made it into public consciousness, some are picking 2014 as the year that it will actually go mainstream. An IDG report found that 74 per cent of the enterprises they surveyed predicted that big data will be in mainstream use in at least one business unit or department this year. Interestingly, the same survey found that the most critical success factor for working with big data is identifying the business areas and processes where it can have the biggest impact. This very much chimes with our experience of working with big data with our clients.

Big data can be overwhelming; by its very nature it involves huge data sets and trying to find patterns in information that is increasing exponentially all the time. However, this is where many businesses fall into the first trap. Rather than looking at all the information at the source and then trying to find out what it is saying, people should be identifying the business objectives that they are trying to achieve and analysing the data to help them achieve these outcomes. Whether that is increased customer satisfaction or profits, working back through the data to find the relevant information is a far more effective approach. By looking at what the business is trying to achieve and then identifying the levers which impact on these objectives, businesses can save wasting time and effort.

Naturally, before analysing big data a business will have been collecting it for a period of time, sometimes for many years. When they finally look to analyse it the data sets may be in no fit state and require huge amounts of cleaning first. But again, if a business has defined what objectives they want to achieve then it can concentrate on cleaning the information that will be the most useful.

And finally, attention needs to be paid to how data gets into the system in the first place. Wherever possible data should be pulled from the source, not several steps up the chain when it may have been altered by employees. This minimises the chance of human error distorting the data and therefore the results.

Big data can be the source of incredible insights for a business, however it’s essential to start with the business objectives and work downwards. This will yield the greatest rewards and is the smart way to manage big data.

How to stop the value leakage

MooD international recognised for MOD success

Air France has reported that it has achieved improved automation and reliability from the employment of a private cloud.

The cloud service, which is based on HP’s Service Automation (CSA) software, has seen improvements across 1,500 Linux servers employed by the aerospace firm, with automated standardisation helping to reduce costs and allowing for the ease of use of analytic services.

The private cloud service also will provide increased flexibility and faster deployment times of new services and applications.

The costs of the private cloud service are expected to be covered by savings achieved from efficiencies within the year.

Patrick Bourel, head of open systems at Air France, said: “This scalable platform will allow Air France to put in place monitoring and audit tools in order to achieve better quality of service”.

Airbus announce record 2013 sales

EADS begins restructuring programme