Industry news

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

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