Industry news

Basildon Borough Council has announced savings of £600,000 from the first year of operating a self-service customer contact centre.

The centre has been delivered using technology from Qmatic, and forms part of the councils Customer Experience Programme of Change.

The centre has been also been used to deliver improved customer experiences to the 180,000 visitors the council service in a year including reduced wait-times and increased service guidance.

Tom Walker, business relationship manager for customer services at Basildon Borough Council, said: An improved customer experience means serving visitors with the right information, through the right channel in the right time - ultimately getting the basics right”.

Lee Washbrook, manager of customer services at Basildon Borough Council, described how the new service would need time before customers become accustomed to the self service system: “We were expecting to see a slight dip in satisfaction levels while our customers acclimatised to the new system and layout, as it can be challenging to garner support for such bold changes.”

Sitel named Global Contact Centre Outsourcing leader

UK contact centres to move to the cloud in 2013

The Chancellor George Osborne called for continued support of the Government’s economic plans as he revealed strong economic recovery from the 2007 recession.

The Chancellor announced in his address to the Commons that the UK economy increased at a faster rate than any other major European country, but that Britain could not afford to relax in carrying forward cost cutting measures and long term sustainability goals.

The Chancellor detailed the state of Britain’s finances and revealed changes to pensions, energy bills, property taxes, new funding for businesses and a range of other measures designed to support the UK’s continued growth in order to reduce historic debt.

Key economic pledges and achievements included:

Developing the UK economy:

• Achieving growth that outpaced all other major European economic nations

• On track to meet targets one year ahead of schedule by achieving no deficits by 2019

A focus on developing the UK infrastructure:

• Support of shale gas as an energy source including tax breaks for energy companies

• Plans for £375bn of investment in energy, transport, communications, and water projects

• Development of HS2

• Supporting housing construction with a billion pounds in loans

Reducing unemployment:

• Achieving the lowest proportion of unemployed households in 17 years

• The creation of 400,000 new jobs , 2 million more jobs than in 2010

• Ending job taxes on those aged under 21

• Developing skills through better and offering frees school meals in reception, year 1 and year 2

• The Government will increase funding to Job Centre plus to help 16 and 17 year olds

The Chancellor announced that the Government will be freezing fuel duty prices throughout 2014 and will seek to help small and medium size companies by extending the availability of business loans. The Government will seek to keep Britain globally completive by keeping business taxes low and will seek to bring industry investment to Britain by offering film, theatre and social enterprise tax subsidies.

The Autumn Statement reflects the Chancellors strategy to keep the British economy growing, with the better than expected performance not being used to ease cuts, but instead being used to drive growth and reduce overall debt. Despite the Chancellor's attempt to display positive economic news, his presentation to the Commons had little effect on the London equity market. The FTSE 100 remained almost unchanged at 6,510 and in the currency markets, the pound stayed in negative territory throughout the statement.

Skills are increasingly not keeping pace with the move to leverage Big Data according to findings in a new survey.

SAP carried out research which revealed that businesses were struggling to deploy the necessary skills and resources.

The research found that 92 per cent of respondents had seen data amounts grow over the last 12 months, however users were struggling to effectively employ the data effectively.

Respondents revealed that they felt limited by skills shortages in data science, with 84 per cent of respondents desiring specialised analytics training in order to integrate data services into every-day services.

James Fisher, VP of Marketing for Analytics Solutions, SAP, described how “it is critical that companies empower their staff with both the skills and systems to self-service their analytics needs.”

Big Data still yet to mature

Study shows rapid uptake in big data usage

But what are implications for ‘Generation Touchscreen’?

My first thought when I saw Amazon’s plan to deliver packages within a half hour via unmanned flying drones was: ‘this is a pre-Christmas publicity stunt.’ My second was, ‘I wonder who they’d outsource it to? Who’d be their unmanned airborne logistics partner?”

If it is just a PR play, it’s a very clever one because everyone is talking about it. Many of them saying it’ll never catch on. It does sound like some whimsical invention straight off The Jetsons’ cartoon world of hi-tech utopia, set in 2062.

But the fact of the matter is the US Federal Aviation Authority is currently reviewing its regulations on civil unmanned aircraft, and the requisite technology is perfected for use in warzones - so it’s only a matter of time before flying parcels are the norm. Maybe 2015 is a bit ambitious, but what will life be like in 2062?

Already gasping for air on a life support machine, the High Street might be completely kaput by then. Energy and fuel costs might have skyrocketed to such crazy rates that your average Joe/Joanne can’t afford to drive to an out-of-town shopping centre. Come 2062, perhaps flying drones will be the only way to get stuff.

If you’ve seen A Day in the Life of a Kiva Robot on YouTube, you’ll see how Amazon’s $775m acquisition of Kiva Systems last year is revolutionising their warehousing - robots taking walking out of the equation for order pickers, improving efficiency and of course, reducing headcount dramatically (although this seems very different to the BBC’s Panorama, where an undercover journo joined Amazon’s army of order pickers and walked 11 miles on each night shift).

When you see what can be done with a warehouse, it gets all the more credible that similar capabilities could be used to take over the skies, given the right regulatory environment. So what then for the order pickers and delivery drivers and checkout operators and postmen? How will those people make a crust in 2062?

In 2062, if you can’t compose an algorithm you might be short of a job (and with the retirement age now set at 101, that poses big problems.)

Even what’s considered a basic skill might change. People born in the 2010s onwards, forming a huge wave of toddlers with chronic iPad addictions, might be able to code software - but may find actually speaking to people intimidatingly difficult.

‘Generation X-Box’ is already leaving higher education sadly lacking in the soft skills department. ‘Generation Touchscreen’ might have a completely different human experience than the one we’re having now. Tap the screen, wait a while, collect your new games console from the front step. Minimal human interaction and proud of it. Previous astounding technological leaps brought people closer together; the motorcar, the aeroplane, social networking - the latest leaps look like doing the opposite.

Evolution marches on, and exciting disruptive technologies are always welcome, but let’s not forget that these innovations are created collaboratively, by people working together to devise the best solutions. The further we go to taking human interaction out of the human experience, the less likely the next generation will be to achieve their own ground-breaking innovations. Only genuine partnership could cure cancer or end world hunger, not flying solo.

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS BS) has announced the appointment of over 20 law firms across the UK, to the organisations legal services framework.

The creation of the framework, which is being delivered as part of a joint venture with Steria, is designed to deliver cost savings of around 30 per cent, standardisation and improved services throughout the NHS.

The new framework takes the number of law firms from 16 to 22, with the new framework set to begin in this month and run until the end of November 2015.

Peter Akid, NHS SBS director of procurement, said: ““We’re delighted to have finalised the framework that will enable our clients to benefit from the economies of scale we can harness through our procurement process."

"The framework helps our clients achieve best value in legal services provision while retaining access to the highest level of expertise available. Importantly, the framework will also achieve greater consistency in terms of cost as well as the scope and specification of the service provision.”

NHS trust moves to develop SME procurement framework

Hospital IT malfunction blamed on software glitch

Betfair has achieved significant savings as part of a response to a six per cent fall in overall revenues.

The betting company has reduced internal development funding in 2013 by 76 per cent, a total of £7.8 million, compared to 2012, as the company’s mobile channel revenues dropped by 12 million to £188 million.

The company has also carried out job cuts of around 23 per cent between the 1st half of 2013 and the second half of 2013, outsourcing services to Europe in order to increase savings.

Betfair said that: “Technology costs before capitalisation of internal development expenditure were down 21 percent on the prior year following headcount reductions, a shift of development activity to Romania and Portugal and savings from external suppliers”.

Betfair rejects £913 million takeover

Indian IT giant Wipro has announced plans to acquire U.S. mortgage consultancy Opus Capital Market Consultants for $75 million.

Opus based in Illinois, has over 490 staff based in five centres across the U.S., and specialises in forensic analysis, advisory services and mortgage services.

The move to acquire the consultancy comes as Wipro as India’s 3rd largest IT outsourcing provider looks to expand their presence in North America’s financial services sector.

Wipro expects to finalise a deal by the end of 2014’s financial year reports the Economic Times.

In a statement, Manoj Punja, Wipro’s senior vice president and BPO head, said: "Our vision is to leverage Wipro's offerings with Opus CMC's capabilities and knowledge base to create an end-to-end offering for all mortgage players, with a greater degree of automation and application of analytics."

The move comes as India outsourcing providers look to expand into new territories in Europe and the U.S.

Wipro announce strong Q2 results with 28% net growth

Indian IT market expands off exports

The UK services sector continues to perform well, with a recent report showing a “historically sharp rate of growth”.

The Business Activity Index by Markit/CIPS UK recorded a level of 60, with a baseline of 50 representing no growth.

While the Index recorded decreased activity compared to October, the UK services sector was found to be displaying strong activity with continued growth throughout 2013.

The strong results come as George Osborne prepares to deliver his Autumn Statement, with expectations on a cap on business rate and the extension of a relief scheme for small businesses.

November saw the creation of new businesses, a rise in the housing market and increased employment levels.

UK can add £4bn per year to its economy

Businesses express uncertainty on UK future

Chris Williamson, Chief economist at Markit, said: “Further buoyant growth of the services economy hands the chancellor a further piece of good news ahead of the autumn statement.”

UK SMEs are reluctant to hire full time staff, instead favouring freelancers, according to new research published by Elance.

Of the 500 SME decision makers surveyed, 92 per cent said that they were more cautious about employing full time staff due to their experience of the recession.

39 per cent of respondents said they would not be hiring full time staff over the next 12 months in order to keep costs down.

The research found that SMEs commonly employed freelancers and offered part-time work as a way to reduce costs, with 25 per cent of respondents saying they planned to use more freelancers over the next 12 months.

Francis Maude calls for SMEs to put pressure on the government procurement process

Kjetil Olsen, Vice-President, Europe, Elance, said: “Keeping fixed costs down is critical for SMEs yet with signs of an economic recovery, SMEs can not afford to lose out on spontaneous market opportunities. SMEs are turning to skilled freelancers to enable them to scale up and down when resources are required, yet not add to their fixed cost base.”

“The research shows that UK SMEs are seeing freelancers as an important part of their staff mix going forward. We are seeing more businesses adopting a hybrid workforce model where businesses turn to a global pool of online freelancers to work alongside full time employees. This approach allows businesses to buy in required skills whilst maximising business growth.”

Outsourcing firm Capgemini has been awarded a multi-million pond contract to deliver SAP based IT support to Hitachi Rail Europe.

Capgemini will deliver services to Hitachi’s new site which is currently being constructed in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, which will include the companies first European train factory.

The new facility will provide services to Great Western Main Lines and the Intercity Express Programme, with Hitachi Rail Europe set to expand to 730 by 2016 on the back of new contract wins.

The SAP support programme will support a UK manufacturing and maintenance programme, set to go live in June 2015.

Capgemini awarded £26 million framework contract by Fife Council

Capgemini recruits 100 IT apprentices