Industry news

Amsterdam, Barcelona and San Francisco have moved to create a shared services partnership for mobile devices in a bid to harness the potential of data.

The project which is the first of its kind, will see San Francisco's Department of the Environment, Amsterdam's Economic Board and Barcelona City Council, develop a shared services platform for mobile device data.

The program is designed to increase the value of the large quantities of data that generated by ‘smart’ cities, which are being currently collected, but underutilised.

The three cities will work together with open platform developer Cityzenith, to develop apps, allowing users to access data sources from mobile devices, in a bid to gain real insights and created efficiencies and streamline operations.

Cityzenith expects the shared services partnership to expand to include new cities over the next few months.

Big Data for smart cities just ‘around the corner’ according to new report

Government offers £24 million for ‘smart city’ proposals

The 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, are unlikely to see the same IT difficulties that plagued the Olympics, according to security giant G4S.

G4S said that the 2014 Commonwealth Games represented “a very different arrangement to London 2012 and the same issues are unlikely to arise,” which had resulted in the armed services being mobilised to provide additional manpower after G4S failed to meet targets.

G4S has bid to provide stewarding framework services for the Game’s events and will not be involved in delivering services for the event’s security. A G4S spokesperson said: “Should we be successful as part of the stewarding framework, we will deploy trained and experienced staff already working for us at these venues”.

MoJ rejects £24 million overcharge payment from G4S

Serious Fraud Office to investigate Serco and G4S

The cost of data losses to UK companies is more than double the global average a new survey has revealed.

The survey carried out by Vanson Bourne, polled over 1,600 IT and business decision makers, over 16 countries and 10 industry sectors.

The survey found that the main costs from data losses to businesses, related to security breaches, with the average UK cost coming in at $1,158,077, compared to a worldwide average of $860,273.

The disparity comes despite a similar average for the numbers of reported security breaches.

Respondents pointed to a lack of readiness, advanced security and back-up and recovery functions, as being the main causes for data losses.

Shortages in IT security specialists fail to meet demand

Surrey County Council has succeeded in driving significant savings from the renegotiation of contracts. So far the council has achieved savings of £83 million over a three year period.

The council managed to create savings of £27 million over 2012 from the renegotiation of energy and IT contracts, with expectations of savings of around £100 million over 2014/15.

Savings have also been driven by the council’s involvement in a shared services program with East Sussex County Council, aimed at driving procurement savings from increased combined negotiation power.

Councils partner with Telent for communications upgrade

Emergency services organisations have been given the chance to bid for a total £195 million in funding over a three year period.

The available funding is for the development of services and the promotion of joint working and shared services.

The funding will include the Blue Light Innovation Fund, which will be available by 2014/15, and will provide as much as £50 million per year for the development of innovative approaches to improve efficiencies.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will also provide funding of £75 million to develop and reform fire services.

South West Wales police drives savings through shared service centre

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Invests in Network to Handle Emergency Calls

West Midlands Public Services Network has signed a preferred-supplier contract with Virgin Media Business, to deliver a procurement network designed to create significant cost savings.

The network, which forms part of the government’s strategy do drive public services networks (PSN) across the UK, is predicted to deliver savings to members of more than £1.5 million per year, with expectations that this number could rise to as much as £5 million per year.

Partners currently included in the West Midlands programe include Warwickshire County Council, Birmingham City Council, Worcestershire County Council, West Midlands Police, Herefordshire County Council and the Black Country Local Authorities, with Solihull Council leading the procurement process.

The PSN projects allow multiple public sector organisations to share shared services across join infrastructure, improving collaboration and negotiating power.

UK police forces plan for digitalisation of services

Met police move to update IT infrastructure

Sitel UK have created 75 new positions at its contact centre in Watford.

The announcement comes after a recent period of expansion by the outsourcing customer care provider.

The creation of the new positions follows an earlier announcement by the company of 150 new jobs at its Stratford upon Avon site, with Sitel UK now employing 2100 people nationwide.

Joe Doyle, Marketing Director at Sitel UK, says; “We are delighted to announce more job opportunities. It has been a busy year and we are seeing significant demand from businesses across all sectors for outsourced solutions, particularly as brands are now recognising the power of adopting an omni-channel strategy.”

Sitel issues five step guide for customer service in preparation for Christmas surge

Sitel named as global leader in social media services market

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), have turned down a repayment offer from G4S of £24.1 million, for the overcharging of tagging services.

The multimillion pound offer came after the security outsourcing services provider admitted that it had overcharged, but that this had not been due to “dishonesty or criminal conduct”, according to an internal review.

The overcharging related to the charging of tagging criminals that were found to be dead or in jail after a government audit.

The MoJ is expected to renegotiate a new payment with the security giant, with MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, saying that: “every G4S contract with the government needs to be reviewed immediately, and they should be banned from bidding for any more."

Serious Fraud Office to investigate Serco and G4S

G4S bids for Commonwealth Games security contract

The Post Office plans to invest around £10 million in data analytics services, as the postal service looks at harnessing customer data.

The contract notice, describes a service that could deliver analysis and insight into both structured and unstructured customer data. The contract notice details that the Post Office is looking for three ‘expert data analysis companies”, with the 9th of December given as the final deadline for companies to tender.

The contract is described as lasting 48 months, with details of the contract coming as the Post Office looks to employ a data broker for advisory and data collection services, in support of marketing and customer support services.

Post Office looks to partner with retail firms

The Post Office offers IT services contracts worth £360 million up for tender

Outsourcing giant Capita has seen its shares fall by nearly 2 percent following the departure of CEO Paul Pindar.

The fall in share value comes despite the company’s announcements of having won £2.9 billion worth of new contracts and a statement from the company saying that it was on course to deliver "strong growth" over this year and the next with a predicted 8 per cent growth over 2013.

New contracts include work with UK public sector departments including the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office. The outsourcing firm has also secured contracts in the private sector, with Carphone Warehouse and Telefonica.

Mr Pindar’s position is being taken over by deputy chief executive Andy Parker.

Capita secures multimillion MoJ electronic tagging contract

Capita awarded nine-year IT contract with Croydon Council