Industry news

In the latest report from Ofcom on fixed-line residential broadband, the average residential broadband speed in the UK was found to have increased by 22 per cent over six months to 14.7 mbps by May.

The report showed an overall increase of 309 per cent from since records began in 2008.

The increase in broadband speeds comes as the UK government provides investment of over £1 billion to the rural broadband project, which seeks to deliver superfast broadband of over 24 mbps as a minimum to 90 percent of premises by 2017.

Ofcom consumer group director, Claudio Pollack, said: “consumers are demanding more than ever from their broadband service-Internet providers have responded by upgrading customers to higher speed services and launching new superfast packages.”

Ofcom introduces broadband consumer safeguards

Broadband contracts keep rolling in for BT

The breakdown of talks between security staff working at the GCHQ complex in Cheltenham and G4S may result in strike action.

The threat of strike action comes over a long term dispute over pay. Workers belonging to the PCS union have received permission to conduct a ballot which may lead to a strike.

A strike by security staff would affect around 150 members of the staff at GCHQ who are represented by PCS.

GCHQ have revealed that security measures are in place to cover any potential walk out, while G4S have said that reserve staff can be deployed if necessary.

Former UK spy centre CIO joins CSC

Civil proceedings launched against G4S as government outsourcing questioned

Unilever owners of brands including Dove and Wall’s Ice Cream, has awarded BT a three year extension on its existing ITO contract.

The extension of the ITO contract, which includes the hosting of infrastructure network which provides video, data and voice services to 173,000 with a focus on mobile working, marks the third time that BT has had its services renewed since being awarded ITO contracts with Unilever in 2002.

The renewal of service will see a increasing focus on mobile and flexible working practices which is seen as a key to reducing overall costs.

The Vice President for Infrastructure Services at Unilever, Paulo De Sa, said: “We are becoming a more agile business and introducing more sustainable ways of working for our employees, customers and suppliers, as well as the two billion consumers who rely on our products every day.”

BT leaves competition behind in broadband project as final competitor exits

New measures designed to help consumers switch between broadband providers have been announced by communications regulator Ofcom.

Ofcom has said that existing providers hold to much control and are able to disrupt and inhibit broadband migration for customers.

New regulatory measures which have been revealed today, would create a simplified single switching process, allowing for increased competition and rapid switch over.

Claudio Pollack, Ofcom’s Consumer Group Director, said: “The move towards one clear and simple system led by the gaining provider will result in a switching process that works in consumers’ best interests. We will now be working on further measures to improve consumers’ experience of switching.”

The new regulatory measures are set to come into force by 2015.

London Gatwick Airport has today announced it has chosen Getronics to provide key IT services across its campus. Getronics will be responsible for firstly providing an interim service desk and service management function while Gatwick transforms its IT strategy and secondly providing application management of all the airport applications for four years.

As part of its wider IT transformation strategy, the airport worked with Getronics to overhaul its service desk to bring it in-house, raising the capability of IT Operations Centre staff to own and resolve faults, incidents and service requests, and taking responsibility for service management.

Mark Cook, CEO of Getronics, says, “We’re proud to be working with one of the UK’s busiest airports, helping them to deliver quality customer services through the innovative application of technology. We’re a firm believer in our ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ approach, and so developed a collaboration platform that brings all the airport’s service providers together, so that they can make significant improvements to their IT infrastructure.

China has seen slow growth in August, with the official purchasing managers index (PMI) falling to 50.6 from the heights of March’s 50.9.

While the economy continues to grow with PMI results over 50, the slowing in growth went against market expectations.

SMEs are also showing signs of a decline in exports from economic slowdown, with a PMI survey index, sponsored by HSBC, showing a fall of 1.1 to a PMI of 50.5 for March.

The fall in the PMI suggests that Chinese companies are holding negative expectations for future growth.

The results suggest that even China has not remained exempt from the impact of recession throughout global markets, including Europe and the U.S.

Expectations turn to China for future power as Centrica pulls out of nuclear project

US Employee Outsources Job to China

The UK Cabinet Office reveals plans for the creation of the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), in a move to centralise procurement services.

The move to centralise public sector procurement comes as departments succeeded in achieving significant savings in ITO from consolidation practices.

The new service would see the joining under one roof of multiple cabinet office teams alongside the Government Procurement Serviceas as part of a cost saving exercise to centralise services and increase public sector buying power.

The new CCS according to the Cabinet Office will: “work with Departments and wider public sector organisations to ensure maximum value for the taxpayer is extracted from every commercial relationship”.

The new service is expected to be functional by the end of autumn 2013.

Scotland awards £100 million procurement framework

Ghana has created a panel known as the Government-Development Partners Group, consisting of leading figures from within private government as well as foreign ambassadors, in order to monitor and develop public procurement projects.

The group including the chairman of the Bank of Ghana, the cabinet secretary, presidential advisors, and the National Development Planning Commission, is designed to develop public sector procurement projects and advise on legal procurement policies.

Speaking at the launch of the Government-Development Partners Group, President Mahama said the group would move to reduce costs and waste relating to public sector procurement projects.

Growth in Egypt, Turkey and South Africa predicted to overtake Russian and Brazil in 2013

A new report has revealed that SMEs are employing shared services and outsourced specialist support, as businesses seek to revamp their service offering.

The report carried out by logistic providers CitySprint found that 65 percent of UK SMEs had been forced to overhaul there work practices, in order to adapt to current economic pressures.

The report also detailed that SMEs had become more open to collaborating and sharing services, and that 1 in 8 would even work with competitors to gain business benefits.

Alongside a more open attitude to shared services, SMEs were also found to be taking advantage of outsourcing services, moving to a ‘size zero’ business model, with a focus on the businesses core strengths.

By moving to a core business focus SMEs have been able to adapt to economic pressures, with 400,000 new jobs coming from SME expansion in 2013.

The full report can be accessed here.

Collaborate UK

Predicting and tracking risk is seeing finical institutes increasing their uptake and use of analytic services and capabilities.

A survey released by analytics company FICO has revealed that more than a third of retail banking firms that responded are seeking to incorporate big data into their risk analytics.

40 percent of respondents are intending to invest in improving their finical analytics systems aimed at credit applications, 28 percent of respondents said that they would be investing directly in marketing analytics.

The European Credit Outlook report found that the uptake of data analytics reflected the move by financial institutions to increase the reliability and security of risk management services in light of the banking crisis and new legislation based on past aggressive risk-tasking.