Industry news

A report from consultant providers Accenture has revealed that the UK is failing to employ innovation to drive sales.

Research published by Accenture showed that organisations found it more important to be innovative for employees than customers.

Business leaders who responded to a survey said that reduced IT budgets and the need to focus on employee productivity and cutting costs had led to a reduced focus on innovation.

“A tough economy over the past few years has led businesses to concentrate on cutting costs and improving employee productivity, making the focus on innovation insular”, said Andrew Poppleton, managing director of Accenture's UK and Ireland technology group.

Contact centre provider Genesys have paid $5 per share for application provider SoundBite Communications, in a deal worth around $100.4 million.

The acquisition comes as part of an on-going move to expand Genesys’ portfolio of services and move to provide cloud based services. In buying SoundBite, the contact centre is looking to offer services to new markets alongside current customers.

In turn SoundBite will now be given access to Genesys’ user base as both businesses benefit from the exchange of data, with Genesys’ revenue predicted to grow to over $135 million under the deal.

With both companies approving the acquisition, the deal is expected to be finalised by the end of 2013.

Provider of service management software BMC to bought for $6.9 billion

GSK releases opens innovation platform

BT has been awarded a contract valued at £37.4 million for the creation of public service network between three police forces.

The PSN is expected to create savings of up to 20 per cent for Thames Valley Police, Hampshire Constabulary and Surrey Police, who operate under the South East Police Shared Network Services Agreement, with savings being generated from shared services, centralised and standardised technologies and promoting economies of scale.

Anthony Stansfeld, Police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley Police, said: "This is a great example of police Forces using their combined purchasing power to deliver significant savings for their force and enabling opportunities for closer working in the future."

South West Wales police drives savings through shared service centre

Solent NHS Trust have signed a seven year outsourcing contract with CGI which will see the modernisation of IT infrastructure including increased mobile and shared service capabilities.

Over the contract lifetime CGI will deploy new infrastructure across 130 Trust sites and to thousands of healthcare professionals, with an overall focus on remote working.

Dr Ros Tolcher, Chief Executive of Solent NHS Trust, said: “CGI is able to offer us the flexible services that will save our clinicians time and, in turn, help us better support our service users.”

NHS moves to deploy business intelligence platform to improve health trials

Accenture deploys cloud platform for NHS radiology centres

A public sector report has urged fire and rescue services to employ collaborative procurement practices, in order to increase efficiencies and reduce costs.

An independent report by Sir Ken Knight highlighted the need to increase efficiencies and operations in UK fire and rescue authorities.

The report entitled Facing the Future, detailed large discrepancies in cost per head between providing services depending on where services are being provided.

According to the report, as much as £200 million could be saved per year from efficiency savings, generated from modernising procurement frameworks. Facing the Future concluded that fire and rescue services would be well served by moving to a national framework, as seen within police procurement, rather than sourcing services independently leading to waste and duplication.

The report concluded that it was: “clear is that authorities should adopt a principle of never buying alone”.

Fire and Rescue services prepare for shared service agreement

£81m boost for UK Fire Services Technology

Accenture has completed the roll out cloud services to radiology departments across five NHS hospitals and 23 facilities after a ten week period.

The Accenture provided cloud services for Radiology Information Systems (RIS) are designed to store secure patient data, facilitate the sharing of data between medical staff and allow for remote access.

Accenture said that: “this cloud-based solution will enable clinicians across the region to share patient data, which can be crucial in urgent cases, such as stroke or major trauma. It also will enable trusts to concentrate on providing the best care to patients, rather than having to worry about maintaining an IT system.”

Accenture see sales growth from increased outsourcing demand

Accenture led consortium wins national border control system contract

Councils including Westminster City Council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham are to move to a new e-commerce system as part of a cost savings initiative.

The new platform is being provided by BravoSolution and is expected generate procurement benefits including increased negotiating strength from a centralised system.

The e-commerce system will also help to meet government green targets by reducing paper transactions.

Anthony Oliver, Westminster City Council's chief procurement officer, said: "Progressive local authorities know that working with private sector partners is the way forward in getting the best deal for local people and businesses. The framework with BravoSolution is part of that trend. It cuts away needless bureaucracy and introduces a simple, straightforward platform for doing business with us."

London councils move to create a shared £1.1 billion ICT services framework

Arqiva who specialise in telecommunications will receive capital funding to develop and increase mobile telecoms coverage in the U.K.

The funding of £150 million comes as the government moves forward with its Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP), in a bid to extend mobile telecoms coverage in remote areas and “provide hundreds of millions of pounds of economic benefits as well as resulting in positive social impacts, such as increased safety and security in terms of emergency response," according to a government release.

Telecoms operators including EE, Telefonica, Vodafone and Three will be involved in the operation of the new framework and in the funding of network infrastructure.

The mobile infrastructure expansion is set to be constructed by a deadline of 2015 with Arqiva currently identifying viable sites for new infrastructure.

Telefonica agrees on $1 billion sale of O2 Ireland to 3

New research has revealed that customer expectations for improved banking services are not being met by the financial industry.

Research carried out by financial services experts Cognizant and mobile technology specialists Monitise, has revealed that over 30 per cent of surveyed customers would be willing to pay for advanced features and mobile payment capabilities.

The report entitled ‘Segment-Based Strategies for Mobile Banking’ found that banks could increase customer satisfaction by growing IT services.

Vin Malhotra, Consulting Partner for Banking and Financial Services with Cognizant Business Consulting said: “Providing innovative and personalized mobile services based on consumer segmentation will enable banks to not only run better by maximizing their investments, but also run differently by strengthening customer engagement and driving greater adoption of mobile banking for competitive differentiation.”

Internet business giant Alibaba Group has revealed that it has commenced work on a ‘smart’ logistics network, in a five to eight year project, that is expected to cost as much as $48 billion.

Alibaba Group which delivered eBay clone Taobao, will deliver the new logistics network alongside joint venture partners Intime Group and multiple delivery companies.

The delivery of thee logistics network project is designed to increase the speed of e-commerce transactions and goods delivery, allowing for the coverage of all 2,000 of China’s major cities within 24 hours.

The new logistics program comes at a time when China is seeing unparalleled growth within e-commerce markets over recent years, with logistical services competing to match supply to the increasing demand.

Within 10 years 200 million parcels will be delivered a day within China according to predictions from Chinese news agency Xinhau.

Shipping giant Møller-Maersk saves with internal IT software contract