Industry news

UAE airlines Etihad Airways have signed an IT services contract with airline technology specialists SITA.

The multi-million pound contract is expected to last ten years and is expected to generate significant cost savings through streamlining processes and upgrading the airline’s IT infrastructure across 89 Etihad sites.

The contract will see the provision of tablets to airline staff, allowing employees access to real-time data on passengers.

James Hogan, CEO of Etihad, said: “The SITA partnership is important as we seek technology solutions that can meet our own requirements and increasingly those of our equity airline partners."

Ryanair places order for 175 planes as it begins mass expansion

Airlines set to become biggest investor of mobile services

UK based Vodafone has placed a bidding offer of €7.7 million for Germany cable company Kabel Deutschland.

Vodafone already holds a strong telecoms market in Germany, with the second largest customer base of 32.4 million customers in the country.

The successful acquisition of Kabel Deutschland, would provide Vodafone with a customer base of 8 million TV viewers and 5 million broadband users. The buying of the cable and telecoms company would allow Vodafone to provide package deals containing television, broadband and telephone services all within one.

The bid faces competition from U.S. based cable giant Libery Global, who placed an offer last week, and may yet raise their bid to compete with Vodafone.

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

Green light given to Vodafone and O2 merger

A new government report has called for a switch to electronic invoices in a bid to develop and modernise the public’s sectors procurement processes.

The report detailed that the government would seek to examine ways in which to persuade suppliers to transition to electronic invoices rather than introduce the practice as being mandatory.

The report, entitled Information Economy Strategy report, pointed to the success of electronic invoices within the NHS and local authorities, in driving savings and efficiency targets.

The G-Cloud is citied in the report of an example of how electronic systems can drive savings and innovation.

“For UK businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to realise the full benefits of e-invoicing, it is important that the systems are easy to install and use, and pricing is flexible enough to suit the needs of diverse businesses”, said the report.

MoD move to expand procurement services

Network Rail simplifies IT supplier list

Mobile giant Telefonica have accepted a bid from 3 owners Hutchison for O2 Ireland’s mobile business.

The deal would result in a rapid increase in market share in Ireland for the operators of 3, with a rise to 37.5 percent with the acquisition of O2’s share. By acquiring O2’s market share, 3 would be placed just behind Vodafone, as the second largest operator in the country.

Hutchison is in the process of moving forward with European expansion, having recently bought Orange Austria from France Telecom and entered into talks Telecom Italia regarding a potential merger.

While the deal has yet to receive approval from the EU competition commission, approval would allow Telefonica to regain significant funds as part of the telecommunications company’s goal to reduce overall debt by €5 billion by the end of 2013.

Telefonica has incurred debts in recent years from investment in Central American expansion, with the O2’s Irish division’s profits down 12 percent from the same time last year.

BskyB signs off on £49 million fibre broadband contract with Virgin

Telefonica cloud services to cut HR costs by 40 percent

The Justice Department does not possess the requisite knowledge to outsource effectively according to a statement from the chairman of the justice select committee.

Chairman Committee, Sir Alan Beith, said that new plans to outsource multiple functions within the Ministry of Justice risked being becoming a “multiple train crash", as the public sector lacks understanding of many of services it is seeking to contract out.

The concern follows the problems of the MoJ’s outsourcing of courtroom interpreting services in England and Wales.

Despite claims of teething problems in the MoJ’s attempts to outsource services, the Ministry achieved savings £16.7 million in the first year through the outsourcing of translator services to Capita.

MoJ scraps procurement programme

Ministry of Justice’s handling of outsourcing is ‘shambolic’

Mobile services are expected to have generated around £400 billion for the economy by the end of the year according to a new report released by the GSM Association.

The economic potential of mobile services far outweighs the contributions of wireless and terrestrial services, with these services only contributing £70 billion combined so far compared to £253 billion of mobile.

The report shows the level of consumer change according within Europe, as traditional TV viewing and internet use is replaced by the need for on-demand mobile connectivity, with the capacity to handle large levels of data.

Development of mobile infrastructure including the rollout of 4G is expected to result in the rapid growth and uptake of services over the short-term.

The GSM Association are predicting a 77 percent increase over the next 10 years.

Tom Phillips, Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, GSMA, said: "Spectrum is an essential resource and governments play a critical role in ensuring that those receiving licences deliver services that will enhance the lives of consumers, create new business opportunities and drive economic growth in Europe".

Mobile sales triple within a year reaching £7.5 billion in 2012

Denise McDonagh, the former director of the UK government’s G-Cloud, has called on departments to act with confidence and take more risks in order to drive public savings.

“We do have some challenges, but I believe that within government and the public sector we have the ability to think for ourselves, take control, and do things differently. We just need to have the confidence in ourselves, and need to be able to take a risk,” she said.

McDonagh described how risks need to be taken in order to help suppliers, adding that the G-Clouds move under the control of the Government’s Digital Services, would help to increase support and funding for change.

“Suppliers took a risk to come onto this framework, now we need to think about the risks we are prepared to take in order to deliver not only the savings, but the much improved service to the customer.”

Oracle opens new datacentre to support UK G-Cloud

Whitehall pushes 2013 G-Cloud savings

Oracle and Microsoft will announce the details of a new partnership on Monday, the partnership forms part of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s promise of a series of “startling announcements” surrounding the database giant made this Thursday.

Ellison said that Oracle will be soon announcing partnerships with the largest and most important SaaS businesses in the world, including Salesforce and NetSuite, alongside Microsoft.

The new partnership are expected to be based around upgrades to Oracle’s new offering, based on the fact that Salesforce and NetSuite have already been in partnerships with Oracle.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella will make a speech with Oracle's president Mark Hurd at a press conference on Monday.

Oracle to acquire mobile service provider Tekelec

U.S. based wireless company Sprint Nextel is set to be acquired by Japanese based SoftBank, after a bidding war which ended with the withdrawal of main competitor, Dish Network.

Sprint Nextel which is the third-largest wireless operator in the U.S. based on subscribers represents strong growth as well as a large entry into the U.S. market for the Japanese company.

Sprint recently moved to buy out its partner, paying $5 a share for the reminder of partner Clearwire’s stake.

The bid offer, which stands at $12.6 billion, now awaits shareholder approval and clearance for U.S. regulators.

AT&T pays $1.9 billion for Verizon wireless spectrum

New Broadband regulation expected to deliver savings of €60 billion

New research published by Independent t sourcing advisor Alsbridge has revealed that IT professionals feel that contracts are too rigid and are not open to renegotiation.

The study found that just under two thirds of senior IT professionals surveyed believed that ITO suppliers would not be open to flexibility in contracts.

The study revealed that IT professionals feel limited by a lack of data surrounding contracts and the services that the ITO supplier provides, with 71 percent saying they lacked information to renegotiate.

The survey revealed the need for real-time market data in order to leverage contract change through negotiation.

ITO contract: Should I stay or should I go?