Industry news

The existence of the EU 20-20-20 Renewable Energy Directive is widely unknown by IT professionals, with more than 40 percent unaware of the regulation.

The directives regulation is aimed at reducing carbon emissions alongside energy consumption. A survey from energy efficiency company Emerson Network Power has revealed that IT firms have not yet moved to carry out direct measures due to the long length of time before targets need to be achieved.

The uptake of data centres and the value of data analytics have increased energy consumption within the IT sector, with global companies now looking to locate such centres in environments that increase energy efficiency. IT organisations are realising the cost savings from locating services, such as Google establishing data centres in Finland due to the low temperature benefits.

The survey revealed that respondents were passively moving to increase energy efficiency through the modernisation of equipment that increased efficiencies.

After initial estimates of £50 million, G4S have finally agreed to settle with Locog for the failure to deliver on the Olympic contract, for £70 million.

The penalty for failing to provide sufficient personal numbers to cover the arranged security, that G4S had agreed to provide, includes the management fee, which was expected to be retained by the world’s largest security provider. The fallout saw the government deploy armed service personal in order to cover the shortage.

G4S hopes to draw a rapid line over the failure through the £70 million compensation package and reassure the Government, with G4S Chief Executive Nick Buckles saying on Tuesday: “The UK Government is an important customer for the group and we felt that it was in all of our interests to bring this matter to a close in an equitable and professional manner without the need for lengthy legal proceedings".

In recent months the company has shown signs of recovery from the blow to its reputation, with shares rising 10 percent within the past three months, with contracts continuing to be won in the UK.

In a bid to reduce legal tax avoidance methods amidst suppliers, the UK government is looking at plans to require that suppliers bidding for Whitehall contracts reveal their UK tax payments.

Suppliers who minimise their UK tax bills are expected to be prevented from bidding in the future for government contracts, in new rules that are rumoured to be introduced by Francis Maude during this week.

Currently companies including Capgemini and Accenture are among a large list of big name companies that have been criticised for paying low levels of corporate tax.

Despite the strong talk, many companies attacked for paying low tax, are paying a perfectly legal amount, with many ‘loopholes’ existing within law.

It may also prove difficult for the government to blacklist suppliers from a legal perspective, when no laws have been broken.

The alternative would be to reduce so called loopholes. Both methods could be expected to reduce the attractiveness of the UK as a major economic trading hub.

Ryanair’s plan to acquire Aer Lingus for €694 million is to be blocked by the EU competition watchdog according to the budget airline. The final decision is expected to be announced by the end of the month.

Ryanair has revealed that the commission intends to prohibit a bid for a second time after the failure of a similar bid in 2007.

Ryanair has also faced opposition from within government, which owns a 25 percent stake in the Aer Lingus, with a takeover bid in 2009 scrapped. The Irish transport minister, Leo Varadkar, has also opposed the new proposal.

A report into contract practices by accountants into the practices of civil servants for Edinburgh City Council have revealed multiple failings, resulting in the council paying for £27 million of construction work.

Failures included the avoidance of correct tendering processes, having work carried out without proper evidence of quality control or detail planning into cost reduction and overall supplier costs.

Accountants also discovered that contractors had access to payment systems and that internal reports were destroyed prior to the accountant’s investigation.

The failure in procurement and contract management has been disputed by the council, which called the report ‘historic ‘and out of ‘context’.

Cornwall’s hospitals are now looking at a new procurement process after the collapse of a strategic alliance to digitalise hospital records.

The original program had been with BT but collapsed after a council revolt changed the structure of the strategic alliance with resulting legal advice causing a complete pullout.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust have revealed that current options for the trust remain uncertain, with hospitals in the region now unlikely to reach government targets to share records electronically by April of next year.

More flexible and agile working practices could deliver savings of up to 32% through reduced estate costs and the ease of access available from new technology.

Research carried out by cloud providers Citrix, found that the government pays £490 per square meter of estate, with an average of 1.1 desks for every office worker, with the figure rising to 1.6 in certain departments.

James Stevenson, area vice president of Citrix Northern Europe, said: “By embracing the benefits offered by modern technology and more flexible working practices, the government could effectively halve the number of desks it maintains across departments.”

A upgrade to IT systems at Morrisons have caused significant delays to supplier payments.

The failure to process invoices was blamed on IT infrastructure upgrades. Morrisons have issued a statement, saying: “We have experienced a temporary issue with our new computer system. But all payments should now be going through to suppliers."

The upgrades are believed to be part of a £200 million upgrade of core systems, including product management and online services along with the affected supply chain payment services.

Upgrades can often prove a risk to ICT services with many major companies including Apple, the NASDAQ stock market and Natwest all suffering from having services affected by failed upgrades.

In a report released by the British Venture Capital Association, the UK was pressed to follow the German example of investing in businesses to promote further investment and growth.

British Venture Capital Association with members including a number of major equity firms, warns in in a report, of the danger of increased regulation and the tightening immigration restrictions on the UK’s prospects for economic recovery.

The report also recommended that the UK moved away from imposing punishing capital requirements for banks that go beyond the increased amounts imposed by the EU.

The UK’s fiscal position remains precarious so there is a limit to what stimulus can be delivered without adding to an already large debt burden,” said Robert Easton.

The EU has proposed a new law that would require businesses to inform authorities of any data breach.

The law is included as part of the proposed cyber security directive and follows an online consolation with businesses, more than 50 percent of respondents agreed that the proposed law would not lead to significant costs.

Authorities would need to be notified of any breaches that, “seriously compromise the operation of networks and information systems".