Industry news

Major UK aerospace organisations and the government are to develop a strategic response after the failure of the BAE-EADS merger.

The strategy will aim to support and drive the UK aerospace industry and includes the support of businesses including Rolls-Royce, AgustaWestland and Bombardier.

Strategic development will include the development of an aerospace research centre and a centre of excellence for aerodynamics.

The UK aerospace industry has raised concerns that funding cutbacks, recession, increased competition and reduced budgets for public sector organisations including the military will damage the UK’s position as the second largest aerospace industry in the world.

Morgan Stanley is to cut 1,600 jobs as part of a cost-saving measure with expectations that the majority of the cuts will occur outside of the US.

London as the banks European headquarters with 5,000 employees is expected to be hit by cuts with IT support staff at risk.

The cuts come after 4,000 job cuts in 2012 with the global workforce reduced to 57,000 workers.

Jaguar Land Rover is to invest £370 million and create 800 new jobs at a plant situated at Solihull.

The move comes as Jaguar Land Rover seeks to expand on the back of growing demand from Russia and China.

Phil Popham, Jaguar Land Rover's director of group sales operations, said: “Looking ahead to 2013, we are continuing to invest in our business to support our ambitious plans for growth and we will be introducing eight new or refreshed products throughout the year".

The announcement comes after the loss of 800 jobs in Swindon by car manufacturer Honda.

Scotland may have begun 2013 showing signs of growth, with increased output and a rise in employment.

Growth was highlighted by the Bank of Scotland's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which showed the highest figures generated for six months.

The good results are in contrast to poor performance from the UK which saw a drop in employment figures.

A Scottish government spokesman said: “Business growth and investment will be key to securing economic expansion over the coming year and in this spending review period we are investing £10bn in capital projects, building homes, schools and facilities to support the economy.”

Overly complicated claiming processes are preventing IT businesses from claiming tax exemptions worth as much as £280 million for R&D.

The complexities of HMRC guidelines for submissions are succeeding in putting eligible businesses off making claims.

Research tax specialists Jumpstart UK who carried out the research commented that the failure to attract IT businesses to development could reduce the sectors competitive advantage.

IBM has signed a contract to deliver IT services to the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

The announcement comes after IBM was selected as a preferred bidder after a decision to select a private sector IT partner in 2011.

Services will include the provision of Information Management & Technology (IM&T) services alongside consultant firm NTT Data. Alongside IM&T services IBM will also deliver record management services.

Dr Kevin Harris, medical director, Leicester’s Hospitals, said: “This is a very exciting partnership and could be the single most important thing that we have ever done in terms of improving technology in our organisation".

Infosys Technologies have raised revenue predictions to 6.6 percent from 5 percent prompting a share rise of over 15 percent.

The revenue prediction growth comes after expectations from analysts that Infosys would lower predictions.

Infosys posted a net profit of 23.69 billion rupees in the third quarter of the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

Rajiv Bansal, chief financial officer, Infosys, said: “We were able to maintain our margins through efficiency improvements despite increased operating expenses. We remain focused on making the right investments for profitable and sustainable growth in the longer term”.

The Japanese government have approved a $116 billion stimulus package, aimed at driving economic growth of 2 percent and create 600,000 jobs.

The recession has hit the world’s third largest economy, heavily reducing export and domestic demand, along with the impact of natural disasters.

The stimulus package is aimed at halting the trend of contraction that Japan has undergone in the last two quarters.

Organisations will increasingly seek to monetise Big Data as the costs of managing and storing data rise according to Gartner.

Gartner’s prediction placed 30 percent of companies as looking to trade information in the near future. There is an expectation from analysts of a rise of data resellers to act as intermediaries during such transactions.

The selling on of data is controversial giving the sensitive nature of user information. This has led to government reaction with the US Federal Trade Commission subpoenaing large information brokers to reveal how they use information.

The Financial Ombudsman Service are hiring 1,000 staff in order to deal with increasing demands and a predicted workload increases of 45 percent.

The increasing workload has stemmed in part from payment protection insurance (PPI) claims.

Tony Boorman, deputy chief ombudsman, said "While we see some businesses using complaints positively to improve customer service, many continue to frustrate their customers with delays and inconvenience".