Industry news

BT has announced that its wi-fi hotspot numbers have passed over 7.5 million across the world, as it launches a new BT Wi-fi access app making it easy to find a wi-fi hotspot in the UK and to login from a Windows Mobile device.

The new app, which will be available on the Windows Phone Store is the fourth BT Wi-fi app to launch. It follows the success of iOS, Android and Blackberry apps, which have now passed over two million downloads by BT Broadband customers.

BT Broadband customers have free and unlimited access to the largest wi-fi network in the world. The numbers include more than 65,000 in Birmingham and Leeds, around 72,000 in Manchester, Edinburgh and Sheffield, and more than 59,000 in Liverpool, Brighton, Bristol and Cardiff.

In a release today half-year operating profits for Royal Mail reached a total of £144 million, the report also confirmed the companies move towards privatisation, saying: “Obtaining external capital is a key part of the transformation process as we become a more parcels-focused business and make the investment in technology to do so."

Reports released over the weekend had raised expectations that the release of half-year results would stimulate the public services’ move towards privatisation if clear profits were displayed.

In the release today, parcel revenue, which represents almost half of the total group’s mail, had increased by 13 percent, while a range of stringent cost cutting measures have helped to improve overall profits. Royal Mail has also moved to compete in online shopping delivery, signing Amazon as a customer and partnering with Chinese based ZJS with an eye on expanding into overseas markets.

The turnaround within Royal Mail has been sizeable given that the group had posted a loss of £41 million in the half year to last September. The postal service has also seen sustained years of poor results and negative headlines relating to poor service.

The delivery of increased profits by the Royal Mail had been a key condition of the go-ahead of the company’s planned floatation next year. The publication of strong profits is expected to further boost investor interest surrounding the Royal Mail.

While the group has been boosted in recent years, the road towards profitability has seen job cuts, sorting centre closures and opposition towards the move towards privatisation from postal unions.

In reaction to the publication of the report, Dave Ward, the deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said that a move towards privatisation would damage the service through competition, adding: “We don’t want competition at any cost. Closures, bullying, cost cutting and privatisation will destroy the industry. We’ll stand up to protect it.”

The current success of Royal Mail in transforming its services, taking on large clients and competing with rivals after a sustained slump has seen government support placed behind the companies bid for floatation.

Michael Fallon Minister for Business said: "These results from Royal Mail are encouraging, showing how Royal Mail staff and management together with the Government's reforms have put the company on the road to sustainable health and long-term viability. Parliament decided, via the Postal Services Act 2011, to inject private capital into the company in order to secure the future of the universal postal service. The structure and timing remain open, but Government is committed to doing that to ensure the ongoing viability of the company."

The Royal Mail included a statement underlining the need for Whitehall to sign off on the privatisation however the government is already believed to be planning to promote the group to potential buyers during 2013.

Logica now part of CGI Group Inc along with McKesson UK has been shortlisted by the NHS as preferred suppliers to provide managed payroll services.

CGI will provide full back office end-to-end payroll services over the seven year contract. CGI was selected through the Government Procurement Services network (GPS) and now provides payroll services to more than 90 GPS clients.

Paula Sussex, Vice-President Public Sector of CGI UK said: “The GPS framework is an extremely effective way for the public sector to both make cost savings but also to ensure a consistently high level of service across organisations.”

The beginning of next month will see bids placed by firms for the decommissioning of 12 British nuclear facilities which is expected to be worth £6.1 billion.

Likely bidding firms include US based engineers and consultants along with British based businesses including Serco and Amec.

The procurement process is expected to be concluded in 2014 with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority selecting an overall supplier.

IBM has been hit with a multimillion dollar lawsuit from chemical manufacturer client Avantor over the implementation of a SLA project.

The lawsuit alleges that the SLA project was mismanaged, with IBM consultants making "numerous design, configuration and programming errors".

The suit also alleges that IBM workers had told Avantor employees that SAP "best practices" had not been employed.

IBM has refuted the claims and stated that the company had met its contractual obligations and that Avantor was continuing to use its services.

HTC and Apple announced last Saturday that they had settled all remaining patent disputes with the creation of a 10-year licensing agreement.

The terms of the settlement where kept undisclosed however the licensing agreement will cover current and future patents.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC. We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation."

A report released by the Bank of Scotland has revealed that the private sector economy is facing near no growth as jobs and services are cut.

The report revealed that from July to October the Scottish manufacturing production has been in continual decline.

Reduced European demand for Scottish products also had an impact upon the growth of the economy, which has been compounded by increasing fuel and energy costs for businesses.

Royal Mail is expected to post strong half-year profits tomorrow in the run up to the privatisation of the company in next year’s third quarter.

The delivery of increased profits by the Royal Mail is a key condition of the go-ahead of the company’s floatation next year. The expectation of strong profits is expected to further boost the investor interest surrounding the Royal Mail.

While the Royal Mail has been boosted in recent years, the road towards profitability has seen job cuts and opposition towards the move towards privatisation from postal unions.

The Business Innovation and Skills Committee have called for the creation of an apprenticeship for every £1 billion spend through public procurement projects.

The call came in the publication of a report this week by the committee, which also revealed that the government had said that it would ““push this as far as possible”.

Skills minister Matthew Hancock, said in response to the report: ““I welcome this timely and thorough investigation into apprenticeships, and will consider carefully its suggestions to help make the programme even more successful.”

Outsourcing services firms including Serco, Sodexo and MTC/Amey have been approved by the Ministry of Justice as four prisons enter the final procurement phase for private sector management.

Wolds prison was confirmed to have changed management from G4S back to the public sector, following a poor inspectorate report which detailed weaknesses.

The Ministry of Justice said: “This competition process produced a compelling package of reforms for delivering cost reduction, improvements to regimes and a working prisons model in these prisons”.

The move towards private sector management is expected to save £450 million in the next six years.