Industry news

Inadequate IT customer service is wasting up to 1 billion man hours a year for UK businesses according to a report from Rackspace Hosting.

In the Rackspace IT Industry Service Report, 39 percent of IT staff are estimated to lose around one working day or more per week on tackling IT problems and chasing suppliers. General employees were also found to be losing an average of almost five hours per week due to IT service issues.

The failings in customer services has led to 27 percent of CIO’s now regarding the issue as a top priority.

Taylor Rhodes, Managing Director, International at Rackspace said: “A staggering amount of man hours are being wasted by UK businesses as they struggle to manage and control IT service issues. CIOs are taking note however and it is encouraging to see service being acknowledged as a crucial factor in procurement decisions along with parameters such as price, security and uptime guarantees.”

Cognizant today released its Q3 results which showed annual revenue growth of 18.2 percent from the same time last year with $1.892 billion.

The report included expectations of a 20 percent overall fiscal rise for 2012 over 2011, to $7.34 billion.

Gordon Coburn, President of Cognizant said: “Of particular note this quarter is the performance of our newer service offerings of Consulting, Business Process Outsourcing and IT Infrastructure Services. On a combined basis, these services have been growing materially faster than company average, and this quarter comprised nearly 20% of total revenue. They will continue to be important drivers of our long-term growth”.

TelecityGroup, Europe's industry-leading provider of carrier-neutral data centres, has today announced it has acquired Academica, a leading data centre and IT services operator in Finland, for a total consideration of €28million in cash.

The acquisition of Academica further strengthens TelecityGroup’s leadership position in Finland where there is a strong and growing demand for high quality, connected data centre services. Academica currently operates two carrier-neutral data centres in Helsinki with 1MW of operational capacity. 3MW of additional capacity is secured, some of which will be deployed in Viikinmaki, a new centrally-located facility.

The announcement follows TelecityGroup’s acquisition of Tenue Oy in August giving the enlarged TelecityGroup Finland a total of three data centres and 2MW of operational capacity. 7MW of additional capacity will be opened in two new facilities in due course.

Marko Vanninen, Managing Director of Academica, will become Managing Director of TelecityGroup Finland and Sami Holopainen, who joined TelecityGroup with the Tenue acquisition in August 2012 and was the founder and Managing Director of Tenue Oy, will become responsible for commercial and business development, sales and marketing.

Orders and output fall, but SMEs expect activity to stabilise

Both domestic and export orders among the UK’s small and medium-sized manufacturers fell in the three months to October. Production levels continued to contract modestly, while business sentiment deteriorated for the second consecutive quarter.

The CBI’s latest quarterly SME Trends Survey, which had 362 respondents, showed that total new orders fell (a balance of -13%), reflecting declines in both domestic orders (-11%) and export orders (-21%), with the latter falling at the fastest pace since July 2009 (-32%). While domestic orders are expected to be flat over the next quarter (-2%), demand for exports is expected to fall further, albeit at a much slower rate (-5%).

Southwark Council has announced a four year deal with Capita’s secure information solutions business for an IT managed service designed to help transform the council with benefits for both customers and the workforce. The contract offers significant, seven-figure, savings to the council and helps to protect frontline services during a period when local government funding remains very uncertain.

The contract is for the management and the upgrade of all of the IT facilities that support the delivery of council services and represents the most significant improvement in IT capability since major changes in 2000. Facilities include the provision of resilient and secure disaster recovery and business continuity, support for the council’s networks; data centre hosting including the management of IT equipment, and support for business applications. During the first 12 months of the contract, Capita will deliver nine major projects that will provide the Council with a platform to radically transform services, ranging from modernisation of the desktop and rationalisation of data storage and security to the use of mobile devices.

Councillor Richard Livingstone, cabinet member for resources at Southwark Council, said: “This contract gives us cost savings and an improved IT service at a time when resources are extremely limited, when frontline services need as much protection as possible and when staff need all the support that we can give them. We felt that Capita’s experience of local government and solution development will create a platform to completely transform our service. We expect a smooth transformation to a new, modernised IT infrastructure and, ultimately more resilient and responsive IT. Investing in technology is something I am wholly committed to, as I feel this is the key to ensuring that the authority can function effectively and respond quickly to the public to create a modern service with robust data protection.”

The world's leading economies are to give themselves more flexibility in meeting targets for cutting budget deficits rather than risk worsening a slowdown in many countries, chief among them the United States.

Meeting a day before the U.S. presidential election, which is being disputed largely on tax and spending issues, the Group of 20 countries worried that previous commitments to cut in half the budget shortfalls of advanced economies by the end of next year might hurt the struggling global economy.

"In light of the weak pace of global growth, they will ensure that the pace of fiscal consolidation is appropriate to support the recovery," G20 policymakers said in a communiqué after a two-day meeting in Mexico.

Activity in the UK service sector grew at its slowest pace in almost two years in October, a survey has suggested.

The PMI services index from Markit/CIPS fell to 50.6 from 52.2 in September. Any score above 50 indicates growth.

Growth in new business eased, while employment in the sector fell for the second consecutive month, Markit said.

Wipro results for the Quarter ended September 30, 2012:

Total Revenues were `106.57 billion ($2.01 billion1), an increase of 17% YoY and Net Income was `16.11 billion ($304 million1), an increase of 24% YoY. Non-GAAP Adjusted Net. Income was `15.98 billion ($302 million1), an increase of 22% YoY.

T K Kurien, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer, IT Business, said – “We have delivered revenues in line with our guidance and are continuing to see consistent improvement in our

engagement with customers and employees. Consistent with our strategy to drive business transformation at the intersection of Cloud, Mobility, Analytics, and Social, we are continuing to invest

in our Go-To-Market organization in order to engage effectively with both business and technology stakeholders.”

European online travel services provider Bravofly has completed the acquisition of online travel agency Rumbo from travel group Orizonia and Telefonica. Online travel agency Bravofly Group operates through its websites Bravofly, available in 12 languages, Volagratis.com, Viaggiare.it, Crocierissime.it, Bravocroisieres.fr and Hotelyo.it, among others. Throughout the Rumbo acquisition, Bravofly expects to reach a global gross turnover of EUR 900 million, with a staff of more than 850 people. Rumbo, which also manages the Viajar.com and Rumbo Negocios brands, will retain its brand structure under Bravofly's ownership.

Guardian survey shows 81.6% of senior public managers are against a move by government to outsource policy-making

Senior public managers are overwhelmingly opposed to the government's plans to outsource policy-making, a Guardian survey reveals.

A survey of public leaders network members shows a big majority - 81.6% - of senior managers are against the move, while a mere 9.9% agree with the policy. More than 500 public leaders network members took part in the survey, most of whom were senior public managers.