Industry news

Engery supply company SSE have proposed a £800 million scheme to create a hydroelectric power programme with the construction of a new dam and reservoir.

The program would rank as Scotland’s largest ever hydroelectric project however the scheme has raised fears over damage to tourism.

The proposal is to be assessed by the Highland Council's south planning applications committee with local authorities recommending that no objection is raised.

A failure to implement effective engagement is harming BPO relationships according to research commissioned by arvato UK & Ireland.

87 percent of 100 BPO clients felt there was something limiting the outsourcing relationship with only 2 percent responding that they felt that their BPO provider was ‘very engaged’ and only 56 percent viewed there provider as being a trusted supplier.

Matthias Mierisch, CEO and Chairman, arvato UK & Ireland, said: “Just because BPO includes the word process, trusted partnerships shouldn’t stop there. If a client’s goal is to achieve fundamental improvements or real growth, it requires people and partnership too!”

Martyn Hart, Chairman, National Outsourcing Association, added: “Outsourcing is long term. All things are subject to change so flexibility is paramount. It is essential for both the customer and supplier to be aligned so that they each understand where the other is going, and how this helps them accommodate change, or even better, anticipate it.”

Visit arvato at www.arvato.co.uk for the full research documentation.

Pension and life insurance company AEGON has signed a ten year contract with Serco to provide business process outsourcing in a deal worth £170 million.

The deal comes as AEGON moves to increase its market share against rivals including Capita and TCS.

The contract will see the outsourcing of customer contact and support services including claims management through a cloud based infrastructure.

Adrian Grace, UK CEO of AEGON, said: “Our new partnership with Serco will add further impetus to our developing and highly successful protection business”.

MPs have set a cap on prices for electricity generated from nuclear power by energy giant EDF.

The ‘strike price’ which represents the lowest price that the energy firm can expect to receive is close to being agreed upon. This comes after MPs had been in conflict with EDF boss Vincent de Rivaz who had called proposed strike prices as “rubbish”.

An agreement on a strike point will allow EDF to invest in new power sources including the construction of new plants. EDF have already planned to construct a new power plant in Somerset.

News Corporation could offer as much as £1 billion for the Penguin Group as it prepares to offer a bid that could end the Random House Penguin merger.

The success of such a bid would see the book giant join News Corp’s existing publishing arm including HarperCollins.

The announcement of a merger of Penguin and Random House was put forward as a defence against the dominance of digital publishers including Google, Amazon and the rise of the e-reader.

Either deal would involve competition commissions due to the scale of businesses involved.

In a deal valued at £65.5million, the global insurance market has renewed its contract with Xchanging to provide business process services.

The new contract will cover a 5 year term and includes support of the market’s electronic processing platform (IMR).

Geoff Kennard, electronic services director at Xchanging, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this deal and are privileged to have a key role to play in the market’s plans for the future.”

Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes has called for EU and member state loan backing for CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) with around €7 billion going to fund next-generation networks.

The new networks would provide high-speed broadband throughout the European Union.

Member states are due to reach a decision on CEF funding and budget allocation within the next few weeks, which will decide future projects up until 2020.

More than 450 suppliers have been added to the second version of the G-Cloud, including Salesforce, Amazon Web Services, IBM and Capgemini.

The introduction of Salesforce to the G-Cloud will allow public sector departments to deploy the cloud platform services.

Salesforce EMEA chairman Steve Garnett, said: “Now, with salesforce.com joining the G-Cloud framework, the UK public sector can harness the power of social and mobile cloud computing to innovate and transform.”

Currently more than £2.2 million has been spent through the G-Cloud on IT services alone.

The National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs) took place at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London. Now in its 9th year, the NOAAs aims to celebrate best practice in outsourcing projects, and reward end-users, suppliers, advisors and destinations.

The winners of the outsourcing awards are listed below.

Award for Academic Achievement

Lorna Baker - Land Registry

Richard Smith - HML

Outsourcing Rising Star of the Year

Amanda Wright - Standard Life Plc

In-house Outsourcing Professional of the Year

Jim Hemmington - BBC

Award for Skills Development Programme of the Year

Luxoft

Award for Corporate Social Responsibility

SPi Global

Offshoring Project of the Year

Wipro Technologies - BT Lean Engagement: Task Closure Rate Improvement

Offshoring Destination of the Year

South Africa

Telecommunications, Utilities and High-Tech Outsourcing Project of the Year

Firstsource Solutions - O2

Public Sector Outsourcing Project of the Year

BBC

Financial Services Outsourcing Project of the Year

ELIX-IRR - Standard Bank

BPO Contract of the Year

Logica, now part of CGI, and ELEXON

IT Outsourcing Project of the Year

HM Revenue & Customs

Award for Innovation in Outsourcing

Firstsource Solutions - giffgaff

Shared Service Centre of the Year

Teleperformance and Response - Student Loans Company

Outsourcing Advisory of the Year

Herbert Smith

Outsourcing Contact Centre Provider of the Year

Firstsource Solutions

Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year

HCL Technologies

Outsourcing End User of the Year

National Rail Enquiries

Outsourcing Works - Award for Delivering Business Value in Outsourcing

arvato - Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council

Chairman's Award for Outsourcing Contribution to the Outsourcing Industry

Ian Roberts - CSC

Phil Pavitt - HMRC

Cognizant have revealed plans to expand data centres in North America and Europe, including the opening of a new centre in Slough.

Cognizant have invested $25 million in expansion and development of data centres and increased functionality of cloud services.

The new cloud services are designed to help customers move existing applications to the cloud, deploy new mobile, software-as-a-service, and social networking services to their end users, and support other business-critical processes.