Industry news

The announcement comes after a 23 percent jump in profits for Centrica owned British Gas.

An average customer of British Gas can expect to see their bill increase by £80 to £1,318. The move comes as the UK’s North Sea gas supplies begin to dwindle and British Gas is forced to enter a competitive global marketplace.

The move is expected to be followed by other gas and electricity suppliers.

British Gas managing director Phil Bentley said: “Unfortunately, we cannot run our business sustainably on lower margins and still make the investments in jobs and future energy sources that Britain needs, especially if the country is to grow its way out of recession.”

David Cameron promoted the value of the UK’s expertise in technology and investment, and the importance of growing these UK service industries in order to create economic recovery, during his speech at the annual Conservative Party conference.

In the speech, Cameron said: “All around the world, countries are on the rise. Yes, we’ve been hearing about China and India for years, but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too. Meanwhile, the old powers are on the slide.”

The lack of concrete proposals in the speech may give concern to industry leaders, along with a lack of details of how the government will address the expectation of increased skills shortages.

IBM has expanded their pre-integrated PureSystems line aimed at developing online transaction processing and business analysis capabilities.

Each system is of a bespoke design, built for the applications requirements, needing limited maintenance and allowing for rapid installation.

In comparison to similar offerings by Oracle, IBM director Pete McCaffrey, said: “we're optimizing for the specific type of data workload. That is why we are coming out with different models aligned to different workloads."

BAE Systems has ended a contract with Logica to provide BPO and HR services.

The contract to supply the services will now be reverted to Xchanging as the previous supplier, which has promoted new HR functionality in service delivery.

The impact on Logica from the termination of the contract has yet to be fully observed.

The Cloud is not just the new way to manage data and costs and promote greater internal and external collaboration but is also the opportunity to reinvent brands and business models, with huge potential benefits – upstream and downstream.

A recent Wipro-TLG research report revealed how the Cloud is no longer seen by CXOs as an improvement to IT infrastructure – a ‘step change’ that is simply making processes and systems more efficient. Rather, business leaders see the Cloud as a transformative innovation that will lead to tremendous opportunity.

• The Differentiation opportunity: There is a clear expectation amongst business leaders that, at one level, the Cloud will create new efficiencies and even new supply chains (upstream). At another level, it promises to reinvent value chains and customer propositions (downstream).

While some businesses still feel Cloud adoption may be a choice, in a few years consumers will force the Cloud onto businesses. The next generation consumer is driven by experience, mobility and accessibility – factors that new technologies and the Cloud will deliver. Businesses that do not invest in the Cloud will lose out, and companies that build their products, operational systems and applications with a clear Cloud strategy, will gain a competitive advantage. The survey also confirmed that companies that do not invest in the Cloud will fail to innovate and “will lose market share”.

Figure 1: How, if at all, may companies that don’t invest in the Cloud lose out

• The Economic opportunity: Business leaders attach critical significance to the Cloud for giving them the power to generate greater efficiencies and economies so overheads can be reduced. Cloud allows the business to scale up and down as and when required. This supports business growth without requiring expensive changes to existing systems. By enabling companies to cope with varying market conditions, the Cloud part of a more sustainable business environment. This is a form of economic value creation.

Cloud has the potential to create completely new business models and SMEs and start-ups will embrace them. Start-up businesses and SMEs can establish themselves without having to invest capital on IT infrastructure and the associated labour costs which are non-core to the business model. For large enterprises, it poses a challenge because they have well-established business models and rarely embrace innovation at a fast pace.

• The Workforce opportunity: The Cloud allows for significant innovations in workforce models. With the Cloud, teams are not tied to offices and offices are not tied to teams. Cloud computing helps business become mobile, teams can be spread across geographies and time-zones, and employees can work and access information from anywhere. The Cloud also triggers the power of collaboration. This is a very important dimension for businesses looking for new solutions, new ways of thinking, working and winning.

• The Social Opportunity: Cloud offers businesses and civil society an opportunity to transform expectations at an economic and social level. The Cloud represents a paradigm shift in terms of building capacity to transcend social and commercial boundaries to reinvent known models. Conversely, businesses and governments without a Cloud strategy are missing an opportunity.

Today, we can imagine a future where consumers will consume an enterprise as a Cloud. Enterprises, on their hand, will consume services as a Cloud. The key to success will be how Businesses and IT will get integrated to create a winning Customer Experience.

About the author

Dr. Anurag Srivastava is the Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President for Wipro's Global IT Business. His responsibilities include technology strategy planning, technology incubation through Center's of Excellence, business Innovation using futuristic technologies, technical stream & IP management, technology alliances in advanced areas with industry and academic forums.

Prior to this role, he was head of the Wipro Energy and Sustainability Services business. He was also responsible for starting the Consulting business for Wipro Infotech and additionally led key strategic business transformational initiatives for Telecom, Telecom Equipment, Infrastructure, and Government industry verticals to build newer services/business models.

Outsourcing company Mitie has spent £110.8 million to buy home care provider Enara, the fourth-largest home care businesses in the UK.

Enara, which is based in Surrey, employs 6,000 workers who are involved in giving care to the elderly.

The move comes as Mitie seek to expand in the growing healthcare market. Mitie said the acquisition would provide a “scalable platform to compete in the growing outsourced health and social care sector".

The government have proposed plans to provide NHS nurses and midwives with £100 million in funding for technology services and equipment in a bid to reduce paperwork and increase available patient time.

New technology could include handheld mobile devices and digital record entry devices in order to reduce paperwork. The fund would be loaned to the NHS, however only a small percentage would be repayable.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said, ““Most nurses and midwives chose their profession because they wanted to spend time caring for patients, not filling out paperwork. New technology can make that happen”.

US based World BPO Forum Community have partnered with the publishers of Professional Outsourcing Magazine, Purple Cow Media, in a move which will see the publishers become the European media partner for the Community.

The partnership will see a range of cross party services provided by the two companies, including software and online services from the Community and content relating to World BPO Forum Community interests from Purple Cow.

Director of Purple Cow Media, Jonathan Yarlett, said: “Having experienced firsthand what both the Forum and Community offer, it is clear that our principles of independent research, expert analysis and thought leadership are equally matched by everything the Forum stands for and is trying to achieve.”

After a protracted period of negotiation, the UK governmental plan to invest £530 million in local authorities to provide super-fast broadband, is to be green-lighted by the European Commission.

The funding is designed to develop comprehensive coverage of superfast broadband in rural areas, through fibre optic networks.

Issues regarding the roll-out have included criticism aimed at the lack of competition, including a report from the House of Lords Communications Committee, which highlighted BT’s dominance of broadband contracts.

Industry giants BAE Systems and EADS have abandoned a proposed merger worth £25 billion.

In a joint statement the two businesses said that stakeholder concerns including the involvement of the UK, France and German governments, had meant that a agreeable position could not be reached before the 5pm deadline.

The announcement stated that: "It has become clear that the interests of the parties' government stakeholders cannot be adequately reconciled with each other or with the objectives that BAE Systems and EADS established for the merger".