Industry news

Electronic Arts (EA) is planning to employ 300 workers in its Irish facility, with the videogame maker already employing 400 workers in the Irish studio.

The investment comes with government support and represents a setback to the UK which has also sought to encourage video game investment.

EA COO Peter Moore, said: “Galway's mix of technology infrastructure and talent availability, combined with a pro-business environment, will help us expand on our existing foundation here."

The UK government are to invest a total of £114 million in providing superfast broadband to ten cities.

The new wireless broadband service of 80-100Mbps comes as part of the government’s move towards improved digital communications across the country and high speed broadband by 2015.

Secretary of state for culture and media, Maria Miller, said: “Fast broadband is essential for growth, and is key to the country’s economic future.”

The recent appointment of a new democratically elected president and prime minister is important to ITIDA because Egypt is being acknowledged as an attractive and dynamic destination for investors once more– a fact that is bound to help Egypt’s outsourcing industry.

For instance, new investments expanded and increased employment in the BPO-ITO sector by 41% in the past 18 months. HP, for example, has expanded its presence in the region and major multinationals including France Telecom and Intel have moved in and grown their Egyptian operations. Vodafone already has call centers in Egypt, and the Vodafone Ventures Fund (VVF) plans to invest more than US$ 3 million into 10 – 15 start-up companies working in technology and communications. VVF will provide the technical and technological support services for these companies through an incubation center at Vodafone’s headquarters in Smart Village, Cairo.

The Egyptian IT Service providers have been maintaining healthy growth margins as well, the data from the last round of Export IT Rebate program announced in January 2012, showed that 76 of the Egyptian providers are actively exporting to 80 countries, serving more than 500 clients, including more than 45 of the Fortune 1000, Forbes 2000, and Arab 100 companies.

I have been the CEO of ITIDA for nearly two years now, and I still find it exciting working for an organization that is driving Egypt’s IT outsourcing industry - because there is simply so much opportunity for growth in the region based on Egypt’s value proposition.

Egypt wants to offer foreign investors an abundance of world-class IT talent and a strong IT infrastructure, in an ideal geographical location at competitive prices.

I am experiencing a real sense of confidence in Egypt’s proposition right now. However, while Egypt’s future looks positive, there is still much work to be done, both at home and abroad. President Morsi’s administration is focused on economic and business policies that will revitalize investment. For example, the Government is committed to spending US$ 500 million on developing and modernizing Egypt’s network - so that the country can deliver fourth generation broadband connectivity.

Last week, Thomas Nides, the US Deputy Secretary of State for management and resources brought a high profile delegation of US officials and business people to Smart Village, promising more US investments in the region. With the Egyptian Minister for Communications and Information Technology, I had the privilege of attending talks with the delegates around what those investments might be, and we certainly have a number of attractive opportunities in the pipeline.

This endorsement from Secretary Nides, is exactly the support Egypt needs right now. After a period of uncertainty we are back, stronger than ever, and doing great work with our international business partners.

Jamal Muharram, the President of American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, also used the visit to confirm that IBM wants to expand its existing IT operations in Egypt and that nearly a hundred US businesses are currently looking at investing in the country.

I am also spreading the word, attending forums and conferences in Europe and North America talking about why Egypt is an attractive outsourcing destination. There is certainly a buzz about the new direction of our country, and I welcome you to come to Egypt to see it for yourself.

Compass, the world’s largest catering company, has agreed to pay $18m (£11m) to US Authorities for allegedly overcharging New York schools for meals. Chartwell, a US subsidiary of the UK company, stands accused of failing to pass on savings secured from its own suppliers to 39 schools in a period from 2003 to 2010.

The settlement is a further blow to the company that has previously faced allegations of corruption linked to UN contracts, and heavy criticism of the fare it serves to children in the UK, spearheaded by TV chef and political activist Jamie Oliver.

Accenture will provide Airedale NHS Foundation Trust with a computer system giving doctors access to over one million patient records, enabling them to share patient information in real time, across different health services.

TPP’s SystmOne will be used to deploy solutions for patient administration, emergency department management (inc. ambulances) and some hospital bed management modules.

Tim Rycroft, head of IT and information governance at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said:“SystmOne offers us the potential to join up patient care across primary, secondary and social care, creating a ‘one patient, one record' system. This means that clinicians in any care setting will have access to appropriate information about a patient.”

Salesforce.com has announced the release of Chatterbox, a application which allows for file storage within the companies social platform.

The announcement shows a move by the SaaS giant towards the public cloud market. The release of Chatterbox had come as a surprise move after Salesforce.com invested heavily in Box, which provides a similar service.

The file storage market preliminary sees storage system applications with embedded social media.

Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Terri McClure, said: "Salesforce has a huge install base and there is no clear leader in the category of online file sharing and collaboration for business - so this will be interesting."

Savings of £41 million have been achieved by the UK Government by reducing public sector websites by 61 to a total of 383.

The cuts have formed part of an on-going strategy, initiated in 2010, with 1,700 government sites cut, following a recommendation to create a single domain for public sector information.

This comes as the government prepares to replace Directgov sites and migrate to the new Gov.uk address.

The Cabinet Office detailed that the cost of running government websites came in at just under £108 million during 2011 and 2012.

Outsourcing giant Capita have received a government contract to find and remove illegal migrants within the UK.

The contract is based on a payment-by-results system, and is expected to be worth £40 million, with Capita beating Serco and two other companies to the bid.

Chief executive of the UK Border Agency Rob Whiteman, said: "Capita will be paid for the number of people they make contact with, and leave, and that's purely on a payment by results basis. If nobody leaves because they make contact with them, nobody will get paid."

At present they are 174,000 known illegal migrants within the UK.

The Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi has given the go-ahead for Heineken to complete the purchase of Asia Pacific Breweries.

The deal for Asia Pacific Breweries is now expected to go ahead with Heineken offering $4.6 billion for Sirivadhanabhakdi owned Fraser and Neave’s shares in the company.

The announcement saw Heineken's shares jump by as much as 5.4%.

Ian Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, claimed of corruption in the IBM Somerset County Council Southwest One outsourcing venture using parliamentary privilege.

Along with allegations of corruption, Liddell-Grainger said that the deal had been founded on lies from IBM, saying “IBM was telling a huge porky”.

The claim was made using parliamentary privilege, and repeated allegations made by the MP in 2008.

Liddell-Grainger said: "There is overwhelming evidence to prove that the auditors were grossly negligent. Southwest One should be properly examined by the National Audit Office".