Industry news

Dell has created a $100 million credit fund aimed at providing Dell products to help in the early stages of growth.

The support is designed to increase rapid growth and expansion with the services provided from the credit fund including financial and scalable technology. Applicants will be able to apply for Dell Innovators Credit Fund, which will provide support services and a sales team along with funds.

Dell commented that the programme is aimed at providing funding for "all promising web-knowledgeable startups, regardless of industry."

Marks & Spencer have reported that its corporate social responsibility programme, began in 2007, has achieved £185 million in efficiency savings.

The programme had initially cost £200 million but efficiency savings have allowed M&S to reinvest millions back into the scheme.

The sustainability programme included a series of commitments, including waste recycling and becoming carbon neutral. M&S chief executive Marc Bolland, commented that: “Implementing new business models will necessitate more resilient and transparent supply chains. To this end we are already working with suppliers on a series of best practice programmes and factory standards on sustainability,”

According to market research firm IDC, European, African and Middle-Eastern server sales have fallen by 12 percent year-on-year.

The downwards trend in server purchases comes as business suffer from European economic woes. The continuing decline was the second consecutive annual decline in revenue which totalled $3.1 billion compared to the $3.5 biilion seen in the first quarter of 2011.

HP continued to hold the top spot in the market despite seeing sales fall by over 19 percent, while IBM and Dell came second and third respectively.

BT has released a new business intelligence system via cloud based technology.

The new system is integrated into BT’s Salesforce CRM database in order to increase agility and accurate decision making through the integration of data provided by 5,000 Salesforce users.

BT Retail said that the new programme would provide quality data provided to policy makers, by delivering relevant information “at the moment of value and making sure that it is timely and holistic."

Lockheed Martin has replaced 240 suppliers with a single vendor as part of a new one-year procurement contract with Arrow Electronics.

The contract will see Arrow provided more than 22,000 components for the technologies including radar systems, satellite equipment and other aerospace equipment. The procurement strategy is expected to be employed by Lockheed Martin to deliver upcoming contracts in order to reduce costs and increase overall efficiency.

Dan Pleshko, vice president, global supply chain operations for Lockheed Martin, said: “We are adapting our supply chain strategy to further improve programme execution, drive affordability and assure quality performance.”

International services’ company Serco have bought Vertex Public Sector Ltd In a deal worth £55.5 million.

The acquisition is designed to increase Serco’s BPO market share with the move bringing increased skills and capabilities to the business, focused in middle and back office, while extending the services that Serco offers.

David Poole, CEO for Serco’s European BPO business, commented "As well as providing us with additional client services, this acquisition fits into our public sector strategy by securing our position as the leading local government provider of middle and back office services.”

A report released by analyst house Forrester says that cloud computing does not represent the future of IT.

While many IT applications will be transferable to cloud based architecture, other will not. The future of IT will be represented by a mixed environment of cloud and physical on-site systems.

James Staten, an analyst at Forrester, said: "Not everything will move to the cloud as there are many business processes, data sets and workflows that require specific hardware or proprietary solutions that can’t take advantage of cloud economics. For this reason we’ll likely still have mainframes 20 years from now."

There’s a saying ‘do as I say, not as I do’ which seems to resonate in the executive corridor of far too many organisations. A survey of 300 IT security professionals proves just that as it revealed that board directors are most likely to ignore or flout security policies and procedures, with 42% cited as frequently ignoring them. The survey also revealed that rather than setting an example, over half of respondents were convinced that senior management believe that "the rules don't apply to them" when it comes to respecting IT security policies and procedures.

However, there’s also a phrase ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ and that’s what each person who doesn’t toe the security line is potentially exposing their company to.

Alarmingly, 52% of those surveyed agreed with the statement that the board directors have access to the most sensitive information yet have the least understanding of security. A worrying statistic when data loss has become a daily news headline and the regulators are hitting hard on organisations with lax attitudes towards data security.

“This is a tough problem. Seeing wanton disregard at a senior level for the policies and procedures put in place to protect an organisation is infuriating, and a real challenge for the CISO who must balance the needs of a business with the requirement to protect assets.” said Nigel Stanley, Practice Leader for Security at Bloor Research.

He added, “I consider the starting point for all security measures to be a governance statement signed by the board, at least with this you have some comeback if senior managers and directors aren’t playing ball.”

Education is important so that every single person knows what they should be doing and why they’re doing it. However, with 65% of companies offering the same level of training to all employees, the reality of this practice is money is being wasted. Training people who might not need it, while not providing enough to the most at risk groups will leave staff not educated enough in the risks they can pose to the company. Instead training should be tailored to reflect the level and depth of information people are privilege to, balanced against the risks they’re exposed to. On top of that organisations need to get savvy and introduce solutions that don’t allow anyone, regardless of how far up the corporate tree they sit, to flout policies and procedures.

Organisations need to take an enterprise approach to IT security awareness programs and take the following steps:

Introduce policies and procedures that keep the organisation safe

Write them clearly so everyone can understand them

Think carefully when signing off policies and procedures about whether the measures outlined are workable in daily practice. People will always find ways around rules that prevent them from doing their jobs effectively.

Improve IT security education, so that every single person not only knows what they should be doing, but also why they’re doing it and the consequences of not following company policies.

Differentiate IT security awareness programs, so people don't get bogged down with policies and procedures that don't apply to them. People are far more likely to remember and adhere to security rules that are applicable and relate to their job function.

Regularly update policies and make sure everyone knows when this has happened.

Important security practices and technologies should be enforced without the option to be overridden.

Disciplinary action should be applied consistently across the organisation when an infringement occurs.

Whether you are realigning your current deal or entering your first outsourcing contract, benchmarking data can be used to manage and improve provider performance.

As we are slowly but surely climbing our way out of recession, corporations are shifting emphasis from maintaining position to focussing on achieving sustainable profitable growth and seeking ways to scale and replicate successful business processes globally. Process benchmarking is one of the effective ways of identifying the best processes to replicate or highlighting those which need improvement.

Although the benefits are obvious, benchmarking seems to be one of the major IT challenges facing Government departments.

Martyn Hart, NOA chairman, has a clear view on the subject. “I am of the opinion that no government contract costing more than £1 million per annum should be signed off without a clearly-defined, rigorous benchmarking programme. In order to analyse value-for-money, major projects should use an independent organisation to benchmark the deal. Benchmarking needs to incorporate a detailed normalisation process, employing a wide range of parameters, to allow for like-for-like comparison against other outsourcing contracts.

“This is essentially an outsourcing exchange rate mechanism, enabling you to review spending against a peer group of highly-complex, seemingly disparate, outsourcing deals; helping you test your provider not merely against other government department projects, but the IT marketplace as a whole. If your project is seen to be under-performing, then there are consequences for your provider. It would have to improve scope and quality of services, reduce costs, or maybe even give a refund… imagine the sensationalist headlines that would make!”

Mr Hart believes that the basis and methodology for normalisation should be open and transparent – there should be no secrets, no ‘black box.’ Currently, there is no internationally recognised formula for benchmarking and normalisation.

It seems as if a ‘normalisation’ of normalisation processes - a global code of IT benchmarking – could make deal comparisons clearer. This, in turn, could drive up standards and make the marketplace even more competitive. All of which would be truly in keeping with the key teachings of the Open Services white paper: transparency of information and freedom to choose the best provider for the job.

Although benchmarking is a time-consuming process, it can also provide research for organisations to compare and align internal strategies.

Last year Ochre House benchmarked a range of major companies, as well as a targeted selection of fast growing SMEs to measure their talent management strategies. Ochre House found that one of the most worrying findings of the research has been the fact that very few organisations have any real concept of what skills and capabilities their employees will need in five years’ time, let alone how feasible it is to source such skills in the current marketplace.

Helena Parry, director at recruitment outsourcing and talent management specialist, Ochre House, said: “From our own benchmarking, we found that few businesses really plan ahead for their employees’ needs and development. Those businesses who take the idea of strategic workforce planning seriously are able to provide a template for any others that might care to follow their lead. One of the most striking examples is Arcelor Mittal, the world’s leading steel company. Here HR is one of only two functions that report directly into the chairman and CEO, Lakshmi Mittal and is tasked with maintaining a rolling plan which identifies what capabilities the company will require over the next three and five years and how to access them.”

Overall - benchmarking is not simply a technique. Your organisation is unique; and it needs a specific recipe for your specific needs for your specific situation. Benchmarking is also not just collecting metrics, or numbers. How to achieve those numbers is the fundamental mission of benchmarking, but if all you do is collect numbers, all you’ll accomplish is to be a good number collector. However, if you compare and contrast your process measurements with those organisations superior to yours, then you will learn to change for the better.

So final words of wisdom? Formal benchmarking should be used wisely, sparingly and jointly. The entire operation should be benchmarked – client-side and supplier side and jointly and openly respond to findings. Mutually select the benchmarking company and methodology and do it once or twice thoroughly in a 7-10 year deal.

In the past weeks, two key players in business software and enterprise services have moved rapidly to expand their social media capabilities in order to enhance their cloud-services, a byproduct of the increasing competition facing the Cloud market.

Both Oracle and Salesforce.com have recently enhanced there social media analytic capabilities. Salesforce.com have recently acquired social marketing vendor Buddy Media while Oracle has purchased Collective Intellect.

The £449 million acquisition of Buddy Media by Salesforce is designed to provide the company with specific targeted marketing capabilities through such social media sites as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Salesforce had previously acquired social media analytics firm Radian6 in 2011 which provided the database firm with the ability to track conversations through social media. Oracle moved to acquire Collective Intellect last week as the company looked to match the social media drive of its competitors. Collective Intellect, like Radian6 provides technology to track conversations through social media.

Salesforce.com acquires social media marketing vendor for £447 million

Oracle has recently moved to compete against the likes of, IBM, HP, Microsoft and particularly Salesforce whose strategy had revolved around social media and software for some time in delivering cloud-based customer management. The purchase of Virtue in May indicated the companies move into social media marketing, with the acquisition of software allowing for coordinated marketing campaigns and data analysis to measure effectiveness.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced this month the company’s focus on cloud-based applications when talking on the merits of the new software. His comments came as a departure from past remarks on the “gibberish” of the technology.

Oracle has now said in a statement that they possess the “most advanced and comprehensive social relationship platform," demonstrating the company’s commitment and speed in moving to aggressively compete in the social media market.

Oracle claims it is ready to deliver world’s ‘most comprehensive cloud’

The recent trend of Salesforce and Oracle alternatively buying businesses or ‘listing platforms’ with expertise in social media, reflects the on-going social media capabilities ‘war’ to deliver the most comprehensive product.

Rivalries in certain cases have gone from business rivalry on the markets to legal proceedings in court. Conflict erupted between Oracle and HP, with accusations and court proceedings following the end of Oracle’s support for HP technology. Oracle’s name crops up again in a legal dispute with Google over the copyright of the Java platform, which saw the presiding judge accusing Oracle of perusing damages like a “fishing expedition.”

The ‘war’ between business software and enterprise services providers is a fast moving case and casualties are inflicted on all sides in the race to capitalise the market. Oracle itself has struggled this year, failing to meet its second quarterly expectation, and has struggled to make gains against IBM in terms of server sales.

Competition between cloud software companies is getting fiercer, with no end in sight as the technology advances and the markets having yet to be saturated. The move towards social media, in providing advertising and analytics, reflects another step that IT firms are going to in order to differentiate themselves from their rivals.