Industry news

Global IT Anglo-Dutch services firm Logica, whose clients include companies such as BT, Shell, BAE Systems has recommended a £1.7 billion takeover offer by Canadian CGI Group Inc.

Logica has suffered from setbacks from the European economic downturn, which has seen many of the company’s key clients including government public sectors reduce IT spending in order to make cost-savings.

If the offer is accepted CGI will see their sales and staff numbers rise by over double and place the company in direct competition with firms such as Accenture, Cap Gemini and IBM. Rival offers should also not be ruled out from Indian companies looking at European expansion.

Logica chairman David Tyler said: "Given the very limited geographic overlap and CGI's strong reputation for successful integration, we believe this transaction will offer great opportunities for Logica's people."

The acquisition of Buddy Media by Salesforce comes on the back similar acquisitions by rival companies as they look to deliver on the social CRM in the cloud, with social marketing integration.

Buddy Media provides social marketing and specialised campaign management, with a strong sales pipeline and customer base including Mattel, L’Oreal and Virgin Mobile. The acquisition is expected to be around $800 million.

Carter Lusher Research Fellow & Chief Analyst at Ovum, commented: “it is extremely likely that Salesforce will invest heavily in Buddy Media's R&D and sales force. The Buddy Media brand will likely be retained.”

Global Engineering and IT services provider Mahindra Satyam have announced the setting up of an delivery centre for Aerospace and Defense in Toulouse, France, as part of the companies European expansion strategy.

Mahindra Satyam previously set up a German based Aerospace centre in 2008. The new centre is expected to ramp-up operations and create opportunities for local talent in Engineering, Information Technology and Communications domains.

CP Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam, said “The large talent pool coupled with excellent infrastructure in the region offers an environment conducive to driving business growth and creating a more seamless customer experience.”

Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire police forces plan to merge their HR systems into one shared service.

The HR back office system will be provided by Capita in a £2.3 million contract over a 5-year period. The service will compile data for HR, duty management, health and safety and training for the combined three forces.

The combined shared service is expected to save the three forces around £900,000 per year. The back office system provided by Capita will allow for the future integration of payroll and accounting services in the future.

Deputy chief constable Peter Goodman, said: “For the police, a shared system means reduced costs, enhanced processes and effective business transformation.”

The government has admitted that the Communications Green Paper which was due to be published last year, has no fixed deadline.

The delayed Communications Green Paper which is meant to set the future policy for UK digital infrastructure and broadband is according to Ed Vaizey, minister for culture, still on track for publication by 2015. The Communications Green Paper is designed to set the regulatory framework for both the communications and media sectors aimed at pushing innovation and growth within the UK.

Ed Vaizey , said: “The Communications Review remains on course and, subject to the legislative programme, the government hope to introduce new legislation before the end of this parliament.”

The Welsh Government has published a report setting a target of £400 million in investment for delivering super-fast broadband up until 2015, for business and residents.

The report details funding of around £57 million from the UK government and £70 million from European sources, with the remaining funding coming from within the Welsh Government.

The report stated that Wales hoped to deliver high-speed broadband throughout the country by 2015, however the document failed to distinguish between what was classed as ‘high-speed’ or ‘super-fast’.

The Home Affairs Committee has expressed worry surrounding privatisation of IT services within police forces.

The Committee raised concerns regarding the procurement process, with Keith Vaz MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, commenting that: “greater private-sector involvement are being taken without clarity over their scope."

The Committee criticised outsourcing being carried between Surrey and the West Midlands Police for lacking in clarity, while highlighting the e-Borders programme as an example of wasted money due to the failure to establish clear goals.

A survey carried out by mobile and internet service provider Everything Everywhere recorded that 86 percent of UK businesses believed 4G would increase productivity.

The research also recorded that 93 percent of businesses wanted a 4G service across the UK as rapidly as possible.

The research comes as 4G faces delays from UK mobile operators. Martin Stiven, vice president of B2B at Everything Everywhere, said: “Half of the countries on the F20 list of the world’s biggest economies already have 4G, leaving British businesses at risk of falling behind rivals.”

Global business services and management company Aegis have announced today the launch of Aegis Proactive Intelligence (Pi), a new state-of-the-art-solution, designed to drive management services.

Aegis Pi is capable of utilising real time data as well as historic in order to deliver new insights into data streams, from providing insight into in-depth operations to a global perspective, while remaining a mobile and user-friendly.

Aparup Sengupta, MD and Global CEO, Aegis said, "Aegis Pi empowers organisations to predict business challenges before they arise and act pre-emptively to mitigate their impact.”

The government’s G-Cloud is growing, increasing in both size and scope after the success of the first framework rollout. The second framework of the G-Cloud, designed to provide the public sector with the benefits of cloud sourcing was announced last week, coming on the back of the release of the second iteration of the Cloudstore.

The G-Cloud was designed to reduce criticism of the public sector, which was widely seen to be failing in offering cost effective contracts for tenancy, combined with a view that big business won out against SMEs even in cases where they had not presented the best proposal.

Government Cloud Store Goes Live

The first framework, released in February, saw 257 suppliers sign to the service offering around 1,700 services to the public sector with over 50 percent of the suppliers being SMEs.

The G-Cloud model is one of constant re-releases in order to rapidly update the framework and ensure that the procurement service keeps up-to-date with changes in technology, while providing a rapidly updating service.

Whitehall has already released examples of where according to the government the G-Cloud has been successful. The NHS Central Southern Commissioning Support Services (CSS) employed the services of INOVEM Collaborate software in order to increase communications and collaboration. Natural England (NE)has also bought an e-tendering SaaS product from supplier Bravo Solutions and gave positive feedback regarding the simplicity of buying services via the cloud.

Michael Bateman, G-Cloud office support and ‘personal shopper’, said in regards to NE: “When we discussed using G-Cloud they were ‘very pleased with the experience’ and felt ‘it’s a fantastic framework, very easy to use’.”

IMGROUP, a member of the G-Cloud supplier community, have seen an increased demand on the services they provide via the G-Cloud. Jeremy Neal, Head of Online Services at IMGROUP, when interviewed by Sourcingfocus.com, commented that he expects the service “to become a central point for public sector procurement, augmenting and in some cases replacing legacy buying frameworks. The public sector now has the means to leverage the benefits of cloud computing, taking advantage of the greater agility and breadth of choice offered by the G-Cloud market”.

Jeremy Neal anticipated that the G-Cloud would become “the new normal” in IT services and that users have “yet to see the tipping point that delivers this market reality, but it will happen. The prevailing economic climate presents the same clear business case for the cloud in every sector”.

Business undertaken through the Cloud is increasing however users still want to see proof of purchase before contracts are undertaken through the service. The G-Cloud has faced challenges from both security concerns and in persuading departments from using the service efficiently.The G-Cloud represents a new service with issues still existing that require refinement.

Challenges of the G-Cloud

The G-Cloud is expected to cost £4.93 million including the CloudStore, with expected savings to amount to £340 according to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude. The actual cost of the G-Cloud ranks as a very inexpensive project when compared to past public sector IT contracts. While still early days the G-Cloud seems to be experiencing success in offering multiple vendors in an open market through an intuitive service.