Industry news

The government has announced the launch on the Open Data Institute (ODI), marking a significant step forward in their Open Data policy.

The institute aims to provide an environment in which business, the public sector, academic institutions and developers can come together and maximise the commercial potential of open data, whilst making advances towards sustainable policy.

Plans for the ODI strategy were revealed in November 2011, however, the embryo organisation secured funding from the government's Technology Strategy Board last month, which may amount to £10m over the next five years.

The project will be headed up by data experts Professors Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt. "The institute will connect together lots of people excited about open data,” said Berners-Lee. “Those who produce it, with those who want to put it to use in all sorts of fields and every kind of industry.”

SAP and cloud-based e-commerce vendor Ariba announced yesterday a deal worth $4.3bn, which is set to close in the third calendar quarter of this year.

Once finalised the deal will see the Ariba transaction substantially grow SAP's presence in cloud software, following on from its recent $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors, a company focused on human resources applications.

SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott said during a conference call with media and analysts that Ariba's network will grow to more than 1 million companies this year, and emphasised the huge growth potential it offered.

Ariba's trading network and procurement applications would also complement SAP's cloud-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite Business ByDesign, as well as the Business One application for smaller companies, McDermott said.

Aldermore Bank has signed a £1.8 million extension to a data and analytics deal agreed with Experian back in 2011, with the new updated contract totalling £4.1 million.

Aldermore Bank will increase its use of the TransactSM application processing system as well as Hunter fraud prevention software throughout the organisation. In addition to incorporating Experian’s Delphi for Customer Management service to track changes in the credit risk profile of existing customers and to identify opportunities for up-selling additional products.

Paul Myers, COO at Aldermore Bank, says: “Experian’s analytics and data expertise have enabled us to effectively control both credit and fraud risk, and to run a fast and efficient process at the point of application. This partnership extension will enable further improvements in these areas, extend the positive experience we provide to new customers across all areas of the business and to spot opportunities to strengthen and deepen relationships with our best customers.”

Millstream, a procurement services provider, has secured a £4.8million deal to run Norway’s national procurement database.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond has praised the contract win, citing it as an excellent example of Scottish companies developing strong ties with Norway, a key export partner.

The Aberdeen-based company has provided the Doffin portal for the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi) in Norway since the end of 2005 and won the renewal following a competitive tendering process.

The seven-year contract, which is one of the largest won by Millstream, will start later this year and has the option to be extended for a further five years.

Millstream is the only company providing national public procurement websites for several European member states and currently operates similar websites in Ireland and Scotland, where it runs the Public Contracts Scotland portal.

The Doffin portal was set up to help Norwegian public bodies to create and publish tender notices in accordance with Norwegian regulations, and all public contracts must be advertised on the site.

Since Millstream was first awarded the contract, it has saved the public purse around £2million a year by cutting the cost of publishing public sector notices from £2.7 million to £625,000.

Tim Williams, managing director of Millstream, said: “This is a significant win for us and the fact we have been reappointed underlines Difi’s confidence in the portal we provide for all procurement notices in Norway, as well as demonstrating that UK businesses can still win business overseas.

He continued: “Millstream’s main objective is to provide an easy and efficient procurement service to people who are buying or providing services in the public sector."

Demand for analytics services from users in the life sciences industry has helped drive growth in the UK and Europe, according to Cognizant.

The outsourcing giant posted a 3.5% increase in European revenue for its first quarter earnings for 2012 (an 11 percent increase year-on-year), despite a difficult economic climate.

Paul Roehrig, assistant VP of corporate strategy at Cognizant, said: “Primarily our focus is on banking and the financial services in the UK, as well as life sciences and pharmaceuticals. We are seeing good demand in those industries, for example, in life sciences there is demand around clinical data management and commercial analytics.”

Cognizant believe that users are focusing more on core business functions and outsourcing the periphery consequences of the process or what Roehrig describes as the “contextual”.

Roehrig exemplified in that the core goal of business analytics might be to analyse data and extract insight, while the “contextual” will be the management and cleaning of the information: “More focus on what is core will help create a more lean organisation and enable more business-efficient decisions.”

Cognizant have also benefitted from increased demand for cloud, social and mobile services.

Roehrig said: “We are also having lots of good interest in business process services. [Businesses] are looking for end-to-end business process solutions.”

HP has implemented new AppSystem for the SAP HANA database to T-Mobile US. The venture aims to reduce the time required to analyse information from more than one week to less than a day.

HP AppSystems for SAP HANA is a portfolio of solutions that are preconfigured with HP Services to address the varying needs of customer-database environments. The portfolio includes HP ProLiant servers, HP Storage and HP Networking. Together, HP and SAP offer customers high availability and storage capacity for mission-critical workloads running SAP application software.

T-Mobile, the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG, provides more than 33 million mobile customers with customized wireless plans, depending on smartphone and data needs. It conducts highly targeted customer communications about mobile phone services and offers, but its previous analytics solution was too complex and could not track customer offers in a timely way.

The solution—built on HP Converged Infrastructure in collaboration with SAP AG and deployed in just two weeks—enhances T-Mobile’s ability to deliver targeted marketing campaigns to customers by transforming the way it delivers, manages and measures its wireless plan offers.

“T-Mobile wanted to accelerate the timing and precision of our marketing campaigns to increase customer and shareholder value,” said Erez Yarkoni, chief information officer, T-Mobile US, Inc. Yarkoni said: “We selected SAP HANA running on HP Converged Infrastructure to achieve this result.”

To assist T-Mobile in the implementation and configuration of an HP AppSystem for SAP HANA, HP provided services to preintegrate the hardware and software, on-site startup for quick integration into T-Mobile’s environment, and support services.

“T-Mobile needed faster and better customer insight from its varied data systems,” said Paul Miller, vice president, Converged Systems, HP. He continued: “HP and SAP quickly delivered a turnkey solution that provides simplicity, performance and faster time to value.”

Miller continued: “SAP, in cooperation with HP, worked to support the creation and delivery of a unique and differentiated customer-tracking solution for T-Mobile,” said Steve Lucas, executive vice president and general manager, Global Database and Technology, SAP. “With SAP HANA, T-Mobile can more effectively track its marketing campaigns’ success.”

Atos, an international IT services company, has signed a contract with Historic Scotland, which will provide support to the agency in the delivery of their key IT programmes including a new Visitor Attraction System.

Atos, whose Scottish headquarters are based in Livingston, will provide service desk, desktop and data centre services to Historic Scotland – the Scottish Government’s agency responsible for safeguarding the country’s historic environment - to enable their IT modernisation programmes.

Atos will deliver IT services to over 70 locations across Scotland including Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness, as well as Orkney’s Skara Brae Prehistoric Village and Linlithgow Palace.

The initial three-year agreement represents the first time Atos has worked with the Scottish Government agency and Atos’ Senior Vice President in Scotland, Gavin Thomson, believes the relationship will have significant benefits for all involved.

“This contract win is incredibly good news for our business growth in Scotland. We look forward to developing a long term relationship with Historic Scotland, focussing on delivering their key business objectives and utilising our experience in delivering critical IT services within the public sector.” said Mr Thomson.

“From Summer 2012, Historic Scotland will start to use the new service. The renewal of the organisation’s IT and how it is delivered, is vital to their success in delivering their corporate plan and championing Scotland’s historic environment.”

The contract represents Atos’ first win as an approved supplier on the national framework placed on behalf of the Scottish Public Sector by Scottish Procurement, which provides all Scottish Public and Third sector bodies access to leading IT managed services organisations, allowing a more streamlined procurement process, and access to the most competitive prices.

The framework includes Atos and other service providers that are capable of meeting a diverse range of services to meet the requirements of public sector bodies including service desk, desktop support, server support, application and website hosting, application and website support, and disaster recovery services.

“With 1,500 employees in Scotland, serving customers in over 100 locations across Scotland from Dumfries and Galloway to the Highlands and Islands, Atos is well equipped to meet the evolving needs of Historic Scotland,” added Mr Thomson.

“Our shared service delivery model will make it easier to scale-up and down services based on Historic Scotland’s needs, to meet seasonal demands and business change. “

Jimmy Budge, Historic Scotland’s Head of IT, said: “This contract is an important step towards delivering a more modern, robust and efficient IT system for Historic Scotland. This will enable us to provide IT systems across the business and a number of key visitor sites that will deliver a better service to customers and more effective ways of working across the agency.”

In March, Atos was announced as an Official Supporter of Glasgow 2014 for Games Management Systems and Games Information Systems. The company is already the Worldwide IT Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has released the new NHS Information Strategy. Patients will be able to book GP appointments and see test results online under the new strategy which Lansley believes will give individuals more “power”.

Under the new strategy, smartphone apps are to be established to help patients choose between services, while medical records will be accessible online within the next three years.

Lansley said: "The internet has revolutionised how people shop, bank and travel, and for too long the NHS has not been part of that.These proposals will ensure that the NHS will become easier to understand, easier to access and will drive up standards of care”.

He continued: "If people are going to be able to choose, with their doctor, which hospital will provide them with the best care, they will need all the latest information."

A new website will be developed in order to help patients choose the best care, covering NHS hospitals, community services and social care, as well as providing information on charities and voluntary groups.

Lansley also believes that online booking for GP appointments will end the "8am rush" of people phoning in. Repeat prescriptions and test results will also be accessible online.

Worldwide IT outsourcing (ITO) grew 7.8% in 2011. In a report by analyst firm Gartner, spending on ITO in 2011 reached $246 billion, compared to $228.7 billion in the previous year. Forty three ITO businesses sold more than $1 billion worth of services individually.

“Indian-based IT services providers and providers rooted in cloud-based services delivered the highest growth rates in 2011,” said the report.

IBM maintained its status as the number one IT service provider, with a 7.8% growth in revenue to $26.9 billion, accounting for 10.9% of the world ITO market. HP grew by only 2%, but retained its position as number two in the market with a 6.1% share. Fujitsu, helped by currency gains, leapfrogged CSC into third place. Accenture experienced the biggest growth out of the top five suppliers, with an 18% increase.

India-based ITO firms showed the highest levels of growth. Wipro ITO revenue grew by 12.3%, Infosys by 17.9%, HCL by 26.0%, TCS by 29.8%, and Cognizant by a huge 32.2% during 2011.

Bryan Britz, research director at Gartner, said: "Revenue cannibalisation resulting from client adoption of industrialised, and often cloud-based, services risks muting the growth opportunities for the ITO providers that are heavily weighted in infrastructure outsourcing.”

He continued: "Strategies will vary as clients are likely to pursue hybrid cloud strategies requiring providers to deliver some asset-light and some asset-heavy offerings — which will result in varying growth trajectories among competitors over the next several years."

It has been revealed that the ITO industry is on the up, despite difficult economic times. Worldwide IT outsourcing (ITO) grew by 7.8% in 2011 according to a report by analyst firm Gartner. Spending on ITO in 2011 reached $246 billion, compared to $228.7 billion in the previous year.

Unsurprisingly, it seems that cloud-based applications stimulated the growth, and consequently, because of its open source platform, offshore clients have been able to benefit: “Indian-based IT services providers and providers rooted in cloud-based services delivered the highest growth rates in 2011,” said the report.

So why is India in particular the offshore destination of choice? India rose to prominence in the late-90s when it was used to find a quick-fix for the millennium bug. The trend for outsourcing lower value, repetitive IT processes continued in the early years.

Cynics may suggest that India’s main attraction as an offshore destination is its low cost of labour. However, this is not sustainable for the industry, as India is expected to lead salary increases in Asia/the pacific. Instead, Indian outsourcers look to differentiate themselves through innovation.

Sunil Munsif, Vice President, Application Lifecycle Services of Capgemini UK Plc said: “Over the past five years, India has focused on going up the value chain and western clients now recognise India’s contribution to economic performance extending beyond managing expenditures. India now plays a role in reducing enterprise costs, not merely with cost cutting but by changing business processes, workforce practices and information use.”

Indian outsourcers have also benefited from delivering the infrastructure to allow innovation to flourish. Munsif stated: “Movement towards SaaS and Cloud computing, shared services and more selective outsourcing are also taking firmer shape as near-term priorities to address constrained budgets. The big focus is on delivering innovation through a variety of means including industry-specific Centres of Excellence in Indian and delivering high-end consulting skills from India.”

Particularly through these Centres of Excellence, it can be seen how India is investing in the skills of its workers, and providing them with the tools to deliver innovation. On the other hand, the UK is some way behind exemplified by poor IT course participation rates. However, plans to reform the IT curriculum, which Education Secretary Michael Gove described as “dull and demotivating”, are already in place, with a new regime set to start in September 2014, as only 0.5% of all A-Level students taking the course in 2011.

It soon becomes clear that India have benefited by differentiating themselves through innovation and providing their workers with skills required to do so. Hopefully this can also be the case in the UK.