Industry news

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire NDS Group Ltd., a leading provider of video software and content security solutions that enable service providers, and media companies to securely deliver and monetise new video entertainment experiences.

The acquisition of NDS will expand Cisco's ability to transform how service providers and media companies worldwide deliver next-generation video experiences to subscribers.

NDS uses the combination of a software platform and services to create differentiated video offerings for service providers that enable subscribers to intuitively view, search and navigate digital content anytime, anywhere and on any device.

Hampshire and Oxfordshire county councils are planning an ICT partnership that would see them supporting each other in the use of different systems.

A memorandum of understanding is already in place and the move will go ahead if it wins approval at Oxfordshire's cabinet meeting on 20 December.

The first step is expected to be Hampshire providing supporting the other council's SAP system when its current service contract with Serco ends in late 2012. This is predicted to save the council £1m over three years.

Wipro Technologies, the Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited, has announced the launch of its NextGen Care Management solution for the US healthcare market, specifically aimed at primary care physicians and healthcare providers.

Wipro's application is built on Force.com, salesforce.com's social enterprise platform for employee facing social apps and, is uniquely positioned as a cloud based care management services and adopts the core principles of patient centricity, coordinated healthcare, interoperability, mobility, and outcome to better manage chronic, post-acute and elderly patient population.

General physicians and specialists can now experience continuity of information through a longitudinal view of patient's medical history, assessment and clinical reports. Primary care physicians and specialists can also form Medical Care panels, online, to be deeply engaged with the patients to maintain long term relationships and facilitate care across the continuum.

CSG has won a five-year, $9 million outsourcing contract with the Northern Territory Government-owned insurance and banking firm TIO.

CSG will handle all of TIO's infrastructure, networking and voice systems, including Windows-based systems and IBM AS 400 servers.

The deal will allow CSG to engage in both of its strengths — printer management and ICT services — according to the company.

"By outsourcing to a supplier with greater capability and skills than what we have in-house, TIO can improve our IT systems in a cost-effective and sustainable way," TIO general manager corporate services Jeff Wright said in a statement.

The contract to provide Wi-Fi access to London Underground stations has been awarded to Virgin Media.

The mobile internet service will be rolled out initially to 80 Underground stations by July in preparation for the Olympics, and to 120 stations by the end of the year.

The service will be free to Virgin Media customers after the Olympic Games, and will provide limited free content from the Tfl and full mobile internet to non-Virgin users via a pay-as-you-go plan.

London mayor Boris Johnson, said: "Millions of passengers will now be able to connect to their work, friends or access the latest news and travel information whilst on the move."

IT supplier Capgemini’s new contract with HM Revenue & Customs has cut annual IT costs by as much as half to £700 million.

The new contract with Capgemini will see multiple management systems standardized as one system in order to reduce IT costs while improving the level of service. Phil Pavitt, chief information officer at HMRC, said: "In three years we've cut our annual IT costs from £1.4 billion to £700 million, and soon it'll be £600 million."

These changes reflect a 25 percent budget cut in line with government savings. Pavitt points to IT service levels of 99.93 percent to demonstrate the savings from the Capgemini contract are sustainable. The renegotiated contract is set to run until 2017 and is predicted to further reduce costs over the coming 5 years.

593 IT jobs are to be cut and offshored to India by Lloyds Banking Group. The offshoring is also set to impact staff within IT across HBOS due to their merger with Lloyds TSB back in 2008.

Around 308 permanent IT jobs, and 205 UK contractual positions are being outsourced, with the company’s maintenance, service delivery and application developments teams to see the greatest losses.

Since the HSBOS merger Lloyds has cut nearly 5,000 IT jobs through integration of its multiple brand services, which has led to savings per year of more than £2 billion.

The LTU commented to its members, that, "It is disgraceful - and without any ethical justification - that the bank is offshoring yet more IT jobs abroad,"

BT has entered into a five-year contract to improve the office systems of European technical services provider Imtech.

The deal will see the integration of BT’s Field Force Automation (FFA) application, which serves to provide scheduling, resource management and improve customer service, with Imtech’s Dutch Building Services business unit.

Edwin Hageman, BT CEO, said that: "Imtech chose BT for the next five years over a number of specialist players."

160 different nursing areas within Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust have received e-rostering software to update the previously used paper based system.

The rollout extends an initial rollout to just 54 nursing areas within the trust, which over a three year period saved £750, 000.

E-rostering project manager for the Trust, Phildah Chifamba said that the Trust wanted to introduce an IT based system in order to optimise workflow, in contrast to the inefficient and time consuming paper based system of the past. Phildah said:"The e-rostering system allows users to see the pending requests and help managers to see which nurse has requested annual leave before another. When we were using paper rotas there was no audit trail."

SKF, who supplies bearings, seals and mechatronics have extended their 10 year IT outsourcing contract with HP for a further 5 years.

The contract will cover the improvement of IT services over 42 countries and 20,000 users through the transformation of SKF infrastructure, including the servicing of more than 10,000 service desk calls per month.

Mike Nefkens, senior vice president, Enterprise Services for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, said: “HP will help SKF take advantage of future technology and services advances, giving the company the flexibility to reach business objectives and achieve corporate growth plans.”