Industry news

In a cost cutting bid, YouGov has relocated its data centre from Berlin to London.

Veeam Software's backup and replication software helped facilitate this, by virtualising the data in Berlin, for replication in London. This slashed costs of transporting equipment and data.

Nicholas Carter, You Gov director of global systems operations, said: "We had initially been very happy with the Berlin-based managed service, yet additional services and capability had to be taken on the providers' terms - reducing our flexibility and locking us into their costs."

American call centre company Conduit is creating 600 jobs in Cardiff, to provide homecare service for British Gas.

Conduit already employs nearly 2000 people in South Wales.

First Minister Carwyn Jones said "[this is] yet another indication that Welsh government policies are having a beneficial effect supporting the economy and creating jobs during these difficult times. Professional and financial services are a key growth sector for the Welsh economy and I am delighted that Conduit is yet again expanding its operations in Wales."

The government has officially launched CloudStore, it’s collection of 1700 pre-authorised cloud-based services, ready for government departments to purchase for 258 suppliers. It is divided into four categories: Infrastructure, platform, SaaS and consultancy services.

Francis Maude stated: ““Using cloud solutions that have already been secured and accredited will almost always be less expensive, and we will only pay for what we use. We will also know from the outset the cost of the product and, importantly, the cost of exit from contracts that will be no longer than 12 months.”

Chris Chant, G-Cloud Programme Director, said “The Public Sector will benefit immediately from this framework allowing them to adopt a range of Cloud services at reduced costs and improved agility without compromising performance or security. Costs that were previously averaging between £900 to £1500 per server per month, will be reduced to £150 or lower.”

The government has officially launched CloudStore, it’s collection of 1700 pre-authorised cloud-based services, ready for government departments to purchase for 258 suppliers. It is divided into four categories: Infrastructure, platform, SaaS and consultancy services.

Francis Maude stated: ““Using cloud solutions that have already been secured and accredited will almost always be less expensive, and we will only pay for what we use. We will also know from the outset the cost of the product and, importantly, the cost of exit from contracts that will be no longer than 12 months.”

Chris Chant, G-Cloud Programme Director, said “The Public Sector will benefit immediately from this framework allowing them to adopt a range of Cloud services at reduced costs and improved agility without compromising performance or security. Costs that were previously averaging between £900 to £1500 per server per month, will be reduced to £150 or lower.”

Groupon has bought Hyperpublic, an SME that develops location-based technology that can be integrated into other apps.

Hyperpublic seems a good fit for Groupon: one of its products, is API (application programming interface) called "Geo Deals & Events," which displays local deals and events depending on where a person is, such as concerts. Another of its products, Places+, allows users to search for local businesses, restaurants and points of interest.

Hyperpublic proudly declared that Groupon's acquisition is "a huge win for our team, our investors and everyone who contributed to our company over the past two years." Terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

The government is paying an inordinately wasteful amount of money in both redundancy packages and agency fees to fill vacant civil service positions.

Civil servants received almost £90m in redundancy payments last quarter. Concurrently, the government spent £30m on employment agency fees. Jon Trickett, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office accused the government of being in a “headlong rush” to casualise the service, without paying heed to whether positions would need to be refilled or not.

HH Global has made two senior level appointments to its IT division.

Alastair Sames, previously CIO at Adare, takes up the role of Head of IT Solutions at HH Global, whilst Nick Doyle, previously at Communisis plc and Verifone, joins as Head of IT Service Delivery.

Robert MacMillan, CEO, HH Global comments: “IT is the lynchpin of most organisations today, both internally and in the service they provide to clients. For HH Global, dealing with client projects which are time critical and across the world, it is imperative that we have a robust and sound IT network and structure. Alastair and Nick will add real value, not only in ensuring our IT systems are resilient, but also providing an innovative approach to IT which makes HH Global’s offer stand out from the crowd.”

CSC has told TechWeek Europe that it may axe up to 500 staff following the botched NHS National Programme for IT (NpfIT) project.

“We can confirm that, regrettably, we have recently started a formal 90-day consultation process in the UK which could reduce the number of people working on our NHS account by up to a maximum of 500 people,” CSC told TechWeek Europe in an emailed statement. “This action is necessary mainly because we have now substantially completed many key development activities with NHS, and are now moving away from a focus on development work,” it said.

St George's healthcare trust is leading eight other London trusts in setting up a framework contract worth between £250m and £400m. The deal will provide an electronic patient record (EPR) system, a patient administration system (PAS), a clinical portal and hosting services.

The four-year framework, advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union, says that the EPR/PAS solution will cover a full range of administrative and clinical functional modules required by the trusts.

As well as software, suppliers will be required to provide licensing and maintenance, transition and deployment services, application support and solution monitoring.

The Group reports total 2011 revenues of €9,693 million, up 11.4% on published revenues (i.e. at current Group structure and exchange rates), representing growth of some 2 points above the objective set at the beginning of the year.

On a like-for-like basis (i.e. at constant Group structure and exchange rates), revenues rose 5.6%, with the difference between these two rates primarily due to the consolidation of CPM Braxis (Brazil) and Prosodie (France), acquired in October 2010 and July 2011, respectively.

Bookings during the year totaled €9,903 million, down on last year (-8.4% like-for-like) during which a large number of Outsourcing Services contracts were renewed. Conversely, Technology Services, Local Professional Services and Consulting Services reported 6.2% growth in bookings and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.12, confirming the dynamism of these markets.