Industry news

Logica, a leading business and technology service company, has announced that it has been selected by BAE Systems, the global defence and security company, to provide multi-process HR Outsourcing Services for its employees in the UK.

Logica will design, build and run a transformed HR service for BAE Systems that directly supports the future requirements of its business. This service will be based on Logica's Dynamic HRO offering and harnesses Oracle's PeopleSoft Human Capital Management and Oracle E-Business Suite Payroll to maximise performance improvements. Additionally, by adopting Logica's innovative approaches to supplier ecosystem collaboration, advanced analytics and business benefit realisation, BAE Systems will accelerate the development of its enhanced strategic HR capability.

Haydn Clulow, HR Director, Transformation, BAE Systems said, "We recognise that our business needs both agility and flexibility if it is to respond successfully to our changing market landscape. We are pleased to have Logica on board and see them as a key partner in our drive to build the people management capability that will enable our future success."

The Government Procurement Service has advertised for suppliers to join a wide-ranging £4bn ICT framework.

The framework will be open to public sector organisations for two years, according to a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union and will be open to include central government departments and their arm's length bodies and agencies, non-departmental public bodies, NHS organisations and local councils.

St. Helens and Knowsley teaching hospitals have entered into a 1.3 million agreement with EMC Symmetrix to revamp its storage infrastructure.

The deal takes 14,000 users into the cloud, providing them with rapid access to patient data such as X-Rays, medical records and clinical scans.

Viktor Vekselberg, one of Russia’s richest men, is spearheading an initiative to create a Russian rival to Silicone Valley or the UK’s own Tech City.

Skolkovo Research and Business Park, expected to cost 6bn, will be used to create an innovation cluster of a university, a research park and a city housing 35,000. It will be Russia’s first PPP (private public partnership) concerning education and enterprise. Construction has already started; the first students are expected in 2014.

Multi-billionaire Vekselberg will bring a delegation of executives to the UK next week, in the hope of attracting more international companies and institutions to join the project.

A total of seven police forces have inked contracts for Project Athena, a framework agreement for IT systems to enable data sharing between the police. A further five forces are in the process of deliberation. The seven forces - Essex, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent and Suffolk – will pay a total of £32 million.

Athena supersedes local police systems that manage data on offenders, suspects, victims and incidents, with a single IT system that details police investigations, intelligence and defendants across all member forces.

Fujitsu Canada has acquired business and information technology (IT) consulting offering and service provider TMC.

Fujitsu Canada president André Pouliot stated that acquiring TMC enhances Fujitsu Canada's offerings and bolsters its presence in Saskatchewan, an area experiencing considerable economic growth. “By combining forces, both organizations will offer a broader line of services and products that will not only meet the needs of the province's customers, but also allow us to support all our customers in Central and Western Canada in terms of managed services, application development and service desks," Pouliot said.

Commodities trader Glencore is in talks to buy mining group Xstrata in an all-share transaction that could create a combined group worth more than 50 billion pounds ($79 billion), shaking up the industry with its biggest deal to date.

Glencore, the world's largest diversified commodities trader, already owns 34 percent of Xstrata and a tie-up between the two -- a deal which would trump Rio Tinto's $38 billion acquisition of Alcan in 2007 -- has long been expected, as Glencore aims to add more mines to its trading clout

The world's biggest social network is expected to seek a $75 billion to $100 billion valuation in its IPO, the most anticipated stock offering from Silicon Valley since Google Inc went public in 2004. At Granite Investment Advisors in New Hampshire, Chief Investment Officer Scott Schermerhorn has already been fielding queries from clients eager to get in on the action.

"We had some clients call and once we step them through the numbers, they sober up," he said. "The valuation is 100 times earnings in a stock market that is trading at 12."

Sony has warned it is heading for a bigger-than-expected ¥220bn (£1.8bn) annual loss, presenting a daunting task for incoming chief executive Kazuo Hirai, who has vowed to move quickly to turn things around.

Overtaken by more innovative rivals such as Apple and Samsung over the past decade, the Japanese electronics and media conglomerate posted a ¥159bn loss between October and December – normally a strong quarter boosted by end-of-year holiday sales – as it battled a strong yen, flooding in Thailand that ruptured supply chains and a weak economy.

SAP to delay buyback until SuccessFactors loan repaid

SAP Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt said he will postpone a share buyback until the software maker has repaid a loan used to purchase SuccessFactors.

Separately, SAP will to reach an operating margin of at least 35 percent in 2015, Brandt further said.