Industry news

London-based NHS organisations have signed a £4m contract for a managed ICT services platform with ICT service provider 2e2 for up to five years.

Haringey Community Services and NHS North Central London Cluster (the commissioning arms of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington PCT’s) are to share their ICT services platform with existing 2e2 shared services customers Camden PCT, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Islington PCT.

INTTRA Selects Cognizant to Drive Operational Efficiencies Across Global Ocean Freight and Ocean Supply Chains, and Provide a Uniform Experience Across Multiple Trading Partners

Cognizant, a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, today announced it has been selected as a strategic partner by INTTRA, a leading provider of e-commerce solutions for the ocean freight industry, to streamline INTTRA's applications and quality assurance portfolios. As part of the multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement, Cognizant will provide a range of application development, application maintenance, testing, and quality assurance services using the managed services model.

"The global ocean shipping industry is going through significant structural changes. Our goal is to provide the best and most useful products to our customers to help them streamline the processing of ocean freight, and optimize global ocean supply chains," said Ivan Latanision, Senior Vice President of Product Management at INTTRA.

"In Cognizant, we found a strategic partner with the breadth of expertise and global footprint that would help us create products that will make a difference to our customers' process efficiencies and positively impact their bottom lines. Specifically, we were impressed with their domain knowledge, process methodologies, the managed services model, and their roadmap to help us in our transformational journey to becoming a global information provider."

Former CIO of U.S. federal government and author of U.S. Cloud-First policy to further the social enterprise with salesforce.com

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, has announced that Vivek Kundra has joined the company as executive vice president of emerging markets. Kundra is an accomplished technology leader with a demonstrated track record of driving innovation.

As the first Chief Information Officer of the United States, Kundra managed more than $80 billion in technology investments at one of the world's largest information technology organizations. He was an early evangelist of the benefits of cloud computing in the public sector. Kundra authored the groundbreaking Cloud-First policy, which now serves as a model for government IT organizations around the world seeking to increase efficiencies with less resources.

"Vivek Kundra is an amazing technology visionary who opened the eyes of millions to the transformational power of cloud computing," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "His disruptive leadership is just what the industry needs to accelerate the social enterprise."

The National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has welcomed three new board members. Lauren Tennant (National Trust) Debra Maxwell (arvato) and Paul Robb (independent consultant) all took office as board members of the UK trade body that promotes successful outsourcing for the benefit of end-users and alike. This follows their respective victories in elections held late last year.

NOA Chairman Martyn Hart said: “We are delighted to welcome fresh blood onto the NOA board. All the new members have a wealth of valuable experience, with the potential to make a huge impact in spreading best practice in their respective areas.”

The incoming board members are:

Board Member for International – Debra Maxwell of arvato

Debra will lead the international direction of the NOA by promoting best practice, service excellence and innovation internationally, and fostering a greater understanding of offshoring. This will include liaising with other trade bodies, interest groups and embassies, developing external links for the NOA with outsourcing activities in the Middle East, China, India and Europe.

Debra said: “It’s a real honour to be appointed to the NOA board and I’m excited about helping to position the UK as a key hub in international outsourcing. Much of the innovation and best practice in international outsourcing is led from the UK, so we should be at forefront of the debate.”

Board Members for End-Users – Lauren Tennant of the National Trust

Representing the interests of major end users, Lauren will work with the two other end user representatives on the board to shape NOA strategy to make sure that end-users requirements are met. Her current role with the National Trust sees her taking responsibility for the contractual, commercial and operational performance of some of the National Trust’s key strategic outsourcing relationships with world-leading BPO partners.

Lauren said: “I will champion the voice of the end user by reviewing traditional thinking on outsourcing, collaboration, partnerships and transformation. I bring a fresh approach, with wide experience and innovative new thinking.”

Board Member for Public Services – Paul Robb (independent consultant)

This is a new role, focusing on our Public Sector members and ensuring that the NOA reflects their requirements and is closely aligned to the work of the All Party Group on Outsourcing & Shared Services. Paul has previously been involved with the NOA board as Board Member for Major Suppliers.

Paul said: “The NOA has a key role to play in promoting a clear understanding and dialogue between industry, the public sector and the community at large as well as demonstrating best practice and ensuring transparency for the outsourcing industry as a whole. I believe the depth and breadth of my experience will ensure that the NOA is best placed to achieve these objectives.”

Outgoing board members are Andrew Dunlop and Steve Briggs. The NOA would like to thank them for all their hard work and wishes them the very best in the future.

ADP®, a leading provider of human resource outsourcing, payroll services, tax and compliance services, benefits administration and accounts payable solutions, has announced that it has acquired the Indian payroll business of Randstad Holding nv, NYSE Euronext Amsterdam, from its Indian subsidiary Ma Foi Randstad. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Ma Foi Consulting Solutions Ltd., the Indian company acquired by ADP from Ma Foi Randstad, offers managed payroll services and social benefits administration to clients across India through a fully customized payroll engine. The company uses this platform to serve approximately 350 brand-name multinational and domestic clients. As part of the transaction, ADP will take on a team of over 200 new associates.

Mark Benjamin, President, ADP Employer Services International, commented, "I am very pleased to take our longstanding partnership with Ma Foi to the ownership phase. ADP's acquisition of Ma Foi Consulting Solutions gives us a direct presence in the large and developing Indian market for HR BPO. This acquisition also enhances our ability to meet the needs of our large multinational clients with operations in India, whom we serve through our ADP Streamline and GlobalView® solutions."

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has agreed to sell its aircraft leasing division to Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group for $7.3bn (£4.7bn).

The sale represents the biggest single disposal of assets by RBS since it was rescued by the UK taxpayer in 2008.

The bank had been in talks with a number of buyers for months.

National Grid is seeking to contract with one or more vendors to support its Strategic asset management (SAM) programme through the provision of advanced analytics and visualisation tools, leveraging the existing capability of its enterprise systems, eg: enterprise asset management (EAM), enterprise content management (ECM).

The tender states: 'National Grid is facing significant challenges in the form of changes to energy sourcing and demand patterns, ageing assets and dramatically increasing investment volumes. Business response to these challenges is driving increasing requirements for IT capabilities. Current bespoke tactical solutions within Transmission have demonstrated the value that can be achieved, but are limited both functionally and technically and are not cost effective to maintain.'

SAM will deliver an integrated infrastructure, data storage, analysis and reporting tools. The SAM implementation will provide an integrated platform that will support the future growth in transmission activities, facilitating faster deployment and avoiding bespoke development of IT systems.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has championed the cause of employee share ownership, saying it will improve productivity and unlock growth.

He told an audience in the City that the government planned to cut red tape, and reform the tax system to accommodate employee ownership.

It is hoped the measures will create what he called a "John Lewis economy".

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said Mr Clegg was following Labour's lead on responsible capitalism. Department store group John Lewis is owned by its employees and distributes its profits between them.

Sony Music UK has selected arvato as its exclusive e-commerce distribution partner in the UK and Ireland. Under the agreement arvato will provide supply chain services for Sony’s premium consumer offerings, such as music and exclusive merchandise from its MyPlay Direct artist stores.

The three year partnership includes warehousing and direct to consumer (D2C) distribution for hundreds of thousands of orders. These services and a comprehensive returns management programme will be managed from arvato’s 16,500 square-metre distribution facility in Milton Keynes.

arvato was selected due to its proven expertise and experience in the music and entertainment industry, along with its innovative approach to new channels. The appointment expands arvato’s existing six year supply chain and commercial order to cash service relationship with Sony, which has contributed to the business process outsourcing partner becoming the leading distributor of CDs in the UK.

“arvato has the necessary expertise and flexibility to adapt to our evolving needs in market undergoing significant change. This is especially important when it comes to delivering premium products directly to consumers, who expect a premium service,” said Stuart Hale-Brown, Vice President Operations, Sony Music UK. “The dedication from the team has really helped us in the transition of the e-commerce business. We look forward to working with arvato and incorporating its innovative solutions to drive our business forward.”

“Our existing relationship with Sony means we can leverage the B2B stockholding, providing higher stock availability, a shorter turnaround time of e-commerce orders and reduced replenishment costs,” explained Markus Schmücker, Managing Director, Supply Chain Solutions, arvato UK & Ireland.

“E-commerce is now a critical part of our supply chain growth strategy in the UK as we expand our capacity to meet client and consumer demand. We offer companies an innovative, collaborative and scalable approach to create a seamless consumer experience.”

Ericsson has completed the acquisition of Telcordia, a global leader in the development of mobile, broadband and enterprise communications software and services, for USD 1.15 billion in an all cash transaction, on a cash and debt-free basis. Telcordia is now part of the Ericsson Group and its approximately 2,600 skilled employees have joined Ericsson.

Today`s closing follows the announcement on June 14, 2011, that Ericsson had entered into a merger agreement with Providence Equity Partners, LLC and Warburg Pincus to acquire 100 percent of the shares of Telcordia.

Per Borgklint, Head of Ericsson`s business unit Multimedia, says: "The addition of Telcordia`s skilled people and knowledge, a good multi vendor product portfolio and an important customer base in North America, complement Ericsson`s already established position in the OSS/BSS space."