Industry news

Tony Morgan looks back on his career so far in outsourcing – which kicked off when he himself was outsourced.

There can be great opportunities for people transferring from end user organisations to service providers, particularly when functions being outsourced are not core business functions for the end users. The challenge for end users, service providers and employees is to focus on creating the best possible outcomes for all concerned.

I worked for an employer which decided to outsource parts of its IT department. The rationale was that these functions weren’t core to the business and could be more efficiently delivered by a service provider.

During my career to that point, I had gone through a progression of junior, senior and lead technical specialist roles. I had already begun to wonder what options were available for further career development within my employer. With this new development, I wanted to find out as quickly as possible what was going to happen to me, what would happen to my role and who my new employer would be.

In 1998 I transferred into IBM, a major provider of technology based products, solutions and services.

After transfer, my first role was leading the technical aspects of the project to move my previous employer’s data centre to an IBM location, a project which ran to time and budget. My role transitioned into a support team but I wanted to find out what wider opportunities were open to me.

With some help, and some personal pro-activity, I successfully applied for a technical solution design role on new outsourcing bids and large projects for existing clients. I was on a learning curve. Working for a service provider was a mindset change from working in an end user organisation. This role was the making of me. It was my first real stretch. I moved quickly out of my comfort zone but also quickly built confidence.

I was provided with a formal mentor who gave me career and professional advice. It was at this stage I discovered much more about IBM’s professions structure. Options included Specialist, Architect, Project Manager, Consultant and Sales. I opted for Architect.

I found myself within a profession of my choice with a career path and options. Did I want to be a technology architect, an enterprise or perhaps a data architect? There were tools and methods I could use to develop my experience and deliver my role. Crucially, there was a supporting documented education path.

The professions model pioneered within IBM is now being developed much more widely and is externally recognised. My current IBM senior certified Architect position qualifies me at the Distinguished IT Architect certification level with The Open Group. The NOA of course also has its own qualifications and outsourcing profession Pathway education programme.

Aligned with the IBM career model, I took the next steps on my journey with Chief Architect roles on outsourcing client engagements. I was identified as a potential future technical leader and allocated to the technical leadership programme.

I was building a longer term career plan I couldn’t have dreamed of in my previous organisations. I became a mentor myself, providing support for people who had come through similar client to service provider outsourcing journeys as my own. I’ve seen a number of my mentees receive their own Architect accreditations and certifications which has been hugely satisfying.

My thirteen years in IBM have been in the outsourcing business. There have been many changes in this time but some things haven’t changed that much. I see people come into IBM and develop their careers in a similar way to myself. There is high demand for good people with positive and pro-active outlook in my area of the business and elsewhere.

My advice to end user organisations looking to outsource is help and encourage employees going through the process to be pro-activein finding out what is on offer for them with their new employer. Good service providers understand that transferred staff can be a great benefit to their organisations and clients. Services providers who actively develop the careers of their new staff reap the benefits. In my view staff from outsourcing, and acquisitions keep a workforce vital and innovative and deliver a wide breadth of expertise back to the clients they work with. Long may this continue in IBM and beyond.

The Cabinet Office has extended the deadline for suppliers to apply to join its G Cloud framework by three weeks to 19 December.

It said that it has received 532 expressions of interest to its invitation to tender, which was published in October, but wants to give even more companies an opportunity to apply.

The £60m framework, which aims to provide government departments with 'pay as you go' IT services, has been designed to be accessible to SMEs, according to the Cabinet Office.

Launch of first national campaign to support businesses’ work with social enterprises and deliver positive change to their communities

In the current economic climate, some businesses have been forced to realign their strategy to the detriment of their corporate social responsibility objectives. In response, the Social Enterprise Mark Company is launching its first national campaign, 50 in 250, designed to support businesses’ use of certified social enterprises within their supply chains, and in the process dramatically improve the benefit they deliver to communities.

To celebrate the campaign launch, The City of London Corporation is holding an event on the 22nd of November at the Guildhall. It will be attended by leading social enterprises and opened by Gordon Morris, Chair of the Social Enterprise Mark Company and Managing Director of Age UK Enterprises, the largest financial organisation to be awarded the Social Enterprise Mark and Paul Sizeland, Director of Economic Development at the City of London Corporation. KPMG and Wates are also confirmed to be speaking at the event.

The 50 in 250 campaign aims to secure a pledge from 50 companies to do business with at least five certified social enterprises within 250 days. It has been developed to encourage businesses to recognise how their procurement could deliver substantial and innovative ethical benefit, while delivering to their overall commercial objectives.

Multi million package announced to boost innovation and research in the UK

A £75 million boost for high tech small and medium sized businesses is part of a package of measures announced today in the Government’s new Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth.

The strategy, launched by Business Secretary Vince Cable and Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts, sets out the Government’s plans to boost economic growth through investment in research and innovation across the UK.

Vince Cable said: “The UK has renowned universities and research institutes and a proud record of invention – from the creation of life-saving medicines to the development of the internet. This strategy builds on our strengths by setting out how we will work with businesses and research bases to underpin private sector led growth.

“We recognise that by improving the incentives for companies to innovate they will continue to create life changing products to drive future innovation and growth.”

Innovation Group, a supplier of outsourcing services to insurers, yesterday said major new client wins such as RBS Insurance helped boost its pre-tax profit by 54 per cent to £15.1m in the past year.

The firm said revenues rose nine per cent to £175.9m, while in Europe revenues rose 12 per cent as all businesses apart from its Spanish arm grew.

Innovation separately said it bought an Australian claims specialist for £13m, and said it expected more growth in 2012.

“We feel strongly that we have now moved from being a ‘turnaround’ business to a business delivering sustainable and profitable growth,” it said.

The Servest Group has signed a full IT outsourcing contract with Dimension Data, the global IT solutions and services provider. The three-year agreement is worth approximately R43 million.

The Servest Group provides multiservice solutions such as cleaning, hygiene, interior and exterior landscaping, security, turf and parking to over 7 000 clients throughout the United Kingdom and South Africa.

By outsourcing its IT operations, Servest will have the flexibility to concentrate on its core business and react quickly to business demand, providing a flexible and highly responsive service that adapts to changing requirements and delivers operational efficiencies that will contribute to the company's growth and competitiveness.

According to Mike Bouw, Group IT Manager, Servest: “Dimension Data has the resources to deliver, offers flexibility, the ability to innovate and is willing to manage the environment to fulfil our business needs.”

Whisper Systems has announced that it’s been acquired by Twitter.

Twitter confirms that it’s acquiring Whisper, but it has not stated its intentions or anything about the terms of the deal.

“The Whisper Systems team is joining Twitter starting today,” reads a statement from the company. “As part of our fast-growing engineering team, they will be bringing their technology and security expertise to Twitter’s products and services. We’re happy to have Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson onboard.”

A 10% corporation tax rate will apply to profits from companies' worldwide trading activities which are attributable to qualifying patents, the Treasury confirmed in draft Finance Bill 2012 legislation published today, establishing the 'Patent Box' tax regime.

"The Patent Box will provide an additional incentive for companies in the UK to retain and commercialise existing patents and to develop new innovative patented products," the consultation response says. "This will encourage companies to locate the high-value jobs associated with the development, manufacture and exploitation of patents in the UK and maintain the UK’s position as a world leader in patented technologies."

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced it would be rolling out its ElastiCache capabilities to four more regions, including EU West – based in its Dublin data centre.

The company launched ElastiCache back in August for its US East region – run from Northern Virginia – enabling users to speed up the retrieval of information from web applications by introducing caching technologies.

Capgemini UK plc, has been selected as Unilever’s global business intelligence partner, to work alongside Unilever IT and business teams in delivering a major transformation programme over the next three years. Unilever is one of the world's largest consumer goods companies, with 2 billion people using its products every day across 180 countries, and this major global programme will create its first Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), providing real-time data on its customers, markets and operations worldwide to support decisions on all the company's plans and activities.

The programme will involve migrating legacy data warehouses into the new EDW and providing new datamining and analytical tools to support Unilever management at all levels in achieving fast, informed and fact based decision-making based on comprehensive and up-to-date data. It is also expected to deliver significant sustainable cost savings both in IT and across Unilever business operations worldwide.

Willem Eelman, Unilever's Global Chief Information Officer, said: “This programme is one of our top strategic initiatives, not just for IT but for the Unilever business worldwide. It will transform the way our businesses around the world access and use information, bringing enhanced insight and consistency. Capgemini was the natural partner for us given their strong global Business Information Management experience and understanding of our business.”