Industry news

The EU Commission is proposing €80 billion in funding for research and innovation over seven years. The programme – to be known as “Horizon 2020” will make it easier to seek funding, easier to bring good ideas to market, and easier for Europe to invest in innovation for the future.

Neelie Kroes, EC vice president for the Digital Agenda, outlined details of the £63bn project, entitled ‘Horizon 2020', in a blog.

Neelie said: "Improving Europe’s investment in R&D – through better funding, and better coordination – is right at the heart of the Digital Agenda for Europe. The ICT sector, just under 5% of GDP, contributes an amazing 25% of business research and development spending. So it’s no wonder that ICT is the most important thematic area of funding of the Horizon 2020 proposal, as it is in the current FP7 programme.

"There’s funding for ICT-specific developments like e-infrastructures for science, and key enabling technologies (KETs) such as micro-/nanoelectronics and photonics in order to build on Europe’s strengths and fight for future industrial leadership. And support for a new instrument first put forward in the ICT area: Flagship projects in Future and Emerging Technologies (FET): long-term support for large-scale transformative projects (up to 1bn over 10 years per flagship)."

Accenture and BNP Paribas Cardif have signed an eight-year business process outsourcing (BPO) agreement under which Accenture will manage an important portfolio of BNP Paribas Cardif's group life insurance policies business in France, including the administrative management of the insurer's call centers and ancillary accounting operations.

The agreement is designed to enhance the quality and efficiency of services BNP Paribas Cardif is providing to its clients, leveraging an information technology (IT) platform that benefits from Accenture's expertise and competencies. The platform is designed to become an industry standard and to support BNP Paribas Cardif's growth agenda and reinforce its market position in the group life insurance business.

"In today's economy, leading insurers are increasingly looking to streamline their operations to create new business opportunities," said Didier Descombes, an executive director in Accenture's Financial Services group. "Our objective is to provide high-quality and cost-competitive services, and support insurers in their business strategy in France and globally."

This year is proving to be a year to remember for many companies, and for their suppliers and customers. News has rocked the world as macro-economic events coupled with natural disasters like the earthquake in Japan, Thailand’s floods and hurricanes in North America have left some supply chains in pieces. With 2011 coming to end, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the major themes that have dominated supply chain integration this year, and how businesses have been responding to these trends.

This blog is the first of two that I am writing on this topic, so watch for part two shortly.

If we start in Europe, the Eurozone crisis has left some suppliers struggling with the uncertainties. Fluctuating exchange rates coupled with credit being difficult to obtain has led to some companies cancelling contracts with suppliers, whilst some suppliers are forced to turn down new contract opportunities as workforce cuts begin to take effect. In response to this uncertainty some customers are restructuring their supplier base in an attempt to avoid disruption – in some instances this has led to re-allocating existing contracts to suppliers in more stable economic regions, whilst in others it has meant localising supplier activity in order to increase control.

Localisation of supply chain networks has also been a by-product of recent natural disasters. For example, this year’s earthquake in Japan caused major disruption to supplier networks which led to significant revenue losses around the world. With over $109 billion in economic damage as a result of natural disasters in 2010 according to the UN (based on a report by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), this year’s events have led to some businesses becoming increasingly wary of dealing with suppliers that may be far away and unreachable in extreme conditions.

For example, some of our UK customers are moving manufacturing operations closer to home and likewise some customers in Japan are looking to work with Japanese suppliers that are local to their central operations, rather than placing key contracts with suppliers around the world.

Whilst reallocating supplier contracts to another territory may not seem that difficult, finding quality suppliers in unfamiliar regions can prove to be difficult. Once they are sourced, this is just the beginning of the process. Large companies need their suppliers to interact with them electronically. When a supplier changes a price for a particular product the buyer’s procurement system needs to be updated automatically. When a buyer changes their sales or manufacturing forecast the supplier’s demand planning system needs to be synchronised electronically. When a supplier ships an order the buyer needs to have visibility to the location of the inventory while in transit. Routine transactions are the most critical for automation. Purchase orders and invoices should be exchanged via EDI or XML technologies rather than over the phone or e-mail. The latter are not only time consuming and expensive, but error prone as well.

Unfortunately, establishing electronic communications between business partners is a complicated and time consuming process. There are many different variants of EDI and XML standards. The largest companies each implement these “standards” differently. Small suppliers typically lack the budget, resource or expertise to exchange data electronically. Specialised B2B e-commerce vendors have tools, experience and best practices that can help reduce the challenges associated with on-boarding. By managing enterprise communities this way, GXS has been able to reduce the time taken to onboard suppliers by about 60% when compared with traditional models and this is something that seems to be really appealing to companies this year as the hunt for new suppliers in different regions has really taken hold.

2011 has been a taxing year for supply chains across the world, and with both foreseen and unforeseen opportunities and challenges arising all of the time, the marketplace will continue to change. The ability to respond to these changes with agility and ease is critical to success from both a reputation and competitive perspective – regardless of which vertical industry a business falls into – and automation of B2B e-commerce will continue to be a key enabler of flexibility and scalability for businesses globally.

With budget cuts looming and spending reduction programmes biting hard into the public sector, it’s easy to see why IT managers are seeking alternative approaches to traditional procurement programmes. These measurers, whilst undoubtedly challenging, do provide a new opportunity for department heads to consider fresh avenues and solutions for technology procurement, in an effort to deliver more with less for the hard-pressed taxpayer.

It is encouraging to see that the Government is open to new ideas around technology innovation; an example of this can be seen in the launch of the open source toolkit, which helps decision-makers evaluate the effectiveness of adopting open source projects. This landmark launch dispels the unfounded myths around open source projects being unsafe, firmly cementing its reputation as a reliable and more importantly cost effective alternative to proprietary software.

The launch of the toolkit should inspire IT leaders to work with the open source community to provide innovative new solutions to cut costs and improve citizen services online. Part of this process will be utilising the newly created Open Solutions online forum, a model allowing the discussion and evaluation of adopting open source software for a project.

In many ways, the UK is still playing catch up with the US in terms of open source adoption. Across the other side of the pond, open source communities such as Drupal power a large amount of Government sites, safely and securely as the approved and standardised platform. This isn’t simply a case of value for money, the extensive community constantly deliver the latest updates and patches, meaning the sites remain optimised with the latest innovations on an on-going basis.

But the slow start in UK open source adoption does not only rest with the Government’s procurement teams, a responsibility lies with open source communities and vendors to make their case against traditional proprietary vendors to win the contract bid. All too often open source projects are overlooked because they lack the necessary sales, marketing and consultancy ecosystems that traditional enterprise software companies have as standard. In this context, it is critical that open source offerings are packaged up with the necessary expertise to ensure the technology is viewed as a viable and credible alternative. I’m a firm believer that open source projects should win on merit, and the new toolkit allows a level playing field for providers to put their offering forward.

With the Government’s overarching big society agenda promoting a collaborative approach to problem solving, there has never been a better time for open source communities to make their case. These developer communities strive for excellence through collaborative thinking and partnerships. What’s more, open source offerings provide a licence-free opportunity for unprecedented cost savings to the bottom line.

The UK public sector is clearly willing to look closer at open source, but it’s also crucial that providers match these expectations with a solid, effective ecosystem to increase confidence in their offerings. With a newly created level playing field, and a unique and innovative offering, there has never been a better time for open source communities and vendors to take up the public sector challenge.

CSC has announced that it has signed a contract with Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust for a new program of work to outsource the trust’s technology services.

The 7-year agreement, with the option to extend to 10 years, means that CSC has day-to-day responsibility for hosting, developing and managing much of the trust’s IT and back-office processes. CSC will provide IT help desk, networking, infrastructure, desktop engineering, application development and support. It will also provide advice and support for a clinically driven health informatics function.

The program has a two-stage approach. It started with a transition and stabilization phase to move the service to CSC, which was completed earlier this summer and involved all of the trust’s IT services staff transferring to CSC. This has been followed by a coordinated transformation program, which will enhance and modernize the trust’s IT capabilities and support its scheduled move to a new electronic patient record system.

Sheri Thureen, president of U.K. Healthcare, CSC, sees this as a key milestone in the evolution of CSC’s healthcare business. “This contract with Royal Berkshire plays to CSC’s core strengths as a world-class provider of outsourced IT services and as a major provider of IT services to the NHS in England,” she said.

Capgemini, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, has announced that it has won a €42 million (£35.9 million) contract renewal with International Paper, a global paper and packaging company. The contract extension until 2018 covers the existing full scope of Finance and Accounting (F&A) services and will bring the total collaboration period to 19 years – one of the longest relationships in the BPO sector.

International Paper, a Fortune 500 company and a global leader in the paper and packaging industry, operates in more than 20 countries, employs over 60,000 people and serves customers worldwide. The company’s businesses include uncoated papers and industrial and consumer packaging with primary markets and manufacturing operations in North and Latin America, Europe, Russia, Asia and North Africa.

Harry Wauters, Director Global Financial Shared Services Centers from International Paper: “We were looking for a company with a robust F&A platform to support our objectives which could be flexible and scaled up and down according to our business needs. We chose to extend our relationship with Capgemini because of their outstanding collaborative approach, their added value beyond the agreed service scope and their strong focus on continuous improvement. They have demonstrated to us over numerous years their dedication to deliver innovative and adaptable solutions.”

Cognizant, a leading provider of consulting, technology, and business process outsourcing services, today announced a multi-year agreement with AstraZeneca to deliver comprehensive biostatistics and medical reporting services to generate clinical study reports.

Under the agreement, Cognizant will provide centralized statistical programming, statistical analysis, medical writing, and document publishing services, spanning the entire chain of clinical data reporting from case report forms to clinical study reports. This will enable AstraZeneca to increase operational efficiency, reduce cycle times, and optimize costs. AstraZeneca will continue to own and manage key scientific and medical activities associated with the design of clinical trial programs, and the interpretation of data from them.

“Cognizant will help us streamline our clinical development operations. This is key to our business transformation aimed at achieving greater efficiency, agility, flexibility, and global competitiveness – all of which are crucial to clinical trials and development of new drugs,” said Karin Wingstrand, Vice President and Head of Clinical Development at AstraZeneca. “Leveraging Cognizant’s IT and business process expertise allows AstraZeneca to focus more time, energy, and investment on those clinical activities that will make a difference in developing innovative medicines more quickly for patients.”

Leading animal welfare charity, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has enlisted Trimble’s telematics technology to help field and support staff rescue and collect thousands of animals throughout England and Wales every year.

The RSPCA is rolling out Trimble® GeoManager Fleet Management solution in its vehicles across the UK. Benefits include real-time visibility into the location of its vehicles on the road to help dispatchers make more informed decisions about which inspector is both best equipped and closest to any animal in need of immediate assistance.

The system will also allow the RSPCA Fleet Management Team to track the location and safety of animal welfare and collection officers involved with supporting the RSPCA charitable objectives. This increased efficiency in scheduling can help the RSPCA in ensuring greater overall effectiveness in fleet management through reduced fuel use, lower CO2 emissions and increased driver safety.

Interoute, owner and operator of Europe's largest cloud services platform, has announced that it is supporting international sports broadcaster, Eurosport, to meet increased demand for multi-media streaming generated by its business applications. By enhancing its VPN network, Eurosport has doubled its capacity and expanded its Virtual Private Network across 20 sites.

Interoute is working with Eurosport, to provide a high capacity network that supports its broadcast business and meets the increasing demand for multi-media streaming in business applications. The new network has been designed with the future demands of the sport channel’s content in mind.

The new Eurosport MPLS VPN network will connect 12 major European cities, including Germany, Spain, Poland, England, Switzerland, Sweden, and Paris, and smaller sites in parts of Asia and Europe, such as Tokyo, Dubai, Lisbon, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki will also be connected to the Eurosport network via an IPsec VPN.

“We were faced with the challenge of how to improve our network performance and our costs, and selected Interoute as sole operator on all of our private and public networks to help us achieve this goal,” said Pascal Delorme, Systems and Networks Manager at Eurosport. “We have increased the number of sites on our MPLS VPN from 12 to 20, with the main sites fully managed by Interoute. We also have an IPsec solution implemented on secondary sites, which we can manage locally, allowing us to integrate new sites at lower costs.”

You could be forgiven for thinking that product mis-selling in financial services has been consigned to the pages of history following the high-profile Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal that has dominated the news headlines in recent years. But you’d be wrong. New rules to prevent the mis-selling of a new generation of structured products have just been published by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

This new guidance is aimed at financial services firms that plan to design any future structured products. In particular, the FSA's guidance stresses that firms need to ensure that these products reflect their customers’ needs more closely, and ultimately have consumers' best interests at heart.

Having dealt with its own fair share of complaints in the past few years, the OFT has weighed in on this issue as well. Its guidance goes on to say that all firms should ensure that their consumers are clear about the nature, price and implications of any structured products being sold.

To most people, this advice probably sounds like common sense, and you may be left wondering whether we really need the FSA and OFT to tell financial services firms to put more time and thought into product design. However, the real problem with many structured products is that they are not ‘fit for purpose’ for the consumer they are being sold to. Indeed, this key failing is as much a problem of product design as anything else.

The design of fully compliant, customer-friendly financial services products requires an enormous amount of forethought, planning and strategic vision – which is precisely why many financial services firms outsource this process to companies that specialise in this area. Not only is outsourcing a much faster way to launch a new product (with some products ready to launch in less than 30 days), but it also makes it much easier to comply with the latest regulations in areas like Treating Customers Fairly (TCF), Conduct of Business (COB) rules, the Data Protection Act (DPA) and many more.

For firms operating in this sector, this has to be their number one goal. After all, the financial services sector has become more competitive than ever in recent years, with companies increasingly fighting to differentiate themselves in an over-crowded market. A key part of this battle will be the ability to design transparent, fairly priced financial products that appeal to the greatest number of potential investors. And structured products do have their place – if designed, marketed and sold correctly.

However, even though it’s essential to get the design of these products right from the start, that’s still only half the battle: in order to avoid any future mis-selling issues, financial services firms will also need to make sure that any subsequent marketing is done correctly and appropriately, so that consumers can understand exactly what they’re buying after a new product has been launched.

A common fear among firms in this sector is that they will need to build whole new systems and address large-scale administration and regulatory requirements in order to design, market and administer new financial products like these correctly, but that’s not the case. By working with a specialist outsourcer, financial institutions can actually delegate the vast majority of these responsibilities, and focus instead on creating easy-to-understand, fully compliant products that are in tune with their culture and brand, and which will satisfy both their customers and the regulators.