Industry news

Capgemini Group reports Q3 2011 consolidated revenues of €2,378 million, up 13.0% on published revenues for the same period last year. Like-for-like growth (i.e. at constant Group structure and exchange rates) is 4.7%, with the difference between the two rates mainly due to acquisitions by the Group during the last 12 months (particularly CPM Braxis in Brazil and Prosodie in France).

This 4.7% growth in revenues, on a like-for-like basis, breaks down as follows:

· by business, the so-called “cyclical” activities (Consulting Services, Technology Services and Local Professional Services) continued to report sustained growth (+6.1% on average), with the greatest increase recorded by Technology Services (+7.2%). Outsourcing Services reported an average rise of 2.7%, while BPO enjoyed remarkable growth (+20%).

· by region, North America increased 5.0%; France – which retains its position as the Group’s leading country – reported improved revenue growth (+7.8%) on the first-half of the year; the United Kingdom and Ireland region, still affected by public sector spending cuts, reported more moderate growth (+1.3%), while the other regions reported average growth of 10.4% (12.4% for the Nordic countries). Benelux was the only region to report a contraction in revenues (-5.7%), reflecting the economic crisis which continues to affect the Netherlands.

Outsourcing company Xchanging said it is making progress with its cost-cutting drive and stood to benefit from companies looking to save cash in the economic downturn, sending its shares up 12 percent.

Xchanging, which runs back-office activities such as invoice processing, paying staff and procuring office supplies, said on Monday its operating cashflow was ahead of its expectations after implementing a series of cost-cutting measures since March in what it has described as a year of transition.

"In our view, steady progress continues to be made by management simplifying and de-risking the business," Espirito Santo Investment Bank analyst David Brockton said in a note.

Cloud computing will allow financial services to operate more efficiently and at a lower cost, while also providing the ability to offer services that were previously economically unviable, Gartner finds.

Cloud services for core banking systems will be a top priority for Financial CIOs in the next four years, a recent survey showed.

The Gartner Executive Programs annual CIO survey was conducted by analyst firm Gartner and surveyed 2,014 CIOs in 50 countries.

The words 'Iceland' and 'Cloud' have instilled fear in every air traveller for the past few years. However, the two words now exist very much in harmony, in the form of cloud computing.

The country has been ear-marked as world hub for the future of online cloud computing due to its vast quantities of free, renewable energy and cool climate. It's the perfect location for sustainable data centres - and that includes cloud computing providers.

There's no need to worry about the ash. Protecting such centres from volcanic ash is much safer and easier than protecting them from floods and earthquakes – two natural disasters prone to the current word-centres of cloud computing.

Following successful trials of their energy efficient Odeum green servers, VeryPC has secured a large order from GreenQloud, the official Icelandic cloud. This deal is set to drive VeryPC into triple digit growth next year.

Under the deal, VeryPC will supply GreenQloud with large quantities of efficient servers that together contain thousands of processing cores and petabytes of data storage. These will power a huge number of virtual servers that will be used by a diverse range of clients around the world – clients that want to lower their carbon footprint.

More than 1,000 jobs are under threat after retailer Carphone Warehouse announced it was pulling the plug on its Best Buy stores in the UK.

The company has launched a consultation about closing the 11 shops as it shifts its focus to selling more electronics goods through its Carphone Warehouse outlets.

Carphone hopes to find the "large majority" of the 1,100 staff roles elsewhere within the organisation.

The Government has announced a ground-breaking partnership with 26 organisations to deliver a new era of consumer empowerment.

The businesses, consumer bodies and regulators involved are all committed to working with Government to achieve its vision for midata. And all are endorsing the key principle that data should be released back to consumers.

Google, Visa, Lloyds Banking Group and British Gas are some of the companies that have announced their support.

Launching the midata vision, Consumer Affairs Minister, Edward Davey said: “This is the way the world is going and the UK is currently leading the charge. We see a real opportunity here, but others, including the US and EU, are also showing real interest in the programme and the economic benefits it can deliver.

Hertfordshire county council is set to launch a council-wide e-market system, which will allow council employees to purchase adult social care services and members of the public to buy the likes of home care or day services.

The authority is working with Serco to develop the system, which will eventually include other applications for trading with schools and other items people can buy from the council. Hertfordshire has decided to go live with an adult social care application first, which it hopes to "soft launch" in April 2012.

Seeking to expand its content solutions business and gain better foothold in the education sector, SPi Global, the largest Filipino-owned BPO firm, has bought one of the most successful publishing BPO companies in India, the pioneering Laserwords Private Limited.

“With the combined strength of two leaders in the global publishing space, our clients will get even more comprehensive suite of solutions for print, electronic and database products,” remarked SPi Global President and CEO Maulik Parekh.

British Airways-owner International Airlines Group (IAG) is close to agreeing a deal worth around £300m with Germany's Lufthansa to buy Bmi's main business, including its prized take-off and landing slots at Heathrow.

The sale and closing of the deal remain subject to conditions including a binding purchase agreement, further due diligence and regulatory clearances. It is envisaged that the purchase agreement will be signed in the coming weeks and the aim is for the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2012.

The Indian government has clarified that personal data sent to India by customers outsourcing IT work there will not be covered by India's new privacy rules.

The Indian data privacy rules require companies to get written consent from individuals about the use of the sensitive personal information they collect.

This would have proved to be very problemative for the outsourcing industry due to the amount of contact details which go through contact centres and other operations on a daily basis.