Industry news

Infosys Ltd, India's No.2 software services exporter, is looking for acquisitions worth up to $700 million, Infosys' Executive Co-Chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan said on Thursday.

India's IT sector, which feeds off increased outsourcing by companies looking to cut costs, is expected to face pricing pressure and a decline in new orders as Europe struggles with a debt crisis and the United States battles an economic slowdown.

Infosys and its local rivals also face stiff competition from global players including IBM and Accenture for large outsourcing deals from global corporations.

Credit Suisse has been fined 5.95 million pounds by the Financial Services Authority for system failures in its private bank, the second time it has fallen foul of the British regulator in less than two years.

The FSA said in an emailed statement on Tuesday it had fined Credit Suisse for "systems and control failings in relation to sales by its private bank of structured capital at risk products (SCARPs)."

"Credit Suisse UK's systems were not up to the level we, and their customers, are entitled to expect," said Tracey McDermott, acting director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA.

NOA are delighted to announce that IBM and Wipro Technologies have come on board as sponsors of the 2011 National Outsourcing Association Summit & Awards.

Together with Wipro Technologies, we will be bringing the glamour and splendour of a Bollywood music night to the awards ceremony which celebrate best practice in the outsourcing industry.

Now in its 8th year, the revered NOA Awards are firmly established as the highlight of the outsourcing industry calendar, attracting over 500 delegates annually. Combined with the respected NOA Summit, this makes for a must-attend event for outsourcing professionals in all sectors.

The Government has published four strategies covering G-Cloud, End User Devices, ICT Capability and Greening Government: ICT. These provide the environment and approaches to radically transform the ICT landscape to create a more productive, flexible workforce that delivers digital public services in a much more cost effective way

The four strategies published link together to fully exploit the cost opportunities arising from technology developments; and to increase the capability and capacity of Government to manage its own ICT and reduce reliance on expensive consultants and contractors.

The government cloud (G-Cloud) strategy details how cloud computing can be exploited to transform the Government ICT estate into one that is agile, cost effective and sustainable. Government will adopt an approach of ‘public cloud first’ whilst recognising the requirement for secure private cloud provision in some areas.

IBM board of directors has elected Virginia M. Rometty president and chief executive officer of the company, effective January 1, 2012. She was also elected a member of the board of directors, effective at that time. Ms. Rometty is currently IBM senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy. She succeeds Samuel J. Palmisano, who currently is IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. Mr. Palmisano will remain chairman of the board.

“Ginni Rometty has successfully led several of IBM’s most important businesses over the past decade – from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of our Growth Markets."

WNS, a leading provider of global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services has announced a 20-month extension in the outsourcing contract with its founder company, British Airways (BA), U.K.'s largest flag carrier airline. Under the renewed service agreement, WNS will focus on further strengthening the back-office operations center of excellence that delivers a range of airline operations, including customer relations, fares and PNR servicing requests, passenger and cargo revenue accounting, finance and accounting, research and analytics, revenue and yield management and HR shared services.

"This is an extremely proud moment for us; we are delighted to take this fifteen-year-old relationship with BA to the next level of growth. BA continues to be one of our most important and exciting clients and with the new service agreement we aim to provide strategic benefits to both parties, and drive further innovation for BA," said Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services.

Swiss drug-maker Novartis planning to outsource as it cuts 2,000 jobs in an attempt to save $200m (£125m) a year.

Novartis reported profits in the third-quarter of $3.5bn (£2.2bn) but is battling against rising prices and the strong Swiss franc.

The cuts will affect nearly 2% of its workforce and will be carried out over the next three to five years.

Sites in Switzerland and Italy will be closed, with work outsourced to countries with lower costs.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) says Qantas will not employ new workers in Australia under its current corporate structure.

Qantas executives made the statement during enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations with the union today, TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon says.

Qantas executives had given an undertaking not to outsource any more jobs but have now reneged on that agreement, Mr Sheldon said.

IBM has announced that it has opened the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant program to new applications for 2012. Smarter Cities Challenge is a three-year, 100-city, US$50 million grant program in which IBM's top technical experts and consultants provide actionable advice to urban centers.

This highly successful grant program provides select applicant cities with access to teams of elite IBM employees with expertise on a variety of urban-related matters, such as finance, sustainability, public safety, and citizen services.

Oracle has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire RightNow Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based customer service, for $43.00 per share or approximately $1.5 billion net of RightNow's cash and debt. RightNow's Customer Service Cloud helps organizations deliver exceptional customer experiences across call centers, the web and social networks.

The Board of Directors of RightNow Technologies has unanimously approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close by late 2011 or early 2012, subject to RightNow stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

"Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud," said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Oracle Development. "RightNow's leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle's Public Cloud."