Industry news

Cognizant, a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, today announced that it will provide a range of application services to Cambridge Assessment, a not-for-profit examination group owned by Cambridge University.

As part of this multi-year, multi-million pound engagement, Cognizant will work with Cambridge Assessment and help rationalize and consolidate its portfolio of applications, and deliver application maintenance and production support services to enable the organization to improve the management and processing of examinations.

Cambridge Assessment is made up of three exam boards—Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR), University of Cambridge International Examinations, and University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (English for Speakers of Other Languages)—and plays a leading role in the research, development, and delivery of educational assessment to over 8 million learners around the world.

Cambridge Assessment engaged with Cognizant in June 2011 to consolidate application support services in its portfolio to ensure efficiencies and competitiveness in a demanding market, as well as the flexibility to continue to respond to the current and future needs of the business.

In the SWC Technology Partners survey, just 3.7% of respondents said that their company has adopted a cloud solution for the whole company. 54.2% of respondents indicate that their company is not pursuing any cloud computing initiative. Privacy and security (20.9%) are stated to be the of greatest concern when considering cloud, followed by cost (9.8%).

Elliott Baretz, vice president of SWC, said: "The technology industry can be rife with hype. Most reasons for eschewing the cloud have nothing to do with technology. Privacy and compliance and legal issues are what are keeping businesses on the sidelines."

On 19 September, over 1,000 Fujitsu workers will strike on as a result of unsatisfactory pay conditions. This will affect HMRC, the Office of National Statistics and the DVLA, amongst other public agencies.

The workers – members of both PCS and Unite trade unions – will strike for 24 hours from midnight on Monday 19 September.

Sony has appointed a chief information security officer, Philip Reitinger, in the wake of a series of enormous data breaches.

Reitinger, previously worked as head of the US National Cyber Security Center and for Microsoft, is now its senior vice-president and chief information security officer of Sony.

Outsourcers have superior technology for managing supply chains, and as such, companies should consider outsourcing this part of their business. According to a new Gartner report, leveraging an outsourcing partner's processes, technologies and capabilities can prove the best way of managing a supply chain.

"Supply chain executives are starting to apply more comprehensive analysis to outsourcing decisions. These will factor-in agility, responsiveness and cost," stated Michael Dominy, research director at Gartner. "Companies must focus on what they can do best and appropriately outsource activities that value chain partners can do better," he added.

Appearing before the Commons Transport Select Committee, Philip Hammond has spoken out following much criticism of his department’s decision to give a contract to build 1,200 trains and carriages to German manufacturer Siemens.

He rebutted Colin Walton, the UK chairman of Bombardier criticisms of the tender process, stating: “There was no objection from any of the bidders until the outcome was announced. At no point did any of the bidders object to the terms of invitation to tender, the bundled nature of the contract or the evaluation criteria.”

He suggested that Bombardier should re-evaluate its own bidding proposals. “It is not just about the financing, it is about the whole life cost to the taxpayer,” said Mr Hammond, adding: “It is not as if Bombardier needs propping up. It has won 11 of 14 train procurement contracts and supplied half of the trains since privatisation. It has had an extraordinary run of success and I hope it will continue to be successful.”

Leader of the opposition, Ed Milliband said: "I am going to do everything I can to support Bombardier and to support the people of Derby and try and make the government think again. Bombardier is not just important for Derby, it is important for the whole country because we want train manufacturing to stay in Derby and to stay in Britain,"

UK chocolate brand Thorntons has stated that outsourcing its IT and other activates will help deliver an annual cost saving of £2 million.

“This, together with the ongoing benefits of our procurement review and the recent restructuring of our head office cost base, should deliver a full-year benefit of £2 million that will flow through in full in the 2012/13 financial year,” said a Thorntons spokesperson.

HP provides Thorntons end-to-end management and support for IT, networking and applications.

A new SaaS product has been launched to monitor minor, but important changes to websites i.e. terms and conditions, white papers and privacy policies. This is allowing companies unprecedented awareness of what’s being said on the websites of clients, competitors, industry and regulatory bodies.

Joel Halbert, co-founder of WebAlertPro said: “WebAlertPro automatically monitors websites and web pages, identifying changes made to their content. Our beta trial has shown particular enthusiasm for the product from marketeers and product managers who relish receiving a single daily email alerting them to the activities of their competitors.”

Exam results are out again and, for the IT sector, make for disturbing reading. It’s not the actual results that are the real problem - it’s the worryingly low number of runners and riders. This summer, a paltry 4,002 people took IT at A Level (just 0.5% of the total number of students).

Mathematics had a similar problem a while ago. This year, its number of A-level students is up 7%.

Unfortunately, IT is heading in the opposite direction. A-level take-up is down 1.8% on last year - a continuation of a worrying trend that has seen IT attracting less and less students for 8 consecutive years.

At GCSE, the swell in disinterest is even more dramatic - IT’s adoption rate has plummeted by 23% this year alone, and when compared to 5 years ago, by an alarming 57%.

Add in the news that some schools could be removing IT A-levels from their curriculum - due to a reduction in funding for Sixth Form students - and it looks like the decline in IT student numbers is a trend that will continue for many years yet.

Coming at a time when Information Technology is more important than ever - where computers touch every aspect of our lives - this situation, long-term, is a potential time bomb for the IT industry.

Unless this situation is addressed effectively, there could come a time when IT is sent offshore not just for reasons of cost effectiveness, but because there’s no-one left in the UK who can do the job anymore.

But, the example of A-Level Mathematics proves that the situation is not hopeless - it proves that young people do listen when the benefits and opportunities of taking a particular option are made clear to them.

There are opportunities in IT. The skills are in demand. We need to make sure, as a nation, that we take steps to fill this gap and ensure that the UK IT professional does not become an extinct species.

There is an argument for making IT compulsory at GCSE, but not apparently, with the current course content. I read an article recently where John Hoggard, programme manager at Intellect said: "Take up of IT courses is falling and the basic IT skills being generated by the education system are not meeting learners' or employers' needs.

Technology companies often have to spend considerable time up-skilling new employees as a result."

It brought to mind my recent comments during the Guardian Online offshore debate. I suggested that, in an attempt to reduce the temptation to offshore, the government should encourage private sector organisations to provide UK citizens with accredited skills training.

Tax concessions could be offered, or covenants built into the tender when big business is competing to win a government IT contract. Bidders would be challenged to demonstrate their skills and training programmes to develop the talent in their area….

I know that big companies like IBM, Microsoft and Capgemini already run apprenticeships. This is fantastic - more companies should offer universally-recognised skills programmes. But, what I’d like to see, is employers getting involved in deciding how kids learn IT in schools. This would take things a step further.

If government lets the private sector get to grips with the Information Technology curriculum, perhaps even to the point of training teachers, or seconding technical staff into classrooms - it could bring classrooms alive, with real life examples of the full spectrum of IT work, and projects based on actual industry issues.

A whole new generation of potential IT professionals would have their eyes opened to the wealth and breadth of opportunities in Information Technology. Win-win-win: Employers get better candidates, school leavers have improved prospects and the UK gets to keep its IT sector onshore long term.

The market for Information technology outsourcing (ITO) is expected to reach $313.2bn in 2011, growing 6.9% on 2010, according to an online survey by Gartner.

Winning new clients is seen as a new priority for 45% of ITO providers, with 62% of respondents identifying growth as the top strategic goal this year. It is hoped this with be achieved will be achieved through investing in cloud, utility and "as a service" offerings.

Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst Rolf Jester said: “It is clear that providers are optimistic despite considerable uncertainty in the global economies.”