Industry news

U.S. IT company IBM is buying Toronto-based risk analytics software firm Algorithmics for $387 million in cash to enhance its financial services capabilities.

IBM said the deal, expected to close before the end of October, expands its business analytics capabilities by helping clients manage financial risk.

Laurence Trigwell, IBM's head of business analytics for financial services, said there was significant demand from banks, financial markets and insurance firms for analytical insight, both to improve performance and comply with increased regulation.

"We see risk analytics as a critical component of that analytical insight, driven by market factors and events over the last 10 years since Basel II (banking regulations) and over the last three or four since the financial crisis," he told Reuters in an interview.

Transport for London (TfL) is running a high speed procurement of a freight journey planner for the Olympic Games, with a tender in the Official Journal of the European Union marked as an accelerated procedure and deemed "time critical".

The tender notice for a web-based system and interactive map application specifies just five months between the inception meeting at the end of September and the launch in February next year.

On 11 February the Prime Minister, Francis Maude, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Baroness Eaton of the Local Government Group launched a number of initiatives to open up Government Procurement to more competition and participation by small and medium sized enterprises.

One of the measures announced was an extension of the Cabinet Office’s Government Procurement supplier Feedback Service and an invitation to small businesses to become a ‘mystery shopper’. Suppliers were asked to tell the Supplier Feedback Service about tenders they did not understand or instances of what they believed to be poor procurement practice, with a commitment that procurers would be challenged to be more transparent and open. The Supplier Feedback Service committed to publish the results of the investigations into the cases received.

The document which sets out the issue and the resolution of the cases investigated in the first 3 months of the scheme between February and May can be found here

The start of 2011 has really seen the UK public sector come under scrutiny as controversial budget cutting decisions were announced following the coalition government’s 2010 Spending Review. While the government has assured us that budgets for the NHS have effectively been ring-fenced and that essential frontline services will not be affected, there is no denying that with rises in inflation, partnered with increased costs of supplies and commodities, the NHS and key areas such as educations will feel the pinch throughout the public sector.

Local governments are going to have to look at new and unfamiliar methods of working that help to improve efficiencies, cut down costs and maintain levels of public services. One such way will be for organisations to embrace new and innovative technology models such as Cloud Computing, Software-as-a-Service (Saas) and, most notably, Shared Services. The sharing of critical business and IT services, if done well, has been proven to cut costs, reduce errors and increase productivity, and according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) “will be the main method for cutting costs in 2011.”

So, what is “Shared Services”? Is it just about cutting costs, what does it entail and, most importantly, how can its use result in greater efficiency on reduced budgets and resources?

According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), shared services “involves bringing together a set of back-office or front-office services common to multiple business units within a single organisation, or across a number of organisations. The relevant parts of these services are placed into a single delivery structure that is customer-focused and performance-managed.” Typical services suitable for sharing are often characterised as:

- Transactional and process driven

- High volume

- Geographically independent

- Common processes that can be standardised

- Requiring specialist personnel

While these services are deemed crucial to the effective functioning of local governments and public sector organisations, they should not draw unnecessary resources from the frontline. Shared support services can actually have a key role in freeing up resources, consequently allowing front-line service delivery to remain unaffected in the face of budget cuts.

Despite the theory of a shared services model being potentially very beneficial, uptake on a national scale is still remarkably low. However, there are a number of departments in the UK public sector that are taking the lead with this innovative method. One such example is within the NHS – with over 600 autonomous organisations, each with its own finance and accounting function, problems with duplication of effort, difficulty of sharing best practice and fragmented IT infrastructure are rife.

With a view to alleviating this issue, the NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) was launched in 2005 as a 50-50 joint venture between the Department of Health and Xansa (acquired by Steria in 2007). Now in its 6th year, the NHS SBS has been hailed a great success – acting as a commercial venture it can now claim over 130 clients and the organisation has become the preferred choice for NHS Trusts seeking to modernise their back office processes. By sharing best practice, financial control across the organisation has vastly improved using leading automation technology to keep financial services to a consistently high standard.

The NHS SBS is a great example of some of the anticipated benefits of shared services and shows that shared services could be an ideal solution in the private and public sectors for medium- large organisations in multiple locations and numerous divisions that have a high number of repeated tasks that need to be carried out. Joint ventures such as shared services can often lead to other key factors including:

- Increased access to professional skills from across the board, resulting in greater support for a standardised set of back-office shared services, more successful monitoring processes and best practices shared across the board

- Reduced costs and administrative burden on those supporting back office functions

- Consistent achievement of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) including 30-40 percent savings in reconciliation processes and consistently accurate automated month-end close

But while it is very easy to highlight all of the benefits of implementing a shared services infrastructure, no IT project would be complete without assessing some of the potential pitfalls of a switch to this system. Former president of Socitm, Jos Creese, recently commented that a hasty move to shared services driven by cost over necessity could lead to “greater inflexibility” in the public sector.

With savings of up to £15bn to be made in the UK public sector through cutting inefficiencies due to replicated systems, cost reduction will obviously be a driver. For a successful shared services implementation, organisations need to address the issue of planning – what foundations need to be in place to ensure an effective shared services strategy that will prove to be successful in the long term?

Key steps for successful implementation should include:

- Planning: Like any big IT project, all stages must be thoroughly planned to avoid large-scale catastrophes such as the National Programme for IT. The organisation(s) needs to ensure that each stage of implementation is covered, has buy-in at all staff levels and involves the right experienced vendors.

- Strong foundations: Like any good IT project, success often revolves around the need to have the correct tools in place initially. In order to ensure that projects like shared services can be managed and maintained, an effective automation platform that allows for visibility and control across a broad spectrum is crucial.

- Scalability: Projects such as shared services should start small and expand to suit the growing needs of the business, much like the expansion of the NHS SBS.

- Interoperability: When planning what services will be shared, thought needs to go into the fact that IT systems need to be integrated in order for different parties to access information.

- Future proof: Organisations need to think about the long term when implementing a shared services strategy. It needs to be flexible to deal with changes in the organisation(s) but also incorporate new technology methods that have been proven to improve efficiencies and cut costs, such as using cloud services.

- Training: Buy-in for implementation at all staff levels needs to be agreed for a project to be successful. Many staff will be wary of shared services and the security of their jobs, however it should be emphasised that shared services is not about automating people out of jobs – resources that were otherwise wasted within an organisation can be redeployed elsewhere to innovate and help increase effectiveness of an organisation.

If done the right way and for the right reasons, the merging of certain services between public sector bodies could go a long way towards bringing about more efficiencies and value to organisations without affecting front line services. At the same time it can enable unexpected opportunities to bring about new methods and ideas for how things can be done. A problem shared is a problem halved and in the context of the public sector this could not be more apparent.

Over recent months the ongoing revelations at the News of the World and subsequent investigations have brought into focus the importance of data visibility and auditable trails of information that can be called upon as evidence, should it be required. Whilst this is an exceptional and extremely highly visible case, it has perhaps raised the profile of the e-discovery process itself, and highlighted the need for organisations to have a sound strategy to collect, review and deliver electronically stored data for either an internal investigation or external investigation.

Electronically stored data and its analysis has become a crucial part of any investigative procedure and the sheer volume of unstructured user created data, such as emails, documents, spreadsheets etc, has only added to the size of the problem. The problem is further exacerbated by the variety of locations and devices users store data on – PCs, servers, laptop, smart phones, iPads etc. It’s a procedure which requires skilled specialists and technology which can transform these vast reams of disconnected data into meaningful information.

Due to the complexity and time involved it has, traditionally, been a process which was outsourced to law firms and consultants, however that’s changing. That change is driven by factors of cost but also by the increasing range of digital investigations required – from litigation, HR and fraud to governance and compliance. Over the past few years, surveys have shown consistent growth in the number of organisations that are choosing to bring parts of the eDisclosure process in-house.

So what are the relative pros and cons of either implementing an in-house solution or outsourcing the procedure?

By outsourcing e-Disclosure, IT teams can focus on core business objectives and, as a result, investigations can be carried out without putting any additional strain on internal staff and resources. Outsourcing e-Disclosure is also a sensible choice if the amount of data an organisation holds is minimal and the company is less likely to face litigation.

By bringing eDisclosure in-house or ‘in-sourcing’, companies can manage the process like most business functions and organisations can hand-select skilled employees to assume ownership. This means that the individual organisation will then have greater control of their electronic data, with more visibility over the investigation process, which can enable them to build a more robust case in their defence. Having an established internal team that can be quickly mobilised also allows for improved efficiency and familiarity with the business processes and associated tools. Consultants can always be utilised for extreme peaks but the vast majority of cases will be handled by trusted in-house resources.

One of the principal benefits of in-sourcing eDisclosure is also cost reduction. By investing in an eDisclosure solution and bringing the process in-house, organisations need to make an investment in software, hardware and training. However, by avoiding the variable costs associated with the use of outside vendors/consultants, an organisation would only need to be dealing with a few major matters to be able to pay off an investment in under 12 months. Businesses that outsource the process would not have to make the capital investment required for infrastructure implementation and software and hardware expenses such as user licenses and software updates, but the cost of having to outsource for each individual case can be a huge burden on company expenditure. Often when you need the help is when you are most vunerable and less able to negotiate.

There are a multitude of factors that should be considered when evaluating the benefits of moving eDisclosure in-house or outsourcing the process to consultants, but many companies are finding the cost and control of in-house collections and early case assessment is a practical and much more productive solution. This applies to all companies, however, larger, multinational and highly regulated companies such as those in banking and utilities, or those with significant IPR that are more prone to investigation, would certainly benefit from in-house eDisclosure.

Niall Sclater, the Open University's director of learning innovation, will shortly be taking a decision about whether to deploy Google Apps or Microsoft Live@edu.

He said that not only will the Open University be able to outsource email services for its 229,000 students, as well as its staff, taking away the maintenance burden from the university, but it will also be able to use the large document storage facilities offered by cloud computing systems.

"In the longer term I can see more and more functionality accruing to cloud-based services," said Sclater. "We are watching very closely and having conversations with Microsoft and Google as we make our decision about which of those systems to go for."

Defence, security and aviation solutions provider Patria and Fujitsu Finland have entered into an IT services agreement whereby Fujitsu will deliver IT infrastructure services to Patria. The service, which will be implemented following the Patja service model, covers availability and on-site support services at all Patria sites. Moreover, Fujitsu will assume responsibility for access management, workstation deliveries as well as support for printing and scanning services.

"Adherence to processes is very important in our operation which is why we require top-notch quality from our suppliers also. Our collaboration with Fujitsu first started in autumn 2008 and since then we have managed to achieve harmony and high quality in our co-operation. The expertise of the help desk, on-site support and other professionals as well as their solution-driven approach deserve our special thanks,” says CIO Sari Torkkola of Patria

IBM has announced a definitive agreement to acquire i2 to accelerate its business analytics initiatives and help clients in the public and private sectors address crime, fraud and security threats. Financial terms were not disclosed.

With more than 4,500 customers in 150 countries, i2 is a leading provider of intelligence analytics for crime and fraud prevention based in Cambridge, UK with U.S. headquarters in McLean, Va. i2’s clients span multiple sectors globally such as banking, defense, health care, insurance, law enforcement, national security and retail. i2 solutions are currently used by 12 of the top 20 retail banks globally and eight of the top 10 largest companies in the world.

Agilisys, one of the UK’s most innovative IT and business services providers, has annouced the company had been named preferred bidder by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham to provide a range of business start-up services as well as operational management of the new Barking Enterprise Centre due to open on time and on budget to the public in November of this year.

Agilisys will be responsible for all aspects of managing the centre, including facilities management of the 16,000 sq ft, 48-unit centre, marketing, and – most important – providing a number of services to help stimulate and support entrepreneurial growth in the Borough. Services aimed at supporting a high-growth, entrepreneurial culture will include business-support workshops, networking events, franchising advice, and one-to-one counselling sessions with experts in business coaching.

The services will be provided through Elevate East London, the innovative joint venture formed last year between Barking and Dagenham Council and Agilisys, which has fostering opportunity throughout the borough as one of its key objectives.

Oracle has accused Hewlett-Packard of fraud as the troubled relationship between the two technology titans plumbs new lows.

In court documents filed in California yesterday, Oracle claimed that HP concealed key facts during partnership negotiations, including that it was planning to hire Léo Apotheker, the former boss of SAP, the German IT giant.