Industry news

Following a strategic market review, the shareholder services business of Capita has launched two new share dealing services designed to meet growing demand in the industry.

The new services are:

executive share dealing – giving board members and other executives a cashless exercise facility, allowing them to buy and sell shares via deferred settlement; and

corporate share dealing – allowing companies to engage in effective and timely share buy backs.

Nick Sharrock, managing director of Capita’s share dealing services business, said: “Shares are an important part of an executives reward package and a vital tool in attracting and retaining the top talent. So we have launched two new services, which will be delivered alongside an enhanced ‘all employee’ share dealing service. The new services will be tailored to the needs of the executive or company concerned and will be delivered by market experts. Importantly, both services are market maker and counterparty neutral and not tied to one or more brokers, allowing executives and corporates to achieve the best possible price and execution timescales.”

As part of the same strategic review that produced the new and enhanced services, Capita’s shareholder services business will also be taking back in house dealing currently with NatWest for its SIPs and executive share plans.

IBM has introduced new analytics software and services to help cities predict the result of policy decisions and their positive and negative spill over consequences up to a quarter century in the future.

System Dynamics for Smarter Cities is designed to help mayors and other municipal officials reduce the unintended negative consequences of municipal actions on citizens, as well as uncover hidden beneficial relationships among municipal policies. A more thorough understanding of how policies affect each other over time will enable officials to reduce or avoid negative results before they happen. Leaders will also be able to “double down” on policies that are projected to have positive ancillary results.

Using sophisticated analytics, System Dynamics for Smarter Cities addresses the dynamics among the complete spectrum of municipal policies and their effect on citizens, such as the association between:

· Public transportation fares and high school graduation rates

· Obesity rates and CO2 emissions – while somewhat surprisingly average vehicle MPG has little effect

· Average health and attractiveness of the city to businesses

· Population density and wellness

· Taxes/fees collected and electricity consumption

· Farmers markets and economic growth

Innovative Output Solutions (IOS), a UK-based subsidiary of DST Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce the acquisition of Lateral Group Limited ("Lateral Group").

Lateral Group is a UK company with operational facilities located principally in London, Nottingham and Edenbridge, and is engaged in integrated, data driven, multi-channel marketing. Lateral Group is a private company and the terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

IOS is one of the largest direct communications manufacturers within its sector in the UK. It is also one of Europe’s largest variable colour digital printers, specialising in innovative one-to-one communication solutions for various sectors including financial services, retail, utilities, travel, charities and local government.

The addition of Lateral Group is viewed as a complementary fit with existing IOS operations both in terms of services offered and business outlook.

“This is an excellent strategic development for IOS,” commented IOS chief executive Mark Felstead. “Lateral Group has a strong presence in the industry and we are pleased to be able to provide further solutions such as data insight and online marketing to our client base through this acquisition.”

Commented Nick Dixon, the principal founder of the Lateral Group: “We have found a great home for the business, and I am absolutely confident that it will go from strength to strength. We look forward to taking advantage of new technologies and resources through this transaction and achieving further scale as a marketing services provider.”

Said Felstead: “This move represents the execution of IOS’s strategy to extend and develop our product offering - particularly integrating communications through print, data and e-solutions - as well as helping to ensure that we continue to develop a market-leading position in our traditional services. At a time when there is much structural change taking place in the industry, it is important for IOS to lead the market. This acquisition helps us to achieve that. We are now in an even stronger position to support larger contracts across the entire spectrum of output solutions in the UK.”

New role will be responsible for global sales and product marketing

HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile devices, today announced the acquisition of Seattle-based Dashwire, Inc, the maker of the Dashworks platform that provides mobile and web applications, enabling people to easily setup and personalize their smartphones, and seamlessly access their mobile content across multiple screens and services. Dashwire will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HTC.

“Cloud services are key to delivering the promise of connected services to our customers,” said Fred Liu, president of engineering and operations, HTC Corporation. “People want access to all of their important content wherever they are on any device. The addition of Dashwire’s cutting-edge sync services and deep mobile cloud experience strengthens our ability to deliver these services in a more powerful way.”

HTC will utilize Dashwire’s cloud sync and device set up products to extend the HTCSense.com cloud services it launched last year.

“Dashwire was founded with the conviction that mobile cloud services would fundamentally change how people create, connect with and share their content across their devices,” said Ford Davidson, founder and CEO of Dashwire. “HTC shares the mobile cloud computing vision with Dashwire which makes it exciting for us to be joining the HTC family to drive even more innovation in this space.”

Lincolnshire Police Authority has revealed the names of five organisations which are competing to provide a range of support and policing services over the next ten to 15 years.

The Authority and the Force need to meet an anticipated budget reduction in the next four years of £20 million. In March they started a process to identify potential strategic partners willing to help them continue to develop solutions.

The contract in Lincolnshire, involving the widest range of services ever offered in a single contract by any UK Police Authority, will be worth around £200 million over 10 years. If taken up by other Forces, spend across UK policing as a whole could total £2billion over the next decade.

Those invited to participate in the next stage of the search for a strategic partner are:

THE CAPITA BLUELIGHT ALLIANCE

SERCO AND LOGICA

STERIA WITH RELIANCE

NORTHGATE INFORMATION SOLUTIONS Ltd

G4S

The range of services being considered includes:

Human Resources

Finance

Information Technology

Legal Services

Estate and Fleet Management

Strategic Development and Project Management

General and Specialist Administrative Support

Criminal Justice Support and Custody Provision

Control Room Services

Police Authority Chairman Barry Young said: ‘We are delighted that companies with national and international reputations are interested in joining us to transform the way in which we do business. We have had experience of working with partners for a number of years – although not on such a large scale – and we know that new and compelling ideas can flow from collaboration and partnership.

Put simply, our intention is to provide the best value and best possible policing for the people of Lincolnshire’.

Chief Constable Richard Crompton, said: ‘This is a really exciting opportunity to save considerable sums of taxpayers’ money whilst transforming the service that the public receive from Lincolnshire Police.

I look forward to the next stage of the process as we seek to find the right strategic partner to work with in the long term’.

Logica, a leading business and technology service company, has announced the signing of two new contracts for the European Galileo satellite navigation Full Operational Capability (FOC) programme. The contracts with the two ground system prime contractors, whose respective contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA) under a programme of and funded by the European Union were signed at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget on 22 June 2011.

A €42 million contract is for elements of the Ground Mission Segment (GMS). Working with Thales Alenia Space France, Logica will have security responsibility for GMS, plus provision of the new Galileo Security Facility and encryption Key Management Facilities. The Galileo Security Facility will act as the security control centre for the complete Galileo system and will be installed at the two Galileo Security Monitoring Centres planned for France and the UK.

The Logica GMS facilities are the heart of Galileo’s Public Regulated Service (PRS).

The second contract, valued at €13.5 million, is for elements within the Ground Control Segment (GCS) of the programme. Working with Astrium UK, Logica will provide:

The Satellite Constellation Control Facility - the core of the GCS - which will control and operate the Galileo 30 satellite fleet once fully operational

The Satellite Key Management Facility, the security facility for the GCS.

Commenting on Logica’s role on the programme, the European Space Agency, said, “Logica is an important player on Galileo and we are very pleased they have been selected for this significant role on the FOC programme. Logica’s ability to combine leading security capability with the implementation of complex technical systems is central to the success of Galileo.”

The UK’s largest online luxury children’s fashion retailer, Childrensalon, has appointed ADA Technology Services to deliver a six-figure hosted support services contract over the next three years.

The partnership will play a key role in delivering the luxury brand’s expansion plans, which have already seen the online retailer’s turnover triple since the beginning of 2009.

ADA will provide a complete hosted infrastructure with 1st, 2nd and 3rd line telephone support including onsite escalation. Harnessing the IT managed service specialist’s nationwide presence, off-site replication will be delivered from its West Midlands data centre, whilst monitoring, technical account management and virtual CIO services will be delivered from its South East headquarters.

Ian Davidson, Childrensalon’s IT Director, comments: “We have experienced phenomenal growth over the last three years and this has highlighted weaknesses within our existing IT infrastructure. With over 230 designer brands available through a business that is extensively e-commerce driven, we cannot afford for our systems to fail and ADA has been appointed to provide a level of scalability and reliability that cannot be achieved internally. This partnership will allow us to redirect the 15 per cent of company resources spent maintaining our servers on growing the business.”

NATS, the leading air traffic control organisation, is to implement a multi-million pound project to transfer all its desktop IT services to a cloud-based infrastructure. By creating a secure, virtual desktop environment the company expects to reduce costs by £9 million over the next four years, shrink its environmental footprint, improve flexibility and enhance the service it provides to around 6,000 staff.

This is the largest implementation of cloud-based infrastructure in the transport sector to date and will allow more effective collaboration between NATS staff and business partners across NATS locations, over multiple geographic regions. Staff will have access to the services, information and applications they need for their particular role, creating a customised experience.

The new service will be trialled with more than 300 users during 2011 and will be rolled out to all staff in the first half of 2012.

Gavin Walker, Head of IS at NATS, said: “This project is part of our Future Workspace vision and is crucial to the NATS growth strategy, providing us with a flexible and responsive IT framework that doesn’t add to our footprint. Staff will be able to access the applications they need, wherever they are, and will have a consistent experience regardless of the device they are using.”

The NOA was proud to host its fifth annual Summer Party and Outsourcing End User Experience at Lawrence Graham Offices, London on Thursday 14th July.

The event was not a typical conference with drinks flowing, a live band playing jazz and an exciting line up of end users speaking about their outsourcing triumphs, failures and all round experiences.

Speakers included representatives from the Land Registry, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Surrey County Council, The Co-operative Financial Services, HML and NOA Pathway.

Martin Hart, NOA Chairman, opened the event: “The NOA is the pre-eminent organisation in the UK that enables and promotes successful outsourcing for the benefit of end-users, suppliers and supporting intermediary organisations.

“I feel very honoured to launch our fifth Summer Party and I hope you all leave this event with great memories and some invaluable insights from our fantastic speakers.”

The first speaker, Paul O’Hare, Head of Outsourcing Practice at Kemp Little LLP, and NOA Board member talked about getting the pre-contract phase of outsourcing right. He explained how often, when a business case for outsourcing is signed off, it is handed over to lawyers to get the deal done.

Paul also focused on the all important exit strategy. “If you don’t get your exit clauses built in at the beginning, you’ll end up paying at the end, when the suppliers take their last chance make a bit of money, when there’s no incentive to give good service.”

He emphasised the importance of taking up supplier exit references, from ex-customers who have been through exit, to understand reasons for leaving, and how the supplier acted during the transitional phase. Paul commented that the recent NOA best practice guide on exit strategies is now available on the NOA website.

One of the many highlights of the event was the NOA Pathway Certificate presentation. Students from HML and The Co-operative Financial Services, who successfully completed the NOA Pathway certificate, received their qualification from Yvonne Williams and Martyn Hart, at the end of the event.

Congratulations to The Co-operative Financial Services’ Graham Bower, John Campbell Sam Hannah, Jo Robinson, Bernie Tattler, Richard Woodroffe and HMLs’ Anu Biswas, Ben Chambers, Oliver Chambers, Sarah Green, Ciaran Leonard, Samantha Mayfield, Bronagh Mellon, Pete Proctor, Wayne Robinson and Andrew Swallow.

Brian Brodie, HML CEO, commented: “The NOA qualification is a vital part of our strategy in moving the business from 'experts in mortgage servicing' to 'the ability in Financial Services outsourcing'.

“The need for professional outsourcing people has been evident for a while in that we need to lead the thinking of our clients and partners more in our relationships. This is even more important as we become agnostic of product and try to win business from people who are already doing this themselves…’

Event Chairman, Martyn Hart, invited questions from the floor, and all the speakers were instantly inundated with questions from people wanting to tap into their vast experience. The evening was wrapped up with plenty of flowing drinks, nibbles and mingling on the Lawrence Graham balcony overlooking Tower Bridge. Overall, the summer party were a fantastic evening for the outsourcing industry and one which has made everyone excited about the NOA Summit and Awards 2011.

For a full breakdown of the speakers’ presentations, please visit www.noa.co.uk

Forthcoming NOA featured event:

NOA Summit & Awards

9th & 10th November 2011

Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel, London

Award submission deadline - Friday 5th August

How SMEs have benefitted from using Dotsquares, their two Indian development centres and offices around the world.

How Do You Compete Effectively Within an Established IT Outsourcing Marketplace? This was the question Bankim Chandra asked himself when starting the company in 2002. The obvious answer was to open two development centres in Jaipur, India and support them with a global network of offices to offer exceptional service and build long lasting relationships with customers. In this way very competitive pricing models can be offered combined with the customer care that has come to be expected of UK, USA and Australian based companies.

We have been providing IT solutions across multiple technologies and platforms including PHP, .Net, ASP, HTML, Flash and mobile apps for Android, Blackberry and iPhone as well as new versions of current technologies such as HTML5.

Cluttered Marketplace creates confusion

The offshore market is now saturated, with companies from Shanghai to St. Petersburg vying for business. This landscape, of extensive choice of supplier, makes standing out and being recognised as credible ever harder. Any offshore company often has an uphill battle to convince new clients that the corporate values of service and reliability, not forgetting technical ability and business communications skills are just as strong as an onshore company.

In the outsourced web development marketplace there is a tendency to try and shout loudest to claim the most attention. The landscape is full of companies and individuals claiming they are the next best thing, but when the development work is underway, clients all too often find out the harsh realities. This reality is that anyone looking to outsource their work must ensure their due diligence has been thorough and that they are dealing with a credible organisation in order to avoid finding this out.

Tailored support for start-ups

As experts in the web development outsourcing field we know what the reality is when a company is just starting up and is in its infancy. Cost is an obvious consideration to those in this situation, as is the quality of the work produced. The same can apply to those companies looking to start a period of expansion. The company has responded to these and other issues by ensuring that resources applied to a project can be easily scaled to any particular development phase. Sometimes additional resources are required at the start to ensure the project is running smoothly from day one. Then these can be rolled off once the initial phases have been completed, or rolled back on if required at a later date. This approach allows the client to focus in on their most important job, and their core competence: building up their own company.

Communicate for success

With often no physical interaction between client and supplier, one of the key factors in the success of any IT project, let alone one being conducted offshore, is clear and concise communication. Mr. Chandra, our Managing Director, quickly realised this is a vital component and set up an online project management tool, which, when combined with a local rate phone number (via VOIP), Skype, email and MSN established clear lines of communication. Projects from as far afield as California (12.5 hours time difference) enjoy excellent communications, allowing both developer and client to work in harmony.

A cohesive approach

By responding to some of the pitfalls experienced by companies looking to outsource, we have put in place an approach that enables them to tackle a wide variety of enquiries. With expert developers in .Net and PHP, combined with other technologies and dedicated graphic designers they can apply a cohesive approach for most clients.

Once the development work is complete many companies would be looking to get their developers on to the next project. The overriding principle being to create an effective “pipeline” of business that is profit driven. This can lead to a poor final product that may not be fit for the client’s purpose. A thorough testing phase at the conclusion of each project ensures a viable solution is always provided, with a product that is tailored to the requirements, yet scalable for future upgrades.

Dotsquares

In all, the entire experience offered by Dotsquares is one of helpful consultancy to ensure the client’s requirements are fully explored, the estimate reflects the work looking to be carried out, and the development teams bring to bear their years of experience to ensure successful and timely projects are returned to clients. It proves that offering a great service and price is still a priority for most people when choosing a supplier. After all we are in the business of Building Business Builders!