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Cloud this, cloud that...

‘Cloud’ and ‘cloud computing’ are the buzzwords of the day. And with good reason too. Host your data on the internet (or ‘in the cloud’, if you’re already down with the lingo), rather than on your own managed servers, and you make it more accessible, as well as easier and less expensive to update. Do the same for software and there is no longer any need for users to install it on their computers – instead, they can access the latest up-to-date version on the web. And it just so happens that cloud-based software is cheaper to implement, so there are cost savings to be made for any public sector organisation that’s due an IT upgrade.

All things considered, it’s perplexing that the public sector is taking such a long time to embrace the cloud. There are fewer early adopters than you might expect, particularly when you consider the relatively fast uptake in the private sector. It’s possible that what’s holding back public sector IT procurement teams is that they don’t yet feel they have the experience they need to choose the right solutions. Shopping for cloud solutions isn’t the same as shopping for laptops. Buyers are not quite sure what to look for, or how much to pay for it – particularly when ‘it’ is a constantly evolving, fast-moving target.

But as you might expect, buyers who take the time to consult knowledgeable cloud providers can find all the answers they need. Relatively quickly, they can achieve a frame of reference to inform their buying decisions, so they can feel confident about those decisions once they have made them. Here are some of the questions that public sector customers frequently ask us:

Q: Can the cloud help us make quick cost savings?

A: Yes. If an organisation wants to prioritise making cost savings in the short term, it should ask its cloud provider about ‘software as a service’ (SaaS). More often than not, by moving to a SaaS cloud services model for some applications, it is possible to make significant savings over existing in-house IT applications. SaaS providers can charge less for developing, maintaining and hosting software when their costs are spread over many users; some charge for access to the software on a ‘pay as you go’ basis.

Q: Can the cloud help us to reduce capex?

A: Yes. A lot of the people we talk to want to avoid capital costs, but would like to keep using the applications they have developed and the licenses for software they already have. A good option for these organisations is ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS). They pay service providers each month to set up virtual machines and storage and network services. Having a complete infrastructure solution provided as a managed service means a public sector organisation no longer needs to procure, maintain or update its infrastructure itself. The IaaS model lets organisations exceed normal demand for short periods when necessary – it’s a flexible solution.

Q: What about our data – is that safe in the cloud?

A: Yes – depending on the level of security your provider offers, data in the cloud is safe. There are different levels of physical security from Tier 1 to Tier 4, which the Ministry of Defence uses. The data centre that we operate uses the ultra-secure Tier 3 level of security, which is robust and meets the approval of our customers, including banks and legal services organisations. If sharing server space was the same as sharing data, there would be many fewer reputable organisations already using the cloud to access, share or deliver data or software.

Q: Is it a problem that we have no training?

A: Many public organisations have no training in virtualisation or cloud services management, so this is a fairly common question. It is, of course, possible for organisations to take advantage of cloud computing without having these skills from the outset. Cloud services providers should be able to offer pre-sales support free of charge if required, together with a level of service that meets customers’ needs.

Whatever an organisation’s data and software needs, the shift towards cloud-based solutions is now in full swing. By taking the time to understand what solutions are available on the market, the public sector can take advantage of it now, and make significant cost savings in the process.

As India teeters on the brink of double-digit inflation, Santander and New Call Telecom announce that they are bringing operations back to the UK. While this job creation is excellent news for the people of Burnley, Liverpool, Leicester and Glasgow, Indian outsourcing suppliers are facing some major issues.

With a population of over 1.2 billion people, and poor supply chain infrastructure, there will always be strains on supply of food and fuel. There is constant excess demand putting pressure on prices.

Indian has suffered with chronically high inflation before. In previous periods of double digit inflation - and there have been 9 of them in the last 50-odd years - drought has been to blame.

This time, sky-rocketing international commodity prices are the culprit, a situation that the Indian Minister of Finance can do nothing about, so it would seem that, whatever tweaks are made to India’s monetary policy, high inflation will be around for a while yet. Of those nine recent instances of double-digit inflation, five of them lasted over 12 months. one of them lasted two and a half years!

Indian salaries are expected to rise 13% over the next year, meaning India can no longer position itself as a low-cost provider of BPO. New Call Telecom’s decision to backshore to Burnley - which isn’t actually an outsourcing issue, because that call centre was owned and run by New Call themselves - is based, in part, on the fact that wages in depressed areas of the UK are already on a par with those for equivalent roles in India.

But New Call's return to the UK is not just a matter of rising costs, but falling quality. This has been the key motivator for Santander, which had been quite content to outsource its contact centres to India since 2003. Now though, in the face of 165,000 complaints about its banking services in the latter half of 2010, it has decided that backshoring is the answer.

So why the sudden drop in Indian call-handling proficiency? Good call centre operatives open calls sympathetically, drill down to the heart of the problem, then find solutions.

Complex problems require the operative to have a solid understanding of the caller’s culture. Santander’s return to the UK proves this- their customers’ feedback stated that they “prefer to deal with call centres in the UK, where staff could understand them better as individuals and know where they are coming from."

It’s not about accents or language barriers; cultural affinity is a must for successful offshoring. We at the NOA have been saying that for years! Taking the cheapest option will never be a route to success, if the quality is not up to the mark.

India’s current economic traumas are a conspicuous contributor to the quality drop: because of the price pressures - particularly on food - people move jobs very quickly, for just a few rupees more elsewhere. India’s staff attrition rates are astronomical right now - in voice-based call centres, currently around 25%-35%. This means there is no time for adequate cultural awareness training - a huge problem for those buying outsourced business services.

As the costs of doing business in India fall into line with more developed nations, I suggest that companies considering outsourcing call centres to India ensure that their suppliers invest (and continue to invest) in intensive programmes of cultural awareness training. That way, Indian providers can retain business by competing on quality, not just on cost.

Jim Stikeleather, Chief Innovation Officer at Dell Services, discusses the common myth that you have to be creative and egotistical to be innovative.

Debunking the Myths of Innovation

Myth 3: You have to be creative (egotistical) to be innovative

Reality 3: While creative thinking is helpful, innovation is a systematic discipline

Typically, “innovation” is viewed as something that occurs in the minds of a select few who really understand what it means and who know how to make it happen. While people responsible for innovation talk about collaboration, co-creation, and open innovation, we historically have tended to engage with this dynamic as the conductor who has the authority to make the final decision. Truly engaging in open innovation means that the “innovation elites” will increasingly have to relinquish some of our personal authority.

Instead, we must become extremely open to the fact that others may have better ideas than we do. Initially, as internal innovators, we need to be the ones at the forefront, working relentlessly to prove the case in environments that may not be open to new ideas and approaches. When it comes to making innovation a sustainable value within a large organisation, we absolutely must spread our expertise and be thoughtful and generous in how we encourage others to become innovators, too. We must look beyond your own needs and egos, and we must diligently spread the word and support others to create a pervasive population of innovators.

Dell currently operates two internal innovation systems:

· IdeaStorm allows customers to submit ideas for new products, services or improvements to existing options. Through this process, Dell customers have contributed 15,559 ideas, submitted 741,950 evaluations and offered 91,815 comments on those ideas. Dell has implemented 438 of those ideas.

· EmployeeStorm is a venue that encourages employees to do the same. To date, Dell employees have contributed 5,778 ideas, submitted 301,993 evaluations and 25,350 comments on those ideas. Dell has implemented 269 ideas based directly on employee submissions.

The Services Innovation Group intends to add on to these capabilities as we evolve and develop a more systemic and directed approach to innovation.

In implementing systemic innovation, our responsibility is to ignite waves of action, to basically function as an incubator that gives good ideas a reasonable chance to succeed and ultimately, perhaps even make the formal Services Innovation Group obsolete. Innovation can and should simply become the way business is done. In the past innovation was nice to have, especially when product cycles were long, markets took time to develop and IT was driven by business and not consumers. Today, innovation is necessary to survive and daily business articles appear (not just in technology) with the theme “Innovate or Die”.

Dell has multiple groups engaged in an innovation framework, identifying trends and values, futuristic market themes and scenarios of possible futures, all of which are then translated into formal investigations (what needs more research), plans of intent (strategies in terms of products and services to be developed), plans of record (actual product and services under development), as well as long-range and tactical operating plans and budgets. This is an iterative and cooperative process, and the Services Innovation Group and innovation process is primarily looking at the world three years ahead.

In contrast, several Dell CTOs, with respective responsibilities for enterprise customers/offers, clients (hardware) and industry verticals (such as healthcare), have a more near-term charter to use emerging technologies to improve existing products and services. Dell Product Groups perform product marketing and product management functions, including IT services. Finally, Dell delivery organisations actually produce and deliver the company’s products, services and comprehensive solutions.

A formal, repeatable and systemic innovation process inside Dell is a work in progress as it is in most large organizations with very few exceptions. Currently, innovation across the above-mentioned groups is informal and collaborative. Even the term innovation itself is inconsistently used, misused and not well understood – industry and business have only just begun to coalesce around a common understanding of innovation and its manifestations.

Each group has its own interactions with outside researchers, analysts, standards groups and even customer interactions to form their own perception of the environment and then come together to rationalise differences that emerge. Each group also independently engages various consulting organisations to conduct primary research and facilitate analysis in their specific areas of interest. In order to evolve to a formal and systemic innovation process, it is essential for businesses to have an integrative approach across the different work groups within the company. That is the future for innovation at Dell.

Japan's Hitachi has said it is planning to outsource production of all its TV sets to foreign companies as part of its new business strategy.

The company said it was shifting its focus on manufacturing and developing more profitable products.

The announcement comes as slowing demand and falling prices of TVs have hit earnings of electronics makers.

Atos, an international IT services company, has announced that it has been awarded a new five-year contract with ISS, one of the largest providers of Facility Services.

The announcement follows the decision by ISS to move to Atos. Key factors in appointing Atos as its new UK provider were value for money, increased flexibility, improved resilience and a better user experience.

Mark Brown, IT Director at ISS said: “We chose Atos because we have confidence in their people and their solutions. They demonstrated an excellent knowledge and understanding of our business and presented a standardised cloud solution that has the flexibility to adapt rapidly to changing business requirements while reducing our overall IT costs.”

Atos will manage all IT services and infrastructure for the UK business of ISS. It will implement its cloud solution, Atos Sphere, and its desktop solution, Adaptive Workplace, to migrate all existing services from an on-site data centre to a fully virtualised platform. The new solution will deliver savings from day one while improving flexibility and resilience.

Wipro BPO, the Business Process Outsourcing arm of Wipro Technologies has announced that TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC, UK’s leading provider of value for money fixed line broadband and voice telephony services to consumers and business users, has selected Wipro BPO as one of its strategic partners for its outsourced contact centre operations. Wipro Technologies is the Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited.

Wipro will be responsible for the creation of a new service centre in India to support the group’s resident customers. Wipro will also work alongside TalkTalk to continue to improve the overall customer experience, including the implementation of new CRM technologies.

"Wipro’s engagement with TalkTalk reinforces our leadership as the long-term strategic partner equipped to help global corporations transform their businesses using our process and technology capabilities. We are delighted to work with TalkTalk and help them strengthen their leadership position in the market place.” said Manish Dugar, Senior Vice President and Global Head, Wipro BPO.

Jo Dawson, TalkTalk’s Director of Consumer Operations commented “We have worked with Wipro for many years and look forward to leveraging Wipro’s expertise, particularly in the use of new technologies, to deliver further improvements in our customers’ experience over the years ahead.”

Sitel, a leading customer care outsourcing provider, has announced it was ranked as one of the “Top Global BPO providers” in the seventh annual Global Services 100 survey, a listing of leading global providers of business and technology outsourcing services. The company was also honoured as a “Top Contact Centre and Customer Management Vendor” and “Top 20 Employer.”

This is Sitel’s seventh year on the Global Services 100 list, and sixth as a category winner. The company was specifically recognised for providing high level customer service and support in several areas:

· Unprecedented customer value: Sitel is changing the perception of the call centre industry from a tactical, cost-cutting alternative to a strategic resource of business value and growth. The company’s call centre solutions continue to reduce service costs, increase revenue and improve customer retention for some of the world’s largest brands.

· Web engagement framework and technology innovation: Sitel’s expertise in leveraging live chat, social media monitoring, and agent/customer personality mapping in the call centre allows clients to capitalise on Sitel’s global expertise, simplifying and strengthening millions of customer interactions worldwide.

· Expanding geographic footprint: Sitel continues to stay ahead of the latest geographic trends, providing support in 26 countries and 36 languages worldwide. While the company maintains a strong presence in traditional leading markets such as India and the Philippines, Sitel is also setting new standards in emerging hubs, such as Nicaragua, Columbia, Bulgaria, and most recently, Serbia.

“Sitel is honoured to be acknowledged as one of the top call centre and customer care vendors once again,” said Bert Quintana, president and COO of Sitel. “This award is a testament to our team’s ability to stay ahead of changing market dynamics, providing the top-notch innovation, solutions and strategies to keep our client’s customer service and business thriving.”

MPs have urged the government to scrap the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) and blasted suppliers CSC and BT for failing to deliver on guarantees made in bumper contracts.

The NPfIT was launched nine years ago and was intended to revamp the way in which the health service uses technology. One of the central tenets of the £11.4bn plan was to introduce electronic patient records (EPR).

But a report published by the Commons' Public Accounts Committee has called on the entire programme, including plans for EPRs, to be canned.

"The Department of Health should review whether to continue the programme and consider whether the remaining £4.3bn would be better spent elsewhere," said the report's summary.

The summary claims that despite a total of £2.7bn being spent on implementing EPRs so far, "the Department has failed to demonstrate the benefits achieved". The previous government is, in part, blamed for the NPfIT's failings for not having "consulted at the start of the process with health professionals".

Read more: http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2099158/mps-blast-bt-csc-npfit-rollout-failings#ixzz1U4b4Fpss

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Sweeping intellectual property reforms to boost growth and add billions to the economy

The Government has announced plans to support economic growth by modernising UK intellectual property laws. Ministers have accepted the recommendations made in an independent review which estimate a potential benefit to the UK economy of up to £7.9 billion.

The recommendations were made in May 2011 by Professor Ian Hargreaves in his report, - ‘Digital Opportunity: A review of intellectual property and growth’. Modernising intellectual property law is a key action from the Government’s Plan for Growth, published in March alongside the Budget, which will help create the right conditions for businesses to invest, grow and create jobs.

Announcing the Government’s response to the review, Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

“The Government is focused on boosting growth and the Hargreaves review highlighted the potential to grow the UK economy. By creating a more open intellectual property system it will allow innovative businesses to develop new products and services which will be able to compete fairly in the UK’s thriving markets for consumer equipment.

Essex County Council is modernising its information services and saving £32 million in costs.

The cuts are part of a wider job cull at the council, under the council’s transformation programme to achieve £300 million over four years, which may result in 429 redundancies.

“As part of our ambitious Essex Works: Customer First Transformation agenda, the Information Services Modernisation programme is set to deliver £32 million savings over the next five years through changing the way we deliver IT provision.

“This will require some reduction in the size of our IS team as well as changing the way ICT is used across the county. However, it is too early to provide specific details,” an Essex County Council spokesperson said.