Industry news

Gas and electricity supplier EDF Energy is to outsource much of its IT support to Capgemini in a contract worth up to £100m.

The contract is initially for three years and EDF Energy has the option to extend it by a further two years. If the full term of the contract is seen out, EDF Energy will have invested £100m by the end of 2015.

The main objective of the outsourcing deal is to improve the quality of IT support services for EDF Energy’s UK business, making them more consistent and standardised.

As part of the contract, Capgemini will provide IT service desk support and managed desktop services – including email, instant messaging and file sharing – for EDF Energy’s 15,000 IT users.

Capgemini will also assist EDF Energy with its technology procurement.

The outsourcing arrangement will result in some of EDF Energy’s IT staff - as well as some staff from its current IT suppliers - moving to Capgemini, most of whom will be based in the UK.

The Independent newspaper has announced a new outsourcing supplement to be released in April. Working in association with the National Outsourcing Association, The Independent will look to promote outsourcing as a way of streamlining and helping British businesses through tough economic times.

Editorially, the supplement will look at how the landscape of British business has changed in the aftermath of the recession and change in Government. Positive aspects of this change will be emphaised as well as how how outsourcing has had a positive effect on the UK economy.

http://www.independentonlinesolutions.com/advertisingGuide/outsourcing.pdf

Credit Suisse is to outsource the administration of its Guernsey-domiciled funds of hedge funds managed internationally by Credit Suisse Asset Managers, which were previously serviced in-house.

The business will be moved to the new provider over the next six months. Credit Suisse will not disclose the name of the third-part administrator, nor the volume of assets involved, but says the new service provider is “one of the biggest fund of funds administrators globally”.

A spokeswoman for Credit Suisse says: “The outsourcing of our fund of funds administration business in Guernsey involves devolving a non-core administrative function, which is in line with our strategy to provide a core, client-orientated service focusing on offering strong investment performance to our asset management clients.”

The spokeswoman says that the group’s banking, wealth management and trust businesses in Guernsey are not affected by the deal, and insists that it remains committed to the island.

Accenture has appointed Oliver Benzecry geographic unit managing director of its business in the United Kingdom and Ireland and country managing director for the United Kingdom, effective April 2. Mr. Benzecry will assume this role from David Thomlinson, who will continue to serve as Accenture’s senior managing director—Geographic Strategy & Operations, leading all of Accenture’s geographic operations as well as the company’s strategy to build and extend its market-leading position in key geographies around the world. Mark Ryan will continue as country managing director for Ireland, working with Mr. Benzecry.

Mr. Benzecry, 49, currently serves as managing director of Accenture’s Management Consulting growth platform in the company's EALA region, which covers countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Prior to assuming this role in 2009, Mr. Benzecry served as chief operating officer of Accenture’s Products operating group and of its Management Consulting growth platform globally. He is active with several Accenture clients in the United Kingdom and has also been involved with significant transformational technology outsourcing efforts for clients in the region.

“We are delighted that Olly is stepping into this important role leading our business in the United Kingdom and Ireland,” Mr. Thomlinson said. “His 19 years of experience with Accenture in multiple leadership roles, and his extensive client work across the company, position him well to continue to grow our business in this important region.”

Mr. Benzecry said, “I am honored to lead Accenture’s operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. We have great momentum in the business, and I look forward to building on the work that David has done over the last four and a half years. Our focus will remain on accelerating the execution of our business strategy and delivering value to our clients.”

Wipro Infotech has announced it has signed a 5 year strategic contract to drive Canara Bank's Regional Rural Bank (RRB) initiative. The contract to provide a state-of-the-art, technology-driven, core anking solution for three of Canara Bank's sponsored Regional Rural Banks - Pragathi Gramin Bank, Karnataka, South Malabar Gramin Bank, Kerala, and Shreya Gramin, Uttar Pradesh.

The engagement is of vital importance to Canara Bank to achieve its objective of financial inclusion and bringing low cost and efficient banking services to the rural masses. The centralized Core Banking Solution is not only expected to facilitate efficient internal operations for the three RRBs but also increase its competitive edge in its ability to offer innovative products and services at optimum costs.

The Core Banking project aims to integrate around 900 branches and offices in a phased manner. This would include Branches, Extension Counters, Service Units, Head Offices, Regional Offices, Training centers, other back offices, Data Centre, Disaster Recovery Centre, Project Office which would also operate as the Data Centre Monitoring Unit (DCMU), and Network Operations Centre (NOC).

Wipro will also setup a 24-hour centralized Helpdesk facility for the project covering applications, Data Center, networks, security and end user systems.

The Chairmen of all three RRBs said, "The mission of RRBs is to transform into a Bank with sound financials, committed to overall economic development of rural areas with care, competence and compassion towards its customers. Coupled with Wipro's technological expertise, we are confident of achieving this mission including expanding our client base to make it the most preferred Banking outlet in rural India."

CSC has announced today that the U.S. Navy awarded the company a task order to provide engineering and program support for the DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer Program Office (PMS 500). The task order has a one-year base period and four one-year options, bringing the estimated total five-year value to $110 million. The Navy awarded the task order under the Naval Sea Systems Command SEAPORT-Enhanced contract vehicle, which CSC won in 2004.

Under the terms of the task order, CSC will provide engineering and program management support for the development, design, building, outfitting and testing of the Zumwalt Class Destroyer. Services include program, business, financial and risk management; software and mission systems integration; hull, mechanical and electrical systems engineering; and naval architecture.

“As a trusted member of the ship acquisition community, CSC provides the best value for responsive, effective support to critical acquisition programs,” said James W. Sheaffer, president of CSC’s North American Public Sector. “We will draw upon our recognized success in supporting cost effective program management and test and evaluation of new systems to deliver vital, mission-critical expertise for the Navy’s future class of destroyers.”

Cornwall council is looking at setting up a strategic partnership with the private sector to deliver ICT and other services to itself and external organisations.

The council said this could involve other councils and parts of the public sector, within and outside the county. It also wants to get suppliers' perspectives on other possible markets.

"While we have obviously examined what other local authorities are doing, we are not looking to develop a traditional outsourcing model. Cornwall has never been frightened to be different and we are keen to talk to suppliers about any ideas they have," the council spokeswoman told GGC.

A pre-tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union says the principal objective of the partnership would be to generate income and jobs by selling services so that Cornwall council and the wider Cornish economy can benefit from capital investment and the "infusion of leading edge management expertise".

How long the council will sign up to the proposed arrangement is one of the areas for preliminary discussions with suppliers, but Cornwall has put a value on the deal at between £20m and £1bn.

"We are interested in hearing from companies that will commit to a major investment in Cornwall and that can bring considerable commercial expertise and change management capability to Cornwall," the spokeswoman said.

The initiative follows Cornwall's £7m deal with Oracle in late 2010 to deliver an enterprise resource planning system, which the council plans to share with other local authorities and public services.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2011/mar/10/cornwall-council-seeks-services-partnership

Efficiency savings to be made for boroughs using cloud based smart technology solutions

The Mayor has urged Londoners to help spruce up the capital by reporting ‘grime-crime’ such as graffiti, litter and fly-tipping using internet and mobile phone technology. The innovative system enables users to track progress of clean-ups whilst also delivering financial savings for boroughs.

‘Love Clean London’ works by allowing people to upload photographs onto an online map of environmental issues that require action by the local authority. The system— invented and pioneered by Lewisham council—gives people an easy way to help their borough keep communities clean, receive prompt action when a report is sent and help boroughs direct their resources to the areas that need them most. Users can submit reports using a free mobile phone application, send a text or visit the lovecleanlondon.org web portal.

A GPS signal enables participating boroughs to receive the report as an email to then action. An interactive map shows all the reports, updating on the progress taken. The website shows environmental black-spots and also places where clean ups have taken place either by councils or volunteers.

Love Clean London is built on “Azure” – cloud computing technology from Microsoft. Londoners can submit reports using a free Windows Phone 7 or other smartphone app which can be downloaded from the cloud. There people can see and search for all the reports in their area and share them through social networking sites, review progress, or subscribe to updates. The website was developed by Microsoft certified partner bbits and features an interactive map using the latest Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in and Bing Maps for Enterprise to show reports in real time – all of which is hosted in the cloud. The system can be fully integrated into local authority systems using the Microsoft .NET Framework, ensuring that issues can be dealt with smoothly and allowing developers to create their own applications to submit and retrieve reports.

Jason Burton, Government Industry Market Development Manager, Microsoft UK, said: ‘Love Clean London is a leading example of a citizen-centric public service. We are excited to see Cloud and mobile technologies being brought together in a way that helps to markedly improve local authorities’ engagement with the communities they serve. Love Clean London will enable Londoners to communicate with their local councils in a new and interactive way and, thanks to the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing technologies, the service can be delivered at a fraction of the cost of a traditional IT solution.’

Financial Services Steering Committee

3rd March 2011

2010 was undoubtedly a testing year for everyone involved in the financial services industry, with tighter budgets and greater scrutiny on spending making life difficult for all concerned.

This Steering Committee, chaired by Steve Briggs, NOA Board Member and Head of Strategic Partnerships at Co-operative Financial Services, was brought together by the NOA with the premise of being a “think-tank” to discuss, develop and influence ways for the financial services sector to better manage outsourcing in 2011 and beyond.

Key Points:

• Move towards output based contracts rather than transactional. Regular SLA checks tie in profit and value added.

• Although there seems to be a constant reference to cost cutting in the industry, suppliers are not really willing to compromise on price.

• Flexibility in contracts is very much in demand due to market uncertainty and advances in technology e.g. Cloud.

• Regular benchmarking and contract reviewing is becoming more commonplace during certain stages in the contract.

• Transformational contracts are linked with the need for transparency.

• Emphasis on the importance of collaborative partnerships in the financial sector. Human relationships are often overlooked in outsourcing compared to the cutting costs. Specific workshops are encouraged.

• Focus in the industry on shorter contracts which are more specific to their solutions. For example, risk management models and high-risk projects.

• Output based model in multisourcing can be difficult as there is no clear overall end-to-end process.

• Success of contractual outcomes should also be based on overall efficiency.

• It can be hard to pin-point ‘blame’ with interdependent contracts if something goes wrong - litigation often needed.

• Variety of relationships is key in outsourcing. It is important to spread out risk throughout a multitude of contracts and exit strategies are vital.

• Service integration is important when multisourcing. An overview is vital as long as it’s in-house.

• Supplier categorisation is a must and similarities are needed between all approaches regardless of the outcome.

• Goal sheets always lead behaviour. Contracts which are tied to the profit of a customer tend to promote a collaborative partnership.

• Cultural fit is essential especially during the procurement process. Cultural fit is hard to evaluate and measure but is vital for successful collaboration.

• Concerns with Cloud regarding data, ownership and legislation / regulation.

• Transitional changes are a challenge – Organisations dealing with changes in legislation and cutbacks.

• Lack of exit strategies are a huge risk for companies. Organisations need to ensure that they these are in place in their contract during the initial stages.

• Innovation needs to be contractual and measured regularly in context with changes in the industry.

• Offshore becoming a risk due to changes in the Bribery Act however this is usually covered in policy risks.

Attendees:

Steve Briggs – CFS / NOA, Paul Corrall – Sourcingfocus.com, Andreas Giannopoulos - Hudson & Yorke Ltd, Will McAllister - Aegis Global, Marcel Horst - ExcelSource Ltd, Rob Sheldon – DWF, Julian Round - Lloyds Banking Group, Mark Prinsley - Mayer Brown, Sanjay Pritam – RPC, James Phythian-Adams – RPC and Mike Brett – DataArt.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen the Prime Minister fiercely defending his Big Society project against criticisms that it is just a ‘cover’ for spending cuts. Mr Cameron’s claim is that the initiative is aimed at building what he calls a ‘stronger, bigger society’ to build a more responsible Britain by opening up billions of pounds worth of government contracts.

It seems that by setting out plans which will ‘presume’ that private (and voluntary groups, it should be noted) will run almost every kind of public service, the Prime Minister is putting his trust, to a large extent in the private sector to deliver increased efficiency at a reduced cost to the taxpayer, with the outsourcing community set to benefit more than most as a result. But how will this work in practical terms?

The Office for Budgetary Responsibility has predicted that as many as 330,000 jobs could be lost in the public sector, by 2015 as a result of the spending cuts. Back in October, the government insisted that it had planned to ‘facilitate a movement of jobs from the public sector to the private sector’, taking steps to ensure that the transition was a smooth one.

However, considerable doubt has been cast upon this plan after a recent survey of more than 500 companies in the private sector found that over half were unwilling to take on public sector workers, while 52% believed that public sector workers were ill-equipped to work in a commercial setting. Furthermore, 75% of these companies claimed that they couldn’t be sure that there would be enough jobs available to compensate for those lost in the public sector.

So where does this leave us? Can a solution be found that pleases everyone? It seems unlikely - even though the private sector is continuing to generate new jobs, it’s clear that there is no jobs boom on the horizon to offer a quick fix solution to this conundrum. Public sector organisations cannot afford - literally, in some cases - to simply choose partners which safeguard more jobs for existing workers, and it’s clear that any supplier brought in to supply services to the public sector must be done so on the basis of the value they can add.

There also needs to be a greater acceptance of the ways in which public sector workers can add value in the private sector. Of course, there will be cultural differences between working in the private and public sectors, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will not be able to adapt to working in a new environment.

Perhaps what we need above all is for the government to take a more active role in equipping public sector workers to manage outsourcing projects? By training them in a broader set of skills, public sector workers will be more prepared for the transition into the private sector, and more suitable for the jobs that may exist there.

One thing’s certain - if we are to look back in the years to come and see the Big Society initiative as a big success, then it will be important to have everyone - in both the public and private sector - pulling in the same direction.