Industry news

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.

Businesses and other organisations running websites in the UK must ‘wake up’ to the fact that EU legislation, which will require them to get consent in order to store or access information on consumers’ computers, is coming into force soon, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham will say today in a speech at the ICO’s annual Data Protection Officer conference in Manchester.

The new law, which will come into force on 25 May 2011, is an amendment to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. It will require UK businesses and other organisations to obtain consent from visitors to their websites in order to store on and retrieve usage information from users’ computers.

One common technique of storing information is widely known as a cookie. This is a small file that a website puts on a user’s computer so that it can remember something, for example the user’s preferences, at a later time. The majority of businesses and organisations in the UK currently use cookies for a wide variety of reasons – from analysing consumer browsing habits to remembering a user’s payment details when buying products online.

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said: “While the roll out of this new law will be a challenge, it will have positive benefits as it will give people more choice and control over what information businesses and other organisations can store on and access from consumers’ own computers.

“The Directive will come into force in less than two months time and businesses and organisations running websites in the UK must wake up to the fact that this is happening. We are proactively working with the government, businesses and the public sector to find a workable solution. We recognise that the internet as we know it today depends on the widespread use of cookies and there are of course legitimate business reasons for using them. So we are clear that these changes must not have a detrimental impact on consumers nor cause an unnecessary burden on UK businesses. One option being considered is to allow consent to the use of cookies to be given via browser settings.

“Once the new regulations are published there will be a major job of education and guidance to be undertaken. In the meantime, both the business community and public sector organisations need to start thinking clearly about how they will meet the requirements of the new Directive.”

Glasgow has annouced that it has become the first UK city to win a grant from the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge initiative.

The grant provides Glasgow with access to IBM's top experts to analyse and recommend ways the city can become an even better place in which to live, work and play.

The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge is a competitive grant program in which IBM is awarding a total of $50 million worth of technology and services to 100 municipalities worldwide over the next three years.

Teams of specially selected IBM experts will provide city leaders with analysis and recommendations to support successful growth, better delivery of city services, more citizen engagement, and improved efficiency.

Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “This is fantastic news and will help Glasgow as we move forward with our aim to become a European leader in environmental, social and economic sustainability.

“Through IBM’s Smarter Cities initiative we hope to maximise the tremendous opportunities for Glasgow to develop low-carbon energy technologies, efficient homes, the provision of affordable heat and the creation of sustainable communities. By reducing energy costs and helping to tackle fuel poverty for poorer sections of our community we hope to have a real impact on improving people’s health and quality of life.

HP has announced a multimillion-dollar investment to build and lease a next-generation data center to be located in the Waikato district.

The data center is designed to enable organisations to quickly respond to market demands and new revenue opportunities and will provide IT resources to help organisations simplify applications and improve business process.

“Enterprises need the agility to adjust to dynamic market and community demands for fast, innovative services,” said Gavin Greaves, country manager, Enterprise Services, HP New Zealand. “Having a sustainable infrastructure that combines a modern platform with the services capability of HP Enterprise Services means customers can concentrate more on their business and less on managing their IT.”

The Waikato data center investment is part of HP’s $1 billion transformation to retire legacy assets and build new, modernised facilities.

The facility will provide the infrastructure organisations need for cloud computing services, application modernisation and data center transformation, enabling clients to devote more resources to innovation and increase productivity.

Leading independent hotel and hospitality group, De Vere Group, has announced that it has chosen long-term network provider, Claranet, to implement a cost-effective private cloud system. De Vere will rely on Claranet’s private cloud solution to host and manage its range of mission-critical applications and websites. The platform will provide the foundations to support the Group’s recently launched online and e-commerce strategy aimed at driving traffic to its websites and boosting revenue.

“Our online strategy is a major focus for us,” said Group IT director, Jo Stanford. “We regularly reach out to over a million people through online campaigns and as such it’s absolutely critical that we manage the varying volumes of traffic we generate each time. Loss of uptime could lead to dissatisfied customers and compromised revenue, and this simply isn’t acceptable. We’ve upped the ante significantly online and in doing so it has become clear that we need a new hosting platform that can provide the built-in flexibility and resiliency we need to cope with peaks and troughs in capacity demand.”

The new platform from Claranet will provide much greater levels of scalability for De Vere as the dedicated virtual hosting (DVH) solution allows server resource to be dynamically allocated according to the changing demands of De Vere’s different applications and websites. Varying capacity levels when running online campaigns can therefore be met with ease with server resource becoming available when needed. As a result, De Vere will no longer need to pay for under-utilised machines or adversely risk overloading servers in the event of unpredicted demand.

“By choosing Claranet’s private cloud, we are confident that the solution’s inherent flexibility will provide a solid platform to help us realise our forecasted growth. And with our longstanding working relationship, we have no doubt that Claranet will continue to support De Vere as our business demands change,” remarked Stanford.

Claranet UK’s managing director, Michel Robert, commented: “Having worked with De Vere for a number of years managing the Group’s wide area network, we’re very excited to be building on this relationship by helping the Group to realise its online ambitions with a highly scalable and resilient virtual hosting solution. We’re as committed as ever to deliver the best service possible to De Vere. Our people, infrastructure and processes will ensure the move from a physical to virtual environment will be seamless, providing the foundations to support De Vere’s online strategy.”

KPMG has awarded DHL Supply Chain a £9.1m (10.6m euro) contract to track and consolidate almost 25 million aircraft parts and their associated trace documents scattered over 100 locations.

KPMG is the administrator for Aero Inventory, which up until November 2009 offered airlines and MROs such as Qantas, All Nippon Airways, Air Canada and Haeco, a service involving buying, storing, leasing and maintaining an inventory of various consumables and expendables for aircraft components such as airframe structures, engines, wheels, brakes, electronics and interiors.

Aero Inventory purchased stocks of components from customer airlines and as part of a unique service offering in the industry, sold them back to the airline at the point in time when they were needed.

The parts are worth some £257m (300m euros) and DHL deal gives KPMG the option of managing Aero Inventory out of administration rather than resorting to a fire sale which is likely to net considerably less cash.

Loughborough University is to deploy Logicalis’ Cooperative Cloud to cost-effectively meet the long-term capacity demands of its growing research, teaching and enterprise services.

As part of a strategic IT partnership, Logicalis will design and build an on-site, bespoke private cloud fully integrated with an off-site, cooperative hosted cloud. This single, scalable architecture will provide unlimited scope for future capacity provisioning and is set to save the University over 640 metric tonnes of CO² per annum and significant cost-savings.

Dr Phil Richards, Director of IT at Loughborough University, comments, “Our data centre was built and designed 40 years ago. It has served us well, but is showing its age through a poor PUE (Power Utilisation Efficiency) rating and limited capacity. We were open to innovation from the IT sector to bring us the most cost-effective and creative ways to build a more holistic and scalable IT architecture that would grow with us for the long-term.

‘Precise capacity planning more than a couple of years in advance is nigh-on impossible in our sector. While other education establishments are investing millions in new data centre builds to increase capacity and efficiency, it became clear during the tender process that a cloud model would provide the most strategic option for Loughborough both now, and into the future.”

According to Richards, in assessing a range of private and hybrid cloud services, Logicalis stood out for its compelling credentials in developing public sector services coupled with a uniquely tangible cloud; “I was able to visit the data centre and see the Logicalis Cooperative Cloud in action. No other provider was able to make the cloud real in this way, which was an important ingredient for us to assess the service capability and risk to our business. Logicalis’ connection to JANET was also a key differentiator - it was clear they had made significant commercial investment into their cloud infrastructure so we wouldn’t have to.”

Loughborough’s on-site cloud is built on enterprise class technology from Cisco, NetApp and CA to create a self-contained, highly virtualised and extremely compact environment. This provides enough compute, storage and network capacity to meet immediate local demand, while long-term future capacity, on-demand burst capacity and disaster recovery capability is provided by the Logicalis Hosted Cloud.

Simon Daykin, CTO of Logicalis UK, explains, “We have been able to leverage the innovation of our private cloud design and hosted cloud services to transform the future of server and storage provisioning at the University. The Logicalis Virtual Container technology allows Loughborough to move real IT services back and forth between on-site dedicated and off-site shared hosted clouds rapidly, reliably and without application or infrastructure changes.